Really sets them apart. It isn't a blank slate every video with regurgitated reaction faces. Its two guys genuinely trying to learn and experience things. Fun to watch every time.
I like it, too. These are good videos. I subscribed today. It's enjoyable to watch other nationalities enjoy Am. Football instead of poopooing it. I think that if someone just took 5 minutes to explain the basic rules then more people would enjoy it. The game makes no sense if you've just turned on the TV and start watching. Like what is 3rd and 4? When I was a little boy this always confused me and then one day someone took time to explain it. And football suddenly became something I enjoy.
@@DNReacts On the 5-2 defense against a 3 wide receiver set, the coach of the defense team would more than likely call a time out. The match ups would be bad, they would have linebackers and defensive linemen trying to cover people way faster than them.
It's funny watching this video because as it goes on and gets more and more complex, I start to realize how much information about football is just a given to me because I've grown up with it. To someone who is just learning, there really is a lot going on.
You know what 😮 I never even thought about that or looked at it that way.. It feels like I've known what a Q.B was my entire life. I think I learned who George Washington was after I knew who Joe Montana was. Definitely could recognize Zone Coverage, before I could recognize whats under a girls dress.
@@Peakfreud You know "I think I learned who George Washington was after I knew who Joe Montana was" is a funny comment but thinking about it really I definitely knew Peyton Manning and Tom Brady before I knew what a president even was lol
Yeah I realized this once my sons where old enough to ask about the game…. So much information that we just take for granted because we have been around it all our life.
My pops grew up watching basketball and soccer…he never knew what American football was until he noticed me watching it as a kid (he was about 35). At first he didn’t like it cause he didn’t understand it, but then we made it a father-son bonding experience. He would watch and learn through me explaining what’s going on and I would practice explaining different coverages and schemes. It was a win-win and American football is one of his favorite sports now!
Yeah, I'm thinking the same. Football, Baseball and Basketball are universes on there own. I'd say football the most because 22 guys are moving at once and almost anything can happen on any given play but watching foreigners watch and react to our sports is kinda eye-opening.
Defensive schemes (ex: 4-3, 3-4 etc) are not usually swapped to match every offensive lineup. It's more of a philosophy set by the Defensive coordinator based on his preference and the strengths of his players. Typically this is established before the season begins and is practiced for the duration of the season. There are some changeups but committing to a scheme allows players to focus on their position and leverage their experience.
There's many players you'd ideally want to keep in man at all times or even double them to hopefully prevent a big play. Calvin Johnson (aka Megatron) was someone you double or watch him destroy your secondary. Also who the QB is makes a considerable difference. It was a known fact that you didn't want to play zone vs Tom Brady or Drew Brees because they know every zone and when they see it they could immediately recognize where the gap was.
@@jeddineen2185 His route running. Gronk had exceptional route running abilities, he could find the open seam and spaces. And when you have a QB like that, its shredding time. Kelce is very similar. Im a Giants fan and I just couldnt understand how these guys were open all the time. First 10 yards of a play Gronk and Kelce have you, after that you're just playing catch up.
Also, when a team has a great CB, like Darrelle Revis, they usually put him in man coverage against the other team's best receiver, while the rest of the defense plays zone coverage.
Great example you could also use hill as one cause you don’t simply want to have him in man you’ll want to have a man on him of course but you’ll want the cover 2 or even Tampa 2 cause his speed would kill just one man in man coverage
Yes, Ray Lewis was a Middle linebacker. LT was an outside linebacker. Deion Sanders was a cornerback. This is a really good defensive video! And yes you are right, the defense tends to mirror the offense. 3-4 versus 4-3 is usually a set scheme based on the defensive coordinator and the personnel on the team.
3-4 sucks unless there is a legit game changing linebacker and very athletic outside cornerbacks. Otherwise, offenses move at will against the ordinary 3-4 defense. 3-4 uses disguise and confusion but that means the defense changes to a 4-3 to pressure the quarterback. Perfect example: my fav team The Vikings used a 3-4 and though their record was 13-4 they had the worst defense in the league. With an average 4-3 defense they might have gone to or even won the Super Bowl.
