Desperate Need Of Advice/support

[Vegas Coach 0]

Hey guys... haven't posted in a while, although I am always reading the great threads around here. Well we just finished up our regular season and ran the table in the playoffs qualifying for the League Championship game this Saturday morning. We lost 1 game all year and what a blast this season has been. We play in a VERY competitive league, where there was 18 teams in our age division, NFL rules 5v5 10-11 year olds. Anyhow, we are playing the #1 team in the league in the championship, from which they are out of the other conference, whom might I add we have never faced yet. This team is ranked first in scoring points and edged us out just barley in points against. They are undefeated.

I am just looking for advice from some of you more experienced coaches who maybe have coached in these big games. This we are playing team has two main weapons on offense, one kid who is tall and catches everything and another who can catch and run fast! They run almost all of their plays out of the Trips formation. They attack a lot in the middle. They are a well oiled machine, especially offensively!

Our defense is tough though! We generally run a variation of a 1-2-2 or 1-1-3. So my question is how do you guys generally look to defend the Trips formation, especially giving a little more attention to the middle? Usually we would just shift some of our personal over a bit and that has worked great so far. We are in the championship. But this team has two big weapons.... so another question is, with defending Trips in mind, how can I also defend these two stars they have? I don't like man at this age, but I also don't want to let their stars find bubbles in the zone and maybe get big plays. Anybody face a similar type of offense with key players to stop? Any advice is greatly appreciated.... thanks guy!!

[Orange 26]

I have a few thoughts on different alignments but first I want to make a general statement. Mix it up. Do not stick with one defense the entire game. They will find and exploit the weakness. You might have a favorite that you use most of the game but switch it up to keep them guessing. OK, on to the ideas.

One idea would be to go man on their top guy. I don't think you could afford to go man on two of them unless you were all man. Against trips just take away the 1 middle linebacker in the 1-1-3. So you'd have man on their top guy, a rusher and three safeties that you'd shade over towards the trips side. That would place a lot of responsibility on the weakside safety because, he's the only one left over there. He absolutely cannot get beat so don't cheat him over too far.

Another plan is to design a zone specifically for trips. One rusher (always rush someone) and then stack a zone over the trips as follows. Two defenders stacked over the trips 3-5 yards off the los one on the outside shoulder of outside receiver, the other on the inside shoulder of the insider receiver. Behind them is a safety maybe 7-10 yards back right in the middle of the trips so it looks like a triangle. Your weakside safety will be all by himself again and needs to watch the center.

Modify the 1-1-3 so that the middle linebacker moves over the inside shoulder of the inside trips receiver. Weakside linebacker again has the whole side to himself. If you want to get fancy line up in a standard 1-1-3 and have your middle linebacker move right before or after the snap.

As I'm thinking through these plays I think I'd probably go 1-1-3 and see what they do. Maybe plan on switching to option 3 which is the most subtle change and see if that works. The other two are riskier especially if you sit in those too long. Most dangerous is the center position which would be an easy pass on most downs.

Good luck, let us know how it turns out.

[Vegas Coach 0]

I have a few thoughts on different alignments but first I want to make a general statement. Mix it up. Do not stick with one defense the entire game. They will find and exploit the weakness. You might have a favorite that you use most of the game but switch it up to keep them guessing. OK, on to the ideas.

One idea would be to go man on their top guy. I don't think you could afford to go man on two of them unless you were all man. Against trips just take away the 1 middle linebacker in the 1-1-3. So you'd have man on their top guy, a rusher and three safeties that you'd shade over towards the trips side. That would place a lot of responsibility on the weakside safety because, he's the only one left over there. He absolutely cannot get beat so don't cheat him over too far.

Another plan is to design a zone specifically for trips. One rusher (always rush someone) and then stack a zone over the trips as follows. Two defenders stacked over the trips 3-5 yards off the los one on the outside shoulder of outside receiver, the other on the inside shoulder of the insider receiver. Behind them is a safety maybe 7-10 yards back right in the middle of the trips so it looks like a triangle. Your weakside safety will be all by himself again and needs to watch the center.

Modify the 1-1-3 so that the middle linebacker moves over the inside shoulder of the inside trips receiver. Weakside linebacker again has the whole side to himself. If you want to get fancy line up in a standard 1-1-3 and have your middle linebacker move right before or after the snap.

As I'm thinking through these plays I think I'd probably go 1-1-3 and see what they do. Maybe plan on switching to option 3 which is the most subtle change and see if that works. The other two are riskier especially if you sit in those too long. Most dangerous is the center position which would be an easy pass on most downs.

Good luck, let us know how it turns out.

