From: crs@stein.u.washington.edu (Cliff Slaughterbeck)
Subject: Re: Prevent Defense
Keywords: washington's defense, a question
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 21:03:14 GMT

kdelgado@loligo.cc.fsu.edu (Kevin Delgado) writes:
>
>On the the subject of defense, I was wondering what defense Washington uses
>exactly. I have only seen one or two Washington games on TV, and then I was
>only really half watching...not paying too much attention to details. People
>keep saying that they use an eight man front, I was wondering if that was
>just a 3-4/4-3 defense with the LB's brought up on the line, or if it was the
>"2 layer defense" recently devised (1991 I think) to stop the high powered
>modern offenses. I'll diagram the 4-3/3-4 defense and the two-layer and maybe
>some net-expert can tell me exactly which UW uses.
>
Washington, like everybody else, uses several different defensive packages.
The base defense is essentially the 46 defense of the Chicago Bears a few
years ago.  The Huskies call it the UP-G.  Terminology is as follows:

N - Noseguard (middle guard)
T - Defensive tackle (middle guard)
E - End (weakside defensive end)
S - Studbacker (strongsided defensive end)
W - Whip (weakside outside LB)
R - Rover (strongside outside LB, part time safety)
C - Corner (cornerback)
FS - Free safety

I'll just diagram the defensive side of the ball, assuming wideouts split
each side and a traditional fullback/tailback in the I-formation:

LOS--------------------------------------------------------------------
   (C)             (S)  (T) (N)  (E)  (W)
                (R)   (LB)    (LB)                      (C)


                       (FS)

Typically, the corner to the short sided of the field plays up, while the
corner to the strong side plays off a bit.  Multiple wideout sets draw
the rover or linebackers out for coverage duties.  The Huskies can and
do play a lot of 2 and 3 deep zone coverages out of this set, although
they often blitz at least one of the linebackers.  IF I was forced to
characterize it, I would call it a 4-4 set, with four down linemen and
the rover acting for all the world like a linebacker.  The best way to
attack this set (IMHO) is from either the shotgun or with a five step
or three step drop and quick passes.  There is a strong temptation to go
deep since the outside corners are often man to man, but this rarely succeeds
if the full blitz is on, since the QB doesn't have time to take a seven
step drop and thrown the ball deep.  If the blitz is not on, then this
may succeed if the corner is man to man under the coverage scheme which
is used.  One other point is that the linebackers usually are about 3
yards behind the LOS (except the whip, who is on it).  Most traditional
sets leave the LB's about 4-5 yards behind the LOS.

All information in this post as derived from the magazine "Sports 
Washington", August '92 issue.

****************************************************************************
Cliff Slaughterbeck           * 
Dept. of Physics, FM-15       *   Hey Matt!  The diffusion pump is full of
University of Washington      *   water again!
Seattle, WA 98195             *
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