@@drew1964able @Drew Lowfner This is just false. Of the top 10 defenses last year, 5 ran a base 3-4, while 4 ran a base 4-3 and the Bills ran a nickel base. The problem with the Vikings defense had nothing to do with their base scheme, but with poor usage of their players (why is zadarius smith covering a receiver?) and refusal to mix up their approach throughout the game. The vikings never would have made it to the super bowl with only a scheme change. They were the biggest outlier in point differential in the league with 13 wins and a negative differential (possibly the greatest outlier of all time in that regard) also worth pointing out that the Vikings were 7th in points per game. The 7th best offense and a middle of the pack defense is not a superbowl team in all but the rarest of circumstances. The Vikings were not a good team last year; they were a very lucky mediocre team. Hell, they had 1-score games against the Lions, Bears, Saints, Jets, Colts, Commanders and Patriots, all of whom didn't even make the playoffs.
I played football for 10 years and just today I learned what Cover 2 meant 😂😂😂. I was a defensive linemen and never knew what the hell the defensive backs were doing unless they were blitzing
That’s pretty funny. I played center and learned 99% of my football knowledge from watching it on tv lol. Playing was a lot more simple, just either run or pass block lol.
I played football my whole life growing up. Went to college and worked for the football team in the video department. I realized even though I played my whole life I literally knew nothing about football🤦🏾♂️😂😂
My first day as a college receiver in our meeting we were being quizzed, my coach told me to come up to the board and draw a cover 2 defense... I said I didn't know how and he lost his mind 🤣 that wasn't even the quiz, I had to draw the defense before he had me start drawing routes. Learning the playbook was my hardest college class lol
The 5-2 is rarely used these days, but it was the base defense used by most teams for the first 40 years of NFL history (when the game was more run-offense heavy). I’m surprised they even mentioned it among the base defenses. These days, you would mostly see either 4-3 or 3-4. 5-2 is typically only used in short yardage situations when you are fairly confident the other team will run or short pass, such as near the goal line.
@@christophermckinney3924 Which inevitably brings you to 'tweeners' like Micah Parsons, who essentially go be "DE" just because it means they'll get a bigger contract than if they went by "LB" lol
I really enjoy when foreign sports fans come at American football with an open mind, setting aside all the stereotypes, and realize how complex and frankly beautiful a sport it can be. Loving these videos guys
Yes the defense will try to mirror or match the offense but a lot of other times, the D mirrors the offense then changes because they expect the offense is giving a formation that's just a bait and then changes it once the ball is snapped. It's amazing how many hundreds of plays many offenses have that defenses then have to try to match up. Great video guys! Cheers form Orlando!!!
@@DNReacts when you see an offensive player run parallel to the line of scrimmage prior to the snap he is checking to see if a defensive back is going to mirror him. If a defensive back mirrors him then that means the defense is in man to man. If no one mirrors him then they're in zone. The Miami Dolphins is a team that you would never play man to man. It has the two fastest players/ wide receivers in the NFL, Waddle and Hill. Hill is a straight up freak of nature because no one has ever been that fast in pads and Waddle was being called Tyreek Hill 2.0 in college. Waddle made a play this past season where his acceleration is so fast he split 3 defensive backs so perfectly the corner back accidentally tackled one of the safeties.
@@DNReacts before each play the defense has an amount of time to do a substitution. There is no limit to the amount ppl unlike European football. Also offensive teams will run a no huddle (means they just keep going with out stopping like rugby, but the ref has to get the ball after each play and put it down like normal) this keeps the defense from substitutions or when the clock is running out and you need to hurry, why its called the Hurry Up Offensive or 2 minute drill bc this happens at the end of the game.
@@DNReacts The middle linebacker (also referred to as the "mic/mike" because he wears a headset) is responsible for defensive pre-snap adjustments. He typically has a little dot on his helmet to indicate this, although it might be hard to spot on TV.
