Film Room | Potential Four-Man Pressure Packages
Applying pressure on opposing quarterbacks is an essential ingredient to winning football games. Many teams rely on exotic blitzing packages and 5+ man pressure to force quarterbacks into mistakes.
Still, teams can get sufficient pressure on opposing teams’ signal-callers by sending four rushers. These teams tend to have success.
It’s a simple game of numbers; by only sending four rushers, then the defense can have seven defenders in the coverages that the coordinator wants to employ, as opposed to sending five and leaving the coverage with only six players and possibly five coverage assignments.
One would surmise that a team would need a “blue goose” pass rusher to have any consistent effect in altering the quarterback with four-man pressure packages, but that’s not always the case.
Teams that Patrick Graham, the Giants’ current defensive coordinator, has been a part of recently have had success with their four-man pressure units while lacking a top-level pass rusher. Let’s see how they did it!
Inside LB Stunt
New England has a 0-technique, two wide rushers, and two linebackers that are over the inside shoulders of the tackle (4i-techniques).
At the snap, linebacker Dont’a Hightower, No. 54 shoots the A-Gap quickly to hit the outside shoulder of the center, who is engaged with the 0-technique (Adam Butler, No. 70). While that is materializing, linebacker Jamie Collins, No. 58 drops into a middle hook zone and waits for underneath coverage responsibilities.
Both wide rushers take wide angles to force quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick #14 to step into the pocket where the LB stunt is unfolding; once Hightower hits the center, Butler dips his inside shoulder and slides around the left guard who is still engaged with Hightower.
The center can’t stay with Butler, who loops around the left guard, and this provides Butler the leverage to go into the pocket relatively unscathed for the sack.
The Patriots can get creative with the subtitles of rushing the passer. This is a similar formation, without the second linebacker.
A 0-technique, two wide rushers, and Collins at a 1-3-technique (1 means one yard off the line of scrimmage). Butler’s connection point with the right guard and center is vital to this inside stunt's success.
The left guard isn’t paying attention to Collins, who is outside of the right guard, this is important; instead, he is respecting Chase Winovich, No. 50, and the presence of Patrick Chung, No. 23, who is in coverage on the H-Back.
Butler’s job is to engage both the center and right guard, so he comes off the ball hard and attacks the outside shoulder of the center, forcing a double team.
While Butler engages both interior linemen, Collings plants his left foot into the ground and quickly gets to the opposite A-gap that is now wide open.
The center can’t recover from Butler’s hit in time, but he attempts to, which allows Butler to defeat an unpositioned right guard resulting in two interior rushers getting to Baker Mayfield, No. 6.
Overload Bluff
Pre-snap and post-snap bluffs are hallmarks of confusing offenses and attempting to dictate the football game. Young signal-callers get inserted into the game, and savvy defensive coordinators quickly make them question their existence as NFL players.
Here we see Bill Belichick and his defense do that to Josh Allen of the Bills. There is a potential of eight rushers who are showing themselves either in the box or outside the box while in the red zone. Butler is the only down lineman as a nose tackle (0-technique).
At the snap, every defender to the non-blitz side bails into coverage other than Winovich. The offensive line slides right, which is the correct move, but it creates a one on one for each lineman.
Butler aggressively attacks the outside shoulder of the center, and then gets to the inside shoulder of the right guard, engaged with a blitzing Hightower.
Butler’s disruption frees Hightower up while Kyle Van Noy, No. 53, beats rookie Cody Ford #70 around the edge with speed to force Allen up into the pocket where Butler and Hightower are waiting.
Exotic four-man pressure packages also assisted in Sam Darnold’s Monday Night debacle against the Patriots.
There’s only one eligible receiver near the tackle box, yet seven Patriots are in the area. A 2i-technique and a 3-technique are the two down linemen, with the rest being second-level defenders. The Patriots manipulate the protection of the Jets’ line by getting them to shift left.
This is a brilliant tactic that has been employed in the past; both Hightower and Duron Harmon, No. 21, take one full step towards the left side of the line and then bail into coverage. On the other side of the line of scrimmage, Collins does the same thing, which forces the right tackle to protect the B-gap.
This bluff allows for John Simon, No. 55, to run into the pocket without any opposition. Collins and Danny Shelton, No. 71, both shoot the inside gap, and no one accounts for Simon on the outside. This is trickery and bluffing that ends up being a four-man pressure package with several offensive linemen being rendered obsolete by the blitzing team.
Bluff with blitzing defensive backs
There are quite a few Miami Dolphins showing blitz here against the Bills.
There’s a 0-technique, two wide rushers off the tackles, and four other 2nd level defenders in the view. At the snap, the right wide rusher and the 0-technique slant hard inside in an attempt to get the left tackle and guard to block both.
This is by design because there is a strong side nickel blitz and a delayed linebacker blitz coming from the left side. The 0-technique loops wide to the right while all three potential blitzing defenders drop into zone coverage on that side, including the end man on the line of scrimmage.
The blitzing defensive back on the opposite side forces Josh Allen to roll to his left, where there’s no blockers and a delayed blitzing linebacker waiting to pounce on the mistake.
Patrick Graham and his Miami Dolphins do something similar to Sam Darnold and the Jets. Three-second level defenders are all within the tackle box, just off the line of scrimmage. There are two 5-techniques and a cornerback showing blitz from the right side.
All three linebackers bail, and the 5-technique to the blitzing corner’s side ensures that he engages the tackle while the tight end goes out on a route.
Le’Veon Bell, No. 26, sees the blitz coming from the opposite side of the formation and steps up to execute his pass protection assignment. Darnold called that blitzer out but failed to see the strong side blitzer as well.
Darnold thought he had a hot receiver towards the known blitzer’s side, so he looks in that direction and gets sacked by the strong side, blitzing defensive back that no one picked up.
These are encouraging signs for Patrick Graham and how he employs zone blitzes to confuse younger quarterbacks and manipulate the offense’s protection.
Double End/Tackle Stunts
What’s better than one End/Tackle stunt? Two end/tackle stunts, which really should only be called in obvious passing situations.
Here we see Bengals defensive coordinator, and former New York Giants’ defensive backs coach Lou Anarumo call for the execution of a quick double stunt to success.
Both linebackers are sugaring the A-gap with two 3-techniques and two wide rushers. Both linebacker’s bail into coverage, and only four come on the pressure.
The timing of the penetrators have to be perfect for this to work well. Both Carlos Dunlap, No. 96, (one of the more underrated players in the NFL) and Carl Lawson, No. 58, attack the inside shoulders of the tackles and pick the guard’s from smoothly transitioning to the looping Sam Hubbard, No. 94, and Geno Atkins, No. 97.
It’s a six-man protection for the Patriots against a four-man pressure, and the Bengals win with ease. The running back helps the right side of the line handle Dunlap, who subtly holds the tackle from transitioning to Hubbard.
Once Dunlap and Lawson crash inside, there are five blocking offensive players against just those two rushers, leaving one blocker scrambling outside to pick up Atkins and no one on Hubbard. The result is a sack for Cincinnati.
A Coffee House stunt can also be employed in this situation. These are mostly fake stunts where the looper sells the stunt to get the tackle to cheat inside and prepare for the transition with his guard.
The penetrator also starts to attack the inside shoulder of the tackle to sell the stunt further. If the looper has enough speed, then he can easily beat the tackle around the edge since he’s cheating inside in anticipation.
Coffee House stunts can easily be executed with four-man pressure packages but should be used sparingly, due to the surprise nature of the rush.
