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4-3 Under

Patriots X and O’s interview with @DraftableXnOs

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Last week I noticed a few tweets from @DraftableXnOs breaking down the Patriots defensive scheme with the kind of depth that was beyond my own observations. I found it reassuring that he was coming to some of the same conclusions that my uneducated eyes had come to on their own, mainly that while the LBs were in an Under alignments, the Defensive Linemen were in Over alignments. I wanted to learn more so a few direct messages later and I had an email interview going with the man behind @DraftableXnOs, Alen Dumonjic.

Below you’ll find some really interesting nuggest from Alen who has long been a fan of BB and is well versed in the schemes that the Patriots have run (even though he’s a Dolphins fan). It’s clear that his understanding of football X and Os far exceed my own so after he graciously answered my unending stream of questions I feel that I have an even better grasp of the Patriots and BB’s overall philosophy.

Mike D: As someone who understands the schemes that the Patriots have been running for a while now, is there any real significance to this 4-3 look we’ve seen here at camp and in the preseason?

Dumonjic: Depends on what they do. Its nothing new I would say, based off of their teachings and what they’ve done over the years, but it could be important depending on what they do coverage wise and run fits wise this year. They are more than likely going to need some more help against the run game because the SLB position isn’t really a strong spot for them at the moment (keywords there), but it could change. Two things about defense in the NFL is despite it supposedly being a passing league, you still need to stop the run, and the number one coverage in the NFL is still Man-Free (Cover 1).

The Patriots goal in their defense is always to have coverage flexibility. That means they try to find various ways to defend the gaps presented by the offense and still try to get the defensive backfield to do their jobs. Its why they place a premium on cornerbacks that can run and have man skills. The more man skills, the more guys you can use in the box. They play over 30 coverages every year. In a clinic that Belichick gave, he stated they played 37 coverages and 17 different fronts, so its clear they try to find different ways to defend the gaps presented by the offense while having enough guys in the defensive backfield.

They’ve always played 3-4 fronts but they’ve often played 4-3 concepts out of them. They did this last year some and a lot in ‘09. Tully Banta-Cain was really a ghost 5 technique and I can’t recall who the SAM was but he played quite a bit of coverage. This year, it seems that they are going to more four down lineman with the mixes of the Over and Under fronts. They’re 2 gapping some with the two interior DL and this has become pretty common in the league with 40 fronts because it can help defeat some zone blocking OLs. You don’t really give them a pure angle to attack you at. I think that we’ll see more 4-3 concepts this year though, even out of the 3-4 front because they can slide in and out of it so easily.

Mike D: Do you think they’re abandoning the 3-4 entirely?

Dumonjic: I don’t think they are necessarily abandoning it but I do think they will be using more 4 man fronts. The reason is because of the lack of a market for stand up pass rushers. Bill Belichick does not like developing pass rushers it seems like, instead he plunges into the free agent market to get one. The reason he doesn’t seem to like to develop pass rushers (from 3 point stance to 2 point stance) is because it is easier to teach them what they already know from college. If you look at the defensive end picks the last five years in the first two rounds, with the exception of the top 5 picks, the rushers have had issues translating to the stand up role, so I think that played a role. Plus, now you’ve got everyone using hybrid defenses (even the Bucs do this now), shifting to 3-4 so that requires certain personnel so the market for those players becomes thinner.

Mike D: We’ve gone into a lot of discussion about 2-gapping vs. 1-gapping here on the blog, and you noted that the Pats were using both for their defensive linemen against the Jags. Could you expand on those techiniques a little more?

Dumonjic: One thing Belichick lives by is his gapping principles. If he’s one gapping, he says you have to get the secondary involved as a force player because you need to account for all the gaps presented by the offense. Now if you’re two gapping, you don’t have to get the secondary involved because you have a guy accounting for two gaps. The latter sounds great but you have to find a guy who can do that. He’s often been a guy to mix gap principles throughout the DL on any given play. He combo-gaps on the DL and we saw some of that during the game against Jacksonville. He two gapped his two interior DL at times, other times only one DL on the interior.