@@DNReacts Mayo stole my thunder. To add to his first point, when you watch a game you will often see an official standing over the ball preventing the play from starting. This is the officials giving the defense a chance to match the offensive personnel. I don’t often do live streams, but I might consider it to have us all watch a game with you. The information overload would be off the charts!😄
Once you guys are full fledged American Football fans, I'd love to watch a video on how your thoughts on the game have changed from before making your first video to then (and I don't think you guys are too far off from getting there)
Will definitely do something like this Pete. I reckon after properly watching 1 season through, it’s going to complete reshape our knowledge. We’re getting there, but a season of action is going to elevate us
The team on defense does look to see how many running backs, wide receivers and tight ends the offense has on the field when determining their package. There are rules that protect the defensive team’s ability to make substitutions. If the offense substitutes any players they must allow the defense some time to sub before they can snap the ball. And if the offense huddles, they need to be finished with their substitutions before breaking the huddle.
Another thing I’m surprised they haven’t mentioned is that the numbers the players wear on their jersey give you a good idea of what their normal position on the defense is. 40-59 is usually linebackers, 90-99 is usually the defensive line, and 20-39 is usually the defensive backs. Not always but generally the combination of the player number and how big they are tells you what position they typically play.
Admittedly the NFL has really made it difficult with their rule changes regarding numbers. Now you might see a CB wearing No. 1 (Sauce Gardner), a safety wearing No. 14 (Kyle Hamilton) and an Edge Rusher wearing No. 7 (Haason Reddick)
They changed up the number rule. Look at the Cowboys. Micah Parsons playing LB and EDGE with the number 11, and Trevon Diggs play CB with the number 7.
That was mostly an NFL rule. Most players in college would sort of follow it. But for defense in college, there are no position restrictions for numbers except offensive linemen must wear 50-79 and you can't have two players with the same number on the field at the same time.
Loads of information to absorb for anyone with limited experience with the sport. You guys seem to have good instincts about how American football might work. Well done, guys!
@@DNReacts one thing the video and cjpreach didn't mention is when to assign a Blitzer to try and disrupt the pass before it even happens. There are some players where sending a Blitzer is a bad idea because the QB's instantly recognize the blitz and exploit the hole the blitzer left. So that's why defenses have gotten good at disguising who gets sent after the QB and when to do it. Tom Brady was a guy you'd only ever send 4 men to try to disrupt him, since he will recognize the 5th and more blitzers and get the ball thrown quicker than a blink of an eye, but if you can disrupt him with 4 players, and say, have a Nickelback blitz and drop a DE in coverage, it helps confuse the QB to making a bad decision
I absolutely applaud the effort you two are making. The more I watch these, the more I realize what a specialized game this is, and I only see some of the nuance involved because I've been watching it all my life. I'm glad videos like this exist, because while I can add on all the extras, I can't talk down to basics like they do. I'm tempted to dive straight in to the 4-3 vs the 3-4 (pretty standard defensive schemes named for the number of defensive lineman, followed by the number of linebacker). Then we can get into gap assignments, and before long I'm in the weeds with completely unnecessary exposition.
Tried to lay this out in another comment of mine. It is kind of like Football every play is a set play (free kick, corner, throwin) each and every play. There isn't a 1-1 for players but zone and man coverage has a lot of equal comparisons in those situations. Marking a man, trash man, wall etc.
I dunno what channel created that video but if all of their content matches the quality of this one I would definitely encourage you guys react to more of their stuff. I was impressed with the sort of moderately paced progression in complexity and especially their ability to explain things simply without oversimplifying the concepts themselves (which is a major issue I have with most educational content in general; sports or otherwise - simplify the language, not the idea).
Hi Guys! At about 14:00 you asked when it is best to use man-to-man pass coverage defense, and when is it best to use zone defense. This is usually determined after evaluating an upcoming opponent, and what they prioritize on their offense. If an opponent has a very large offensive line and do most of their plays using their running backs (a rushing offense), they may use only one or two wide receivers who are not a priority. For that you would likely use physical cornerbacks to play man-to-man up close (called 'press-man'), and attempt to physically disrupt any passing routes by the receiver to give the defense a chance to pressure the quarterback. For opponents that have lots of athletic receivers that set up in three or four wide receiver sets before snap, a zone defense would be preferable because, as you said, one receiver who shakes his guy loose in man-to-man coverage has no support.
