EPISODE 4: HOW TO ATTACK THE RUN-PASS OPTION OFFENSE

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So, you know our objective is to make sure that as a coach we help you to be the best coach you can be, and as a Dawg we help you to be the best defensive lineman in the trenches that you can be.

So we have our trench questions and the trench questions have been flying in and we have another one that we definitely have to address. This is a question I get a lot from coaches as well as players when it comes to playing against the run-pass option offense. Special shout out to Coach James Marzano, that's my dog call, and the Argonaut Football Program in Jacksonville, California.

Okay, here's the question: what's the most efficient way to teach the defensive line to play the run, but also be able to quickly react to rush the passer? That's a excellent question and I'm ready to dive into it.

Episode number four. I tack into run-pass option offense.

Okay, now let's talk trenches. Let's identify the challenge. The challenge here is that you're dealing with an offense, you're dealing with a smart offensive coordinator and an offense that's doing a good job of trying to be balanced offensively and yet keep you unbalance defensively. I mean, we all know the name of the game is to find the football and tackle to guy with the football. Great offensive schemes will use that to their advantage.

So let's say, for example, I'm an offensive coordinator and I'm running the ball, I'm hitting the a-gaps, I'm hitting the b-gaps I'm running the ball and eventually your defensive line is going to play to that. Why? Because I'm sending the ball up the a-gap. I'm sending the ball up the b-gap. That's where I'm sending that ball. I'm running my stretches, I'm running my zones, I'm running my dive. I'm running powers, bucks. I'm running and I'm sending the ball, I'm kind of dangling that carrot and making that defensive line find that carrot. I'm using the ball to my advantage. And so eventually what's the defensive lineman going to do? The defensive line is going to begin to cheat. Or, they're going to being to adapt themselves to make sure that they begin to play to what they've been getting the last, you know, four or five plays.

So, eventually the defensive line is going to play to the tendency. So, if an offense starts to establish the run and they're dangling that carrot in those gaps that defensive line is going to play to the tendency. They're going to start playing mostly run. And once that offensive coordinator and the offense begins to identify that they now are controlling the football game they're controlling the line of scrimmage and moving the sticks. They're either going to continue to keep running that ball, but at that moment when they feel that they've gotten the defense off balance and playing the tendency they'll come back with a pass or a play action.

See, this is the challenge, right. How do we teach our Dawgs in the trenches to know when to rush the passer and to know when to play the run. To teach them to play the run, to stop the run because if you can't stop the run you can't have no fun. But yet when you attack the run and now you recognize that it's pass, as they're asking how do we teach our guys to quickly rush the passer when your steps and you were prepped for a run play?

Okay. The first thing that I would address are my pre-snap keys. Pre-snap. What are some keys you can identify in your pre-snap? Now, are these pre-snap keys going to tell me exactly what the offense is trying to do? Sometimes yeah they are. Based on your film study, based on what you've seen you know what to look for. But as a coach training your Dawgs in the trenches it's going to sometimes help them and train them to be able to read their pre-snap keys. But is it going to be accurate 100% of the time? Probably not. What we are trying to train our Dawgs to do is to make a hypothesis. Hypothesis. When I say hypothesis I'm saying make a educated guess.

What do you think, based on your pre-snap keys, might happen? Now when I talk to my Dawgs, my do-lineman, I don't say hypothesis. I'll say alert. You ever seen that dog who was sitting there eating out of his bowl and he's eating his food minding his business and all of sudden he hears a noise. Or he senses something and you'll see his ears go up. He'll stop what he's doing and his ears will go up because he's on alert, or he's identifying somethings up. So instead of saying hypothesis I'll say alert. Your pre-snap keys, what alerted you? Alert, alert, alert. In your mind you should be thinking alert. I see something, I sense something and I have a hunch that this may happen.

So, what are those alerts? What are those pre-snap keys that we can teach our Dawgs that'll help them make a great hypothesi