If you follow the Packers DISCOURSE at all, you’ll know that a stink was raised about the way the Packers lined up against the run against the Steelers. Clips were posted of the Packers defending the run with two down linemen. A question came up in a presser (from Jason Wilde) with Matt LaFleur about this and he got a little fiery. Here’s part of his response to a question about this:
That is baffling to me when people talk Nickel defense and they talk about two down linemen. Cuz I don’t know what that means…Outside linebackers - just so you know how us in the profession view outside linebackers - when you go to Nickel defense, they’re defensive ends. And we have some of the bigger outside linebackers in this league…there’s 4 defensive linemen on the field.
To be totally fair here LaFleur was clearly annoyed as he was answering this, but he also ended by apologizing to Wilde for the initial response.
So let’s get into this a bit. What does it all mean and what is Matt LaFleur talking about? I thought the best way to do this would be to strip the emotion out of it all and just talk football, similar to what I did in my When Open Isn’t Open Series (Part 1 and Part 2). In that series I took real plays from the Packers, but didn’t run through the clips themselves. The idea behind it was that I thought it might be a cleaner way to talk about the process. I have found that if I post a clip, the main response seems to be something to the effect of, “well I remember that play and they should have done this other thing.” We’re getting rid of that and just drawing some stuff up.
Also, I want to say that this is not meant to be a comprehensive study by any stretch of the imagination. We’re going through all the ins-and-outs of specific alignments and assignments. We’re taking a broad view and using this as more of a thought experiment than anything else.
Ready? Ready.
Before we get to the drawings, we’ll talk about the defense matching the personnel of the offense, because that’s a huge key in this. We’re talking about the defense matching Nickel to 11 personnel. On the offensive side, 11 personnel is 1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR. On the defensive side, Nickel is 5 defensive backs.
In a base 3-4 defense, the defense will have 3 defensive linemen, 4 linebackers (2 inside linebackers, 2 outside linebackers/EDGE), 2 cornerbacks and 2 safeties.
In Nickel, they’ll take one of the interior defensive linemen out and replace him with a cornerback, leaving two interior defensive linemen.
(There are, of course, other ways you can run this - and certainly other alignments - but I wanted to paint with a broad brush here.)
With that in mind, let’s take a look at a couple situations here.
We’ve got the offensive team in 11 personnel and the defense matching in Nickel. The offense has isolated receivers on the edges and a heavy TE/WR combo on the right side of the line. The defense has 8 men in the box, with those 8 men consisting of 2 interior defensive linemen, 2 EDGE (down linemen in this alignment, it should be pointed out), 2 inside linebackers, 1 safety and 1 CB. An 8 man box, but a relatively light box based on the bodies themselves (even if the EDGE defenders are packing a little more weight than a standard EDGE room).
To reiterate: only 2 interior linemen here. So what’s the counter? Why, a base personnel, with 3 linemen, 2 EDGE, 2 ILB, 2 CBs and 2 safeties. That would present a more formidable look against the run, wouldn’t it? Buddy, it sure would. However, the offense is still in 11 personnel. Which means…
They can now spread you out and find a mismatch. You’ve got heft up front, but you had to get rid of a cornerback to do it. Split out the TE and the wide receiver and you’ve got a safety and a linebacker in coverage. And now they run something like this:
If you’re in man coverage, you’ve got a LB fighting through a wall created by the 2 WRs in order to cover a TE up the sideline. Even if you’re matching coverage, you’ve got a LB picking up a WR to the inside. Depending on who your LB is, he may not be overly comfortable with that, and he’s surely giving up speed to the WR.
If an offense comes out in 11 and the defense counters in base, chances are there’s a mismatch. If the offense finds it, they can go tempo to keep it on the field and just keep picking at it all the way down the field and then people are mad because a LB was trying to run step-for-step with a wide receiver.
So what’s the answer? If you want to defend the run with Nickel when they run out 11 personnel, you need to have a plan and you need to execute. It’s a boring issue, but that’s the main issue. When you’ve got Nickel out there and the front is fairly spread out, the down linemen need to be eating blocks and causing a mess for the defense. That can be tough to do with those edge rushers aligned outside of the tackles.
You’re giving the offensive line a pretty clear path to secure some double-teams and climb to the next level.
One way to combat that is to condense the front a bit. Bring the edges in. Pinch the defensive linemen. Muddy up the front and make it tougher for those offensive linemen to drive on the double-team and climb to the linebackers.
Here are two main things here:
The mere act of having two true defensive linemen in on a run down isn’t a cardinal sin. I always like to look at what the offense has out there in their personnel grouping, then think of the different things they could do with that personnel. What has the potential to do more damage?
Players still need to be put in a position to succeed and they need to execute. If someone freelances or a LB jumps into the wrong gap or a defensive lineman doesn’t hold the gap he’s supposed to hold, it doesn’t really matter.
None of this is meant to say one way is fine and one way is bad. Like all things in football, there are a thousand things to consider. I try to keep as many of these things in my mind as I can, then do my best to evaluate as many aspects as I can when I’m going through it all. As I mentioned at the top, this was more of a thought experiment stemming from some of the conversations I’ve seen on this topic, and I thought it might be interesting to explore. I don’t know if I have succeeded, but I enjoyed it so I’ll consider it a success in my own mind.