Good Wing-T coaches are tough to beat.
They know their offense, formation, and series. Put guys in conflict.
As a defensive coordinator, you start in a the hole to begin with. They seem to always have answers.
So why does it seem like some DC’s are the opposing coach’s BFF? (That’s Best Friend Forever if you’re a little out of touch with the “kid speak”).
They game plan for the Wing-T Offense like it’s an alien invasion. Throw out everything their kids know.
Wing-T coaches love to brag. They’ve rolled over every defense you could think of.
What team do they always say is the toughest? It’s not an alignment. Or a coverage. Or a blitz.
The toughest teams have the best Jimmy’s & Joe’s, lined up doing something they are confident in.
No, Wing-T coaches are not scared of your gimmick defense. They laugh at it.
When that antiquated old offense comes to town this season, be steadfast in your 4-3 defense. Follow these 5 keys to defend the Wing-T offense with your 4-3 defense this season…
Game Plan to Use 3 Fronts
They should already be in your playbook.
Start out in your over front. Dance with the one that brought you.
Then, move into your under front. This is where our team is going to sit most of the night.
Make sure the principles of your over and under fronts match up. This is an easy adjustment for your kids.
Then jump into your goal line defense in the right situations. Make some personnel substitutions if you need to, and jump into that 60 front for the no-nonsense downs.
As an adjustment, have the “G” Front in your back pocket. That moves the nose to a 2i on the guard.
Guards are huge in the Wing-T. But early on, I want to punish the center.
Key the Guards
We teach a primary key on the back and a secondary key on the offensive line to our linebackers for everyone but the Wing-T.
Against a Wing-T Offense, we’ll key the guards. They are the best indicator.
That’s why you need to teach both reads to your linebackers. We’ve been working on what the secondary hat read off the guard means all season. Now it just becomes the primary key.
You take your first two steps based off the action of the primary key. Against the Wing-T this is likely to be one of 4 reads:
- Pull Inside
- Pull Outside / Reach
- Down Block
- Pass
Our reaction to pull outside and reach are the same. I’ve gone more in-depth on these lineman keys on Football-Defense.com in our members section, if you want to study more.
Limit Your Blitzes
We never carry more than 3 exotics. Against a Wing-T it will likely be 1 or 2.
And one of those is for pass-only situations.
There’s a little bit of guessing when you blitz a lot. It’s a roll of the dice sometimes.
Guess wrong? That salty old Wing-T guy will make you pay.
Put Your Swap Check In
We run quarters coverage. I love it against the Wing-T.
For those 100/900 formations (or Red/Blue) with the TE/Wing on one side, you will want to have your Swap Check.
That puts the safety down at 3 yards off the ball, 5 yards outside of the End Man on the Line of Scrimmage (EMOLS). It backs your corner up to play for the deeper play-action routes.
You don’t need to do that if your corners tackle better than your safeties. But you have personnel issues, if that’s the case.
Work to Stop What They Do Best
Don’t get caught up in the many different plays they run. All the looks, all the misdirection, boils down to one key…
Make them beat you left-handed.
Simple as that. Make that team beat you with something, or someone, that is not their best.
Take away the best 3 running plays. Take away the best athlete of the 4 backs in the backfield.
Focus on those in practice. Rep them. Don’t worry about anything else.
Sometimes coaches ask what we do about influence pulls, where the guards are pulling and taking us away from the play.
I ask them if that team can beat you with that play? have two steps off the guard key with eyes to the back as the play develops.
Your linebacker may be a step or two off. Can they beat you with that?
If so, you rep it. Study film closely to find a tendency for it.
If not, forget it. Let’s say they influence pull 5% of snaps.
When you make a big deal about it (adding another “What If”), your athlete slows down. He stops trusting.
Now the other 95% of plays, he’s flat-footed while the guard could be leading him directly to the play.
You can’t stop everything unless you are just significantly more talented.
The biggest key to the Wing-T offense, no matter what defense you run, is NO GIMMICKS.
Always be who you are. Have an identity. Your kids play faster when they are confident in their jobs.
Playing fast is the key to beating just about anyone.