I’d also say it’s employed based more so on the field situation vs the player or team. On a 3rd and 20, you’re likely going mid-deep zone coverage. 3rd and 1, it’s the opposite
There are a lot of good answers to this question, and @Coach John does a very nice job giving a quick response. But of course, the answer is much more nuanced than this. One important difference between European football and American football is the fact that there is a stoppage between every play. As the video indicates, teams change situationally, but beyond that, it's important to vary what you are doing frequently enough to create some doubt for the offense. If you always play a zone coverage on third and long, it does not take teams long to figure that out. For that matter, most quarterbacks begin "reading coverage" before the ball is snapped. For example, teams use pre-snap motion to help determine whether you are in man or zone before the ball is in play. If your defensive back follows across the formation, it suggests man to man coverage, while if he stays put it tells the offense that you are in zone.. But defenses know this, and will sometimes disguise what they are doing by sending a defender with the motion man and then sliding into zone at the snap. It is a constant game of cat and mouse. Great defenses that are well-coached communicate what they are doing seamlessly. When you see a guy running wide open, you know that there has been a "busted" coverage, meaning that somebody thought the defense was playing coverage A while they were actually in coverage B. This is why having a good quarterback is of paramount importance. The ability to read a defense between the time at which a team breaks the huddle and snaps the ball can mean the difference between having a play likely to work against a given defensive alignment and not. People frequently talk about how good Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are at this. But the next step is even more difficult: verifying in the 1.5-2 seconds -after- the snap that you read the defense correctly, and knowing where to go with the ball while enormous hostile men come flying at you like they were fired out of a cannon. And -that- is the prime difference between a Hall-of-Famer and everyone else.
Love your reactions, guys!! Since you're learning more about all sides of the ball, you should watch "Charles Woodson Becomes Only Defensive Player to Win the Heisman." Although he was primarily a defensive back, he also played wide receiver and returned punts on special teams. He's also in the Football Hall of Fame.
Defenses will change based on what an Offense is doing, but usually the "base" package is established by the team culture early in the year. Your team roster might consist of more linebackers/less linemen with a 3-4 culture than it would if you run a base of 4-3. The changes are usually these packages the video describes, where you might change to counter the Offense bringing out extra receivers.
Your question regarding zone vs. man and personnel: YES! All of the yes. Nnamdi Asomugha vs. Richard Sherman. These are two of the best cornerbacks of the last generation, both retired now, but fantastic in their day. Nnamdi was a pure press-man corner. All you had to do was tell him what receiver you wanted out of the game, and you were playing 10 man football. He left the Raiders and bounced around to a bunch of teams that wanted him to play zone, and he was out of the league shortly after. Richard Sherman is one of the best pure zone corners ever. He wasn't particularly fast, but he was crafty and observant and understood positioning and baiting better than any corner in the league. Pure zone guy, you locked up a 3rd of the field with him. But he was never going to cover Moss one on one in Man, he just didn't have that kind of twitch. Very rare are the ultra greats like Deion Sanders, Darrell Green, and Derrelle Revis. These guys could actually mix-and-match techniques within a play. For instance, both Deion and Green extensively played outside leverage in man (quite uncommon, as inside leverage allows you to use the sideline as an extra defender). This allowed them to see the ball sooner, as their man was between them and the QB. They had the speed and the talent to undercut inside breaking routes despite bad positioning. As far as what your opponent does, yes it makes a difference, but defenses tend to do what they're good at over what might counter the opponent. There are few man-coverage focused teams in the modern NFL, and those who are deploy it strategically (the Dolphins are known for their cover-1 blitz, which is a man scheme, but they use it sparingly so it's a surprise). If your opponent has a particularly good receiving corps this might make you shy away from Man coverage, but since most teams are in zone the majority of the time anyways, it's hard to see the difference.
I was very fortunate to have a dad that would sit down and watch football with me. My math brain loves this type of stuff. I was probably like 12 or 13 and I could already explain back to my dad if an offense was using a 00 personnel or 10 personnel or whatever. These videos can be a lot at first but once you see it in a game it starts to make a ton of sense
You guys have great takes in this. The game essentially is very simple but the things done at a professional level are just insane. The schemes, assignments, the knowledge of studying the opposing team the week of your game, there is just so much information.
Just subbed. It's not only because I'm an American football fan, and also not only because you guys are entertaining... But more because of your dedication to understanding, and working to get the basis of the sport, instead of just saying WOW! As you clearly demonstrated here, learning about the inner workings. Well done!
