From: kdelgado@loligo.cc.fsu.edu (Kevin Delgado)
Subject: Re: Prevent Defense
Keywords: washington's defense, a question
Organization: Florida State University Computing Center
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 92 02:36:03 GMT

In article <1992Oct8.210314.9888@u.washington.edu> crs@stein.u.washington.edu (Cliff Slaughterbeck) writes:
>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             *
>****************************************************************************


Thanks Cliff, the defensive alignment you have shown here _is_ in fact the
two layer defense that I talked about...I did some more research myself...
unfortunately I did this instead of studying for a test I had today...ah well,
so much for my 3.6 GPA ( ;) ). Anyway, I kinda like this defense. Someone
mailed me about this subject as well (sorry, I lost the file due to some
inconsiderate people on the machine I use hogging up all the disk space...so
the mail wasn't written to my mbox) and they said that the defense looks
really wierd...like it shouldn't work...but it does. My sentiments exactly.
If you have the talent to run the system it can be deadly...as UW has shown.
By the way, I didn't say that UW used only an 8 man front...noone would be so
stupid as to use only one defensive scheme ;). Now if I could just get hold of
some game tape of UW...

Kevin.