Defending Against 5WR and Other Empty Sets

So it's been like four months since I last posted; I am currently ranked 37th on Xbox with a record of 192-61. I've been playing pretty consistently, though rarely for more than two games at a time. I had a few excellent games in the last week or so, coupled with a few actually insightful exchanges over XBL, and so I wanted to get back on here.

I thought I'd talk a bit about how I defend empty sets. I've been seeing a lot of offenses online that run a lot of empty backfield, most frequently with 5 WR's, but also some 4WR/1TE and Base personnel (HB/FB/TE/2WR). These users will often just run one or two plays over and over again, and will jump at the opportunity to go no-huddle for entire drives.

In any event, I've been getting a lot of repetitions at this recently, so here are some thoughts.

First, recognize the different basic options you have on defense against a 5-pattern offense: you can try to cover the field or you can try to rush the QB. A non-mutually-exclusive third option is to confuse the QB, but maybe I should just say that, preferably, you should always be trying to confuse the QB. Let's talk about these different strategies.

First, you can try to cover the field. I prefer the man-coverage version of this: 2-Man Under Spy out of the quarters normal package. This puts a DB on every receiver with two-deep safety coverage. The MLB spies the QB, guarding against those pesky mobile QB's that everyone plays with. To max this coverage ever further, I will use the LB-Rush package, which swaps out the DE's for LB's; I then will hot-route one or both of the LB's into hook zones, often using one to roam the field and disrupt patterns. This play is still vulnerable to many man-beaters (like shake and zig routes), but not too much else.

There are a variety of zone options for max-coverage. My favorite is Cover-4. To the left is the Quarters Normal version of Cover-4; it has four deep zones to make downfield passing prohibitive and two buzz zones that take away the corner routes or outside hitch patterns. It has no spy, so I will often hot-route a DE/LB to spy the QB. It's weakness is in the middle of the field, where only two players are in coverage. Knowing this, I often will control the weakside buzz zone and follow patterns into the middle of the field, helping to disrupt throwing lanes. You might also consider hot-routing a DE/LB into an extra hook zone.

Max coverage forces the QB to be disciplined and can often frustrate opponents; they are vulnerable, though, to mobile or patient QB's, because they generate little pressure.

The second approach to defending the empty backfield is to rush the QB. With no HB's (and frequently no TE's) to provide extra blocking against pressure, a six-man rush is going to force the QB to throw the ball early every time. If you can generate pressure with an overloaded four or five man rush (like this or this), all the better. Whatever the case, you've gotta get to the QB quick to prevent a big gain. My preferred six-man blitz is Nickel Normal: Over Storm Brave. It gets good, fast pressure up the middle while preserving the edge against a mobile QB. It's weakness is the safeties in coverage: they won't press automatically, so you often have to manually realign them to get better leverage against the receivers.

If I am in Quarters I will call Under Smoke, which matches up well with receivers and still gets pretty good pressure up the middle. I will crash my line to the right to maintain the edge and prevent a quick escape by a mobile QB.

Of course, any good QB is going to have a hot-read against a zero-blitz (no safeties in deep coverage, all defenders in straight man-to-man), so you've got to try to identify and neutralize that read. More on that later.

The third thing to consider is disguising your coverage in order to confuse the QB. One way to accomplish this is with zone-blitzes (one or more LB's/DB's will blitz while one or more defensive linemen drop into coverage).

Zone-blitzes work because they mess with a QB's reads; many users will see a LB or DB blitzing and immediately throw to their hot receiver, assuming that the blitz has left a hole in the coverage or that the receiver is covered one-on-one. If your DE drops into that throwing lane, it might be too late for the QB to get the pass back. One such play is Fire Zone 3 in Quarters Normal. As you can see, it blitzes three DB's and the LB, while dropping the two DE's into coverage. If you are using the LB rush package, those DE's are replaced by LB's (hopefully with better Awareness and Catching ratings). It's still got a lot of holes in the coverage, mainly in the flats and middle of the field, but it has three DB's covering the deep ball and is unlikely to give up many big plays. Most importantly, if used at the right time, it is more likely to confuse the QB and force a bad throw (and hopefully an INT).

Second, even if you aren't zone-blitzing or calling a particularly confusing coverage, you can still create a good deal of confusion by mixing up your playcalling. This has been an area where I have improved a lot this year. I used to be a strictly 2-Man Under guy; sit back in the deep zones, force everything underneath, and wait for the QB to make a mistake. Once I cracked the top 100, though, that was no longer a viable strategy; too many users didn't make mistakes, and, because my defense was so vanilla, too many users knew just how to attack it.

So now, with a few exceptions, I very consciously try to randomly move between zone and man and coverage and pressure. Very few (if any) plays work against every type of coverage, and most users come to the line expecting a certain coverage and prepared to make a certain decision. If you can keep users off-balance, you disrupt their playcalling (Do I run the man-beater or the zone-beater? MADDENTIPS DIDN'T PREPARE ME FOR THIS!!).

Additionally, make ample use of the show-blitz option. This walks the DB's into the box and rearranges the LB's; it enables faster pressure when you DO decide to blitz, but more importantly it prevents your AI players from tipping their hand pre-snap. It also changes the angle from which your defenders will attack their assignments. In Cover-3 the SS will typically come towards the line of scrimmage into a hook-zone at the snap; if you show blitz, that same safety will be backing off the LOS at the snap. A CB who would be in press coverage pre-snap is now aligned just outside the slot; a LB who would be aligned outside the TE is now inside the TE. These subtle adjustments make the QB's job more difficult.

Finally on this point, consider ways to modify whatever play you call with hot-routes. This can be as simple as changing a flat zone to a buzz zone or as complicated as creating an entirely new play; one thing I like to do is trade coverages. I will hot-route my DE's/LB's to man coverage on the slot receivers, then hot-route the DB's to blitz. This keeps the coverage and rush dynamics static (every receiver is still covered one-on-one and I am still rushing the same number) while adding another layer of confusion for the QB to sift through; he may see the DB's blitz and believe those receivers are now uncovered, only to find a LB drifting into his throwing lane.

Finally, recognize that there are only a handful of plays/concepts that people are running out of these formations. The most popular by far is four verticals with a shake route underneath.

This puts a lot of vertical pressure on the defense, though most users will be looking almost exclusively at the shake route (Y in the diagram). This route crushes man coverage, and generally will end up between zones (that are stretched thin already by the downfield threat). If your opponent is running this play, your chief objective is to take away the shake route. You can double-team him manually, hot-route a second defender to automatically double-team him, or redirect extra players to cover the zone you expect Y to end up in.

Several other formations use this concept (four verticals with a shake underneath); other users prefer to throw corner routes, deep hitches, or deep outs. The key is to recognize the user's reads and preferences and then adapt. Most users who run an empty backfield offense do so because they have found one or two "money plays" that seem to work every time, and are either too lazy or too awful to execute any other plays. They run the plays again and again because they work; and because they run the plays again and again, you will beat them.