Orange, thanks for the feedback! I agree, what I am thinking is starting in the 1-1-3 base defense like we have played all year and really depend on my rusher to put pressure on that QB. When they line up in Trips, I think we'll just slide the weak side safety over a bit and my front middle "1" a bit, like towards inside shoulder of inside WR, but have him ready to drop back 5-6 steps when its a pass waiting for the quick slant pass or clogging the middle of the field. Our guy is smart enough to do this. But he also has to watch sweeps going the other way, this is also where my rusher must play a vital role! My weak side safety has to watch the center running a post type of pattern to the weak side as well, BUT keep one eye on the middle of the field because that is generally where they like to attack ultimately. The bottom line is, I think we just need to play the way that got us this far and make any necessary adjustments along the way. This really comes down to my rusher and him getting massive pressure (which he is one of the best at) on their QB. This will lesson the amount of time the other defenders have to cover and give the potential for picks....

[lew7hokiefan 0]

Hey MVP,

I coach 10-12 yr olds, and we use a 1-3-1 Defense. The "1" is in the front about 3-4 yrds back, "3" are along the rush line 7yrds deep, and the other "1" is 4-5yrds behind them. The front 1 is really aggressive stopping the run or covering the center. The 3 shade over a little (if in trips) and cover accordingly. With the deep guy either rushing in or watching the deep ball.

I am a big fan of rushing and do most of the time. But we played the #1 team twice this past season, 1st time we lost by 14 and the 2nd time we lost buy 3 pts. We rushed a lot the first time and hardly any the 2nd. They were a pass heavy team who had a really good QB and could evade the rush really well buying himself some time. Just something to think about. Good Luck!

[Texas_D_Coach 14]

Hey MVP,

I coach 10-12 yr olds, and we use a 1-3-1 Defense. The "1" is in the front about 3-4 yrds back, "3" are along the rush line 7yrds deep, and the other "1" is 4-5yrds behind them. The front 1 is really aggressive stopping the run or covering the center. The 3 shade over a little (if in trips) and cover accordingly. With the deep guy either rushing in or watching the deep ball.

I am a big fan of rushing and do most of the time. But we played the #1 team twice this past season, 1st time we lost by 14 and the 2nd time we lost buy 3 pts. We rushed a lot the first time and hardly any the 2nd. They were a pass heavy team who had a really good QB and could evade the rush really well buying himself some time. Just something to think about. Good Luck!

Hi Lew,

I am surprised that rushing less on a pass heavy team yielded better results. Can you give more details?

[cschernandez 4]

I agree with Lew. I used to be a strong believer in rushing the passer but I have change my defense to puting the most skillful kids in the middle of the defense so that may compensate on either side of the field.

[Texas_D_Coach 14]

I agree with Lew. I used to be a strong believer in rushing the passer but I have change my defense to puting the most skillful kids in the middle of the defense so that may compensate on either side of the field.

So I'm still not sold. Here is my logic. You have a 7 second clock for the QB to throw, and if he hands off to a RB who might throw there is no clock. With a rusher you have on average 3 seconds to get rid of the ball, and more than likely will either force a shorter throw or a bad throw that has a higher probability of not being caught or intercepted.

If you choose not to rush, then your CB's have to cover the whole field which spreads them out farther and you have to cover for a longer amount of time (7 seconds or more depending). If you are running a zone I would think this amount of time for the QB to throw would get you picked apart.

M2M relies too much on individual athleticism, so I would think it would be fairly easy to create mismatches in the offenses favor and again you would be at a disadvantage by not rushing.

[Coach Rob 26]

Couple of thoughts.

~I wouldn't go changing my defense for this one game, I'd tweak it based on what you're seeing in the game.

~If you still have time, I'd practice against a trips formation in practice, walking through the assignments. If you have a feel for how they will attack you offensively, allowing the defense to walk through the possible scenarios helps.

~I'm a big supporter of the rush. I'm betting this QB is pretty savvy, so teaching the rusher not to overpursue, but make it difficult to throw the ball is what I'd do.

[cschernandez 4]

I guess everyone has their favorite way of playing defense. This year our team has scored 400 - 80 points total. Most games we kept our opponents under 12 points by not rushing.

[Coach Rob 26]

I guess everyone has their favorite way of playing defense. This year our team has scored 400 - 80 points total. Most games we kept our opponents under 12 points by not rushing.

That's a great PA average. You're correct, it depends upon the skill set of your players and how you play them. Sounds like you have some good players in the middle of your d.

[Johnp2 21]

Although we are only allowed to rush once every four downs--we rarely do so. The reason being is in our league, the QB cannot run--unless he is blitzed. Most teams' QB are pretty athletic and we prefer to just play our game (cover the field)--making the QB beat us with his arm--not his legs.

p.s. This season we've outscored our opponents 33-32. ;-) However, we are 2-1 and playing against teams that are 2-3 years older than us.

Last season (when we were in 8-9 league) I think we only gave up one TD.