Love y'all's channel guys! It's really cool as someone who has just started watching a lot of the EFL, seeing you two guys diving into our sports too. You can really tell that y'all want to understand what's going on when you're watching and not just the same reaction to big hits every time lol. Welcome to Wrexham and you two have showed me how similar our love for our sports are. Cheers fellas, and keep up the great work.
Thank you Wil, love that you’re enjoying the channel, appreciate the comment. We’re loving this journey! Welcome to Wrexham is a great story, I think most of us are Wrexham fans now too
This is so interesting to see people genuinely try to understand American football. I'm going to subscribe to watch yall journey. I hope you guys grow to enjoy the game. Fly Eagles Fly go birds!
When u guys were asking about the difference between a 5-2, 4-3 or 3-4, i think the guy making the video could’ve been more descriptive at this point. If you recall, these formations are known as “base” formations. A team will have 1 base formation that they play for the entire season. 5-2 is almost never seen in the NfL. So the most common base formation would be 4-3 followed by 3-4. The team will actually build their playbook (to the defensive coordinator’s liking) around the players that they have signed. For instance, my favorite team: the cleveland browns, ran a base formation of 4-3 the entirety of last season. While a team like the LA rams ran a 3-4 base defensive scheme the whole season. This is because the rams have a star at the nose tackle position, being Aaron Donald. A nose tackle plays on teams that run 3-4 defensive schemes. The “packages” he mentions are what situationally come up throughout the game. Nickel and dime packages come on the field when the defense is predicting heavy pass attempts. I know that was a lot, but i felt i could be of assistance!
Zone vs Man coverage by player and/or opponent is a much deeper conversation than a simple RU-vid comment. There are a lot of things that go into what a defense will do against specific offensive players or offensive schemes. I love you guys enthusiasm to learn American sports.
Yeah you can play zone on one side man on the other. This is common when a team motions to trips. If in cover 2, which is fundamentally unsound against trips, defense auto checks to cover 3 to the trips side and man on the backside, might even auto-check to a backside blitz.
@@chonzen1764 Also most defenses try to disguise their coverage, whether its man-to-man or zone, to bait the QB into making a poor decision. Offenses try to disguise their formations or what they are doing to try and put the defense into bad positions. And all of this happens pre-snap. It can get pretty complicated.
You are correct Damo! Ray Lewis was a Middle Linebacker. He was the perfect MLB because of four main reasons: 1. Power, hard ass hitter. 2. Speed, for a guy who was 250lbs. 3. Vision, to see an offensive formation and due to watching film or intuition was able to snuff out plays before they could develop. 4. Communication. As a MLB he had the Defensive Coordinator in his ear (only one Defensive player gets to have an earpiece and it is normally a MLB or a Safety, someone who can see the whole Offensive Formation) and Ray Lewis with his booming voice would be communicating with his teammates things that the coaching staff were telling him and observations that he was seeing based on his own knowledge. He also used his communication skills expertly via trash talking to get into offensive players' heads. Love the channel! Keep up the good work!
As an avid college football and nfl fan (Roll Tide and Titan Up), this breaks down the defense to the average viewers level. The viewer knows the defense has stop the offense from gaining yardage and scoring, but this allows the average joe to watch the game with an analytical perspective in mind. Very well put together video
Really fun to see that, as you guys learn more, your learning has become sorta exponential. Every new video shows a better/quicker understanding than the last!
That was a pretty decent explanation of the basics and formations on defense. The offensive version will be a bit longer or more in depth, if it covers all the different formations.
Formation mismatches mean you'll have a fast offense on a slow defender or a deep secondary on a running back. You'll often see defenders point and talk to align their defense with the offensive formation, but it'd usually a chance for a big play.
Absolutely. I played safety and defensive end. I had 2 goals. Sack the QB or get an INT. I may have sacked our QB during practice and injured him...oopsie. He was a D-bag anyway.
Great choice of video to learn from - i'm 54 years old and i've been watching American football since i was 5 - 6 years old - and while i hear many of these terms from the announcers - it was informative to have it explained the way it was - so if you're still a bit confused - don't feel badly - most American fans could also learn a lot from this video. Most fans don't have this level of understanding. I remember as a kid on the school playground in the 1970s - where we just ran wildly around in circles with the ball until someone could tackle us - how sophisticated professional football is by comparison. Hope there's a "guide for offense" for a future reaction. Thanks for posting this one.
