Football 101...Training Camp for the Fan.

[Coach]

Continuing on my 3-4 defense, at times, we slant the whole front three linemen either strong or weak. For example, 44 strong slant, demonstrated here. This is a way to get more people at the point of attack to stop the run. If we expect a strongside run, we use the strong slant to gain an advantage at the point of attack. We could also move the line the other way.

(Yes, I know the O-line isn't moving, but I did this for a reason to help you understand what it means in terms of their slanting. Basically, they are slanting towards the strong side of the field, in this case, where the TE usually is located.)

Most teams have a marked tendency to run to the strong side, or tight end side, and normally do not have prominent weakside running attacks. However, when a team is good at running both strong and weak, we need to find a way to get an additional defender involved with the front. With that being said, we can give the free safety a couple of different responsibilites depending on what we did with the front. One way to do this is with what I called the 53 joker, demonstrated here. The free safety holds his alignment as long as possible, but moves down late in the cadence to the weak B gap. He is responsible for any cutback, which frees up the Will linebacker to fast flow strong without any responsibility for the weak A gap. On any flow weak, Will could aggressively attack the A gap and force the ball to bounce outside to the free safety.