Mike D: How do you see the Patriots using Wilfork, Haynesworth and the rest of the defensive linemen within the context of this 4-3 formation?

Dumonjic: Well I think you don’t really have a choice of Wilfork at any spot other than 1 technique. We could see him at 5 technique again but I think it will be on the strong side in certain situations. Its possible they use him that way like they did last year at times. Haynesworth is going to moved around all along the OL. In Tennessee, he played 1 technique, 3 technique, and weakside 5 technique on pass downs so it will be interesting with him. What’s even more interesting is when a guy like Shaun Ellis gets involved because hes played both 5 techniques, he’s stood up and he’s played 3 technique. This gives them a lot of flexibility and versatility and most importantly, allows them to replace players at positions. The #1 thing Belichick always seeks is replaceable players. He likes plug and play guys, as you know.

Thanks to Alen for a some great, insightful stuff. We hope to have lots more from him this season. If you’re not following him @DraftableXnOs I suggest you do so now.

Couple more thoughts on the Patriots 4-3

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The interesting thing that I’ve found upon further analysis of the Patriots 4-3 defense is that the alignment of their interior lineman is actually more of a 4-3 Over than 4-3 Under.

In the 4-3 Over the Nose Tackle (Vince Wilfork) is to the weak side, and the defensive tackle (Haynesworth*) is on the strong side.

While in the traditional 4-3 Under like Pete Carroll’s (the one we initially thought was the model for the new Patriots tweak), the nose tackle is in the strong side A gap and the defensive tackle is in the weak B gap as somewhat of a better pass rush than run stopper.

Why the switch?

I’d say because they want to ensure that they protect Jerod Mayo with their best defensive lineman, aka Vince Wilfork. Haynesworth* would also work well on the strong side, blowing up runs and also getting mostly one-on-one match ups. With those two guys you’d only need two traditional defensive lineman.

But again, who knows what exactly we saw Thursday night. It was whatever BB felt like revealing to the sixteen NFL scouts that were in attendance. An extraordinary number of scouts all who needed to check out if the Patriots 4-3 rumors were legit.

Just look below at how much space Gary Guyton has. Now imagine he’s Jerod Mayo and that’s Wilfork and Moore in front of him. He’ll have plenty of space to use his speed and make plays all over the field.

Boston Globe: Bedard/Scout takes on the Patriots 4-3 Under

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Boston Globe: Bedard/Scout takes on the Patriots 4-3 Under

Here’s more on the 4-3 Under from Bedard with some takes from some NFL scouts as well:

What the scouts also noted was how the Patriots just let their linemen loose to go upfield, which is quite a departure from their traditional two-gap scheme.

One thing I’d question Bedard about is that I believe he has the Cunningham/Moore backwards in his analysis. Cunningham was the Strong side defensive end, and Moore was the weakside defensive end. I don’t know if that’s how it will play out when the bullets are really flying but it seems to make sense to me.

Bedard did elaborate on some of the differences between the 4-3 Under diagram from the last article and what the Patriots showed.

Other elements, such as the nose tackle playing on the weakside of the center, were different.

This is a slight tweak to the 4-3 Under that appears to spread out the pass rush across the line rather than focusing solely on the weak side. This isolates the defensive tackle (hopefully Haynesworth) on the strong side with a one on one match up with the guard. If the right tackle tries to block down on the DT the result would be a tight end trying to block both the defensive end and the SLB.

Interesting stuff. Can’t wait to see how it looks when the games really count.

Patriots show 4-3 Under Defense vs. Jaguars

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I was up well into the wee hours of the morning last night researching the defense that the Patriots showed against the Jaguars in their first preseason, and I’ve uncovered a lot of interesting information. Now I don’t claim that this is the defense that they fully intend on running during the regular season. Whatever they plan on doing this was just a basic vanilla version of it. But based on what we saw last night it looks like the Patriots are moving from a 3-4 to a 4-3 Under defense.