Just one more thing - my favorite player (in the last 30 years) was a defensive back named Troy Polamalu - who was a strong safety for the Pittsburg Steelers. I hope you get a chance some time to take a look at his career highlights - he played the game like a wild man - the way all us kids back on the school playground dreamed of playing the game. He was a one-man wrecking ball. i'm sure you get many requests / suggestions for individual players - so please keep Polamalu in mind. Thanks.
Thank you Jedd, really appreciate your support. We’re going to keep an eye out for a good Offense video. Funny that you mention Polamalu, he’s been mentioned to us a lot of times. We’ll definitely be watching him and hopefully soon. I’d be playing football now the way you played in the playground 😅
Thanks for watching, we hope you enjoyed! Please like, share & subscribe to support the channel. Other ways to support the channel: Donate to the channel via PayPal (PayPal account not needed) - www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=BZRANMGGL9Q9Q Join our Discord, meet the community, submit requests, be included in channel and content polls - discord.gg/cAkQwUuPN8 Find great Football products on Amazon - Our Affiliate Links are - amzn.to/3zvNAaj (Football) & amzn.to/434hHTI
The question you asked at 7:12 is like this: Say the defense calls a nickel but the offense comes out in a run formation, the defense can shift formation depending on what they see from the offense. The defense has a captain, who takes on the roll of the coach basically, and if he sees the defensive package is wrong he will adjust accordingly
Most of the decisions are situationally dependent. IE: How many yards does the offense need to gain on any given play. If they need only a yard or 2 for a 1st down (Which I assume you understand). The defense will use more large linemen and line backers to try to prevent an offensive running play that only requires a couple yards or less. But if the situation requires the offense to gain 10 or more yards, the defense will use more defensive backs and be willing to give up 5-8 yards, but not the 10 required for the 1st down (That's very simplified). To answer one of your other questions, normally the players are designated typically by number, as to whether or not they are a DB, LB or Safety, etc. It's not just the same 11 guys lining up in a different location, they have actual 'Specialists" for each position. I believe the number is still 53 active players on each team for a game. Anyone can go in at anytime allowed. That being said, they can go wherever they want once the play starts. So there are players that are assigned as Defensive lineman, defensive line backers and Defensive backs (Same with offense, mostly). Where it gets tricky and this video doesn't go into it is swapping players out for other specialized positional players. The defense can only swap in or out players if the offense does. So if the defense was expecting a run heavy selection of plays, but the offense just keeps passing the ball and the defense is getting beat, the defense will need to call a timeout to be allowed to put in more pass defenders (DB's) and Timeouts are extremely valuable, so you don't want to be caught in the situation. It can work the other way around, if the offense is just pounding run after run, the defense can tire, but they can't swap in run defenders unless the offense swaps in players or again, they need to call a timeout. So many times the Strategy can be for the offense to put in a run heavy offense and just stick with it. And if it keeps working, the defense needs to either call a timeout to swap in larger players to stop the run, or the just keep getting run over. But the second they do, the offense can switch to a pass heavy offense. And it goes back and forth. Hence the strategy and love of the game. I think you mentioned, something to the effect, does a player become a DB, or DL or LB just by where they line up? In theory sort of, but in reality, each player has a position and role and typically both the offense and defense will swap out players based on the situation and yardage required. Unless the offense is just running over the defense, then they will stick with what they have. Because in general it's much harder to play defense, physically. reacting to what someone is doing requires more effort than initiating the action.
In High School we never did anything fancy on Defense we usually had a 4-4, but we would go to a 5-2 something and we played a simple cover 6, and to answer your question about a 3 receiver set since we ran a zone didn’t matter if we covered a man at the start of the play but we had a defensive play called Ed, Ed (was when we were in a 5-2 and the other team had 3 plus recevier) and what Ed did was it had the Edge Rusher cover the flat zone to the side with the most receivers allowing for our SS/OLB (our SS was called a strong safety but he lined up has an outside liner back that’s why I called it a 4-4) to cover the Curl.
You play man to man if your defense is more athletic then their offense. Zone if their offense is more athletic than your defense. Not every play, but its common.
Back in the stone age ,when I played high school football ,we ran a 5-4-2 defense with 5 defensive linemen 4 linebackers and two safeties . I played outside linebacker ,which in that defense was sort of a hybrid linebacker-cornerback
@@areguapiri Where and when was that ,fellow old guy ? I played in Alabama around 1960 .We had a hell of a defense . We were undefeated ,untied ,and un-scored upon ,state AA class champs . We actually held one team ,which I won't disgrace by naming to NEGATIVE 227 yards total offense in one game .
Yeah there is like at the end of games during hail Mary’s the defense plays zone at a 3-4-4, or a prevent defense which is where all or most of the defenders go and try to stop the receivers getting into the endzone
I enjoyed that. I was going to make a few points about how the MLB usually calls the defense and how things change if the QB calls an "audible". That's when he changes the play call at the line of scrimmage. It gets so complicated. Maybe do a video on play calling. If there is one. Thanks for the great videos!
There is one position that has been utilized over the last few years with the rising prominence of running QBs and that is 'the spy'. It is usually a middle-linebacker or free-safety assigned to watching a run happy QB.
I was travelling for business once with a man from Yorkshire. We were at a hotel bar in Texas and the NFL was on TV. He looked confused and asked for a basic explanation of what was going on. The bartender heard this and came over and flooded him with tons of detailed information beyond what he was asking and at that moment it occurred to me that learning American sports is really quite confusing if you didn't grow up around them. When it comes to detailed rules which vary between professional levels (for example, when the clock stops), even those of us who have watched for years get confused. I love how in soccer the rules never change.
Watching your reaction makes me realize why I fell in love with football. I didn't grow up in a sports family and didn't get to sports until college, but man was it fun playing even just flag football with the guys. I started out as the center bc everyone wanted to be the wideout, but eventually became the MLB calling plays.
3-4 setup usually has a linebacker that is mostly a pass rusher (eg Lawrence Taylor). 4-3 is more static in this regard, but as mentioned at the end, the Tampa 2 has it's own hybrid linebacker that specializes in pass coverage (such as Urlacher). The base scheme does make a big difference in the type of player you want. 4-3 has less "tricks" in general. But your base defense is only that, what you use most of the time.
I am an NFL fan and have watched it for decades and was still able to learn a few things from the video. Btw, yes, Ray Lewis was middle linebacker. Other notables randomly chosen from the top of my head are: Deion Sanders a cornerback and Troy Polamalu strong safety. Looking at the difference and their body types and physical abilities kinda help illustrate what skills are needed for a given position.
This is great stuff. You guys seem to pick it up quickly and are asking good questions. The more you know about football, the better it is. The game gets almost as intricate as a chess match.
Fun video! As someone who grew up living and breathing American football, one thing that tripped me up a bit when playing adult league soccer was that the way we number our formations is flipped. In an American football team's 4-3 defense, the 4 refers to the forward-most players, whereas in a soccer team's 4-3-3 formation, the 4 refers to the rear-most players (minus the keeper). It took me an embarrassingly long time to get that straight. Defensive strategies in American football have definitely evolved over the past couple decades, mainly due to players' increasing athleticism, size, and strength on both sides of the ball. Quarterbacks are more athletic and more accurate, so passing has become far more dominant, and so defenses often can't afford to keep five huge defensive linemen on the field that can neither catch the quarterback nor cover even a tight end. Even 4-3 defense is less common these days at the highest level. I'll also point out that defenses are often not as symmetrical as they seem. Some teams use a "strong" side defensive end and linebacker with different responsibilities than the "weak" side defenders, and what determines the strong and weak sides may change from play-to-play based on some combination of where the tight end is, field position, quarterback blind side, planned blitzes, etc. Like a weak-side defensive end may focus on penetration, whereas the strong end may focus on containing the run (i.e. forcing runners to stay in the box). And then the two ends may flip responsibilities if the offense shifts formations or goes in motion. It can definitely get complicated!
A Def will usually stick to their base (4-3 or 3-4, ect.) that is their identity. They drafted players to fit that scheme. BUT