The 4-3 Under is an interesting defense, and having dedicated that past few years getting to know the Fairbanks-Bullough 3-4 I’m kind of excited to tackle a new system.

The 4-3 Under has it roots with Monte Kiffin at Nebraska in the 70’s where he won a National Championship with it. It’s also the defense that Pete Carroll has run for his entire career after learning it from Kiffin. So for pre-Super Bowl band wagon Patriots fans, you’ve seen this before in the late-90’s.

The 4-3 Under is known to be possibly the best pass rushing base defense, but also to be stout against the run. It can be run from one-gap or two gap principals, and knowing the Patriots their version is likely to be a mixture of both. It is perfect in it’s simplicity and allows players to play fast and aggressive without over-thinking.

Let’s take a look at some diagrams:

Now you’ll notice some slight tweaks to what the Pats are doing above compared to the 4-3 under diagram, notably that they interior gap responsibilities have been flipped and they’re a little more spread out due to the fact that the Jags are in a 3-WR set, but otherwise the Patriots ran the 4-3 Under exclusively on early downs.

The most obvious advantage of this defense is that there are really only two traditional defensive lineman, and five athletic linebacker-types. This formation also has a straight up pass rusher on every down from the RDE spot.

Let’s discuss how specific players will fit into the roles in this defense.

  • This defense will make it hard to double team both Albert Haynesworth* and Vince Wilfork, assuring at least one of them has a one on one match-up every down. Me likey.
  • As we’ve said before Jerod Mayo will be completely protected at the WLB spot (where we saw Guyton last night). He should make another buttload of tackles.
  • Jermaine Cunningham is really one of the biggest keys now to the defense. Being the strong side defensive end he will have to line up head on against a tackle, but also face a constant threat of a down block from the tight end. That’s why you saw Cunningham in a four point stance, he’ll have to stay low and battle. The Strong DE is the key to stopping the run, and Cunningham will have to be extremely stout at the point of attack. He won’t be pass rushing as a lot of people might’ve expected after last season, and that’s probably why he hasn’t flashed a lot in training camp thus far. But the good news is that when the offense does go strong to the other side he’s a solid enough pass rush guy they’ll be able to bring pressure with him. Clearly the Pats chose him over Ty Warren for that spot for the pass rush he can bring.
  • At the other side will be the Weak Defensive End and his job is to rush the passer almost exclusively. The only thing that can’t happen is for him to get hooked and lose contain.
  • We all saw what Dane Fletcher did from the MLB spot last night. Now imagine what Brandon Spikes will do there. Wow. However the 4-3 Under is susceptible to pass in the middle zone, Spikes being able to instantly read play action and drop into coverage in the middle flat will be a huge developmental step that he will need to take.
  • If Gary Guyton is going to be the Strong Side Linebacker in this defense we’ll need a huge year out of him. He will be playing on the line where you see Ninkovich above. This is a hugely important position as he’ll be pretty much taking on the tight end every down. I wonder if Ninkovich is still in contention for this spot as well.
  • Patrick Chung will make a ton of tackles in this defense as well. He is another one of the key people for this system to run correctly.
  • It will also take advantage of stout, physical corners like McCourty, Bodden and Dowling.

If you had to generalize why the Patriots are moving to this defense (assuming this is really what they’re moving to) the simple explanation is that they want to get more athletes, more speed and more pass rush on the field for all downs.

The biggest question will be whether or not they can stop the run consistently from this formation. They are clearly giving something up in the run defense department as we saw last night, though I expect Wilfork and Haynesworth* to be hugely effective in causing havoc on the interior line.

My early feeling is that against a run heavy team they’d remain in the 4-3 Under but go with bigger stouter defensive ends. That will depend on how well Jermaine Cunningham can win at the point of attack.

I know BB thinks it’s a media fabrication about him changing defensive fronts but it’s obvious that changes have been made to the base defense, and the evolution of BB D 2.0 has clearly taken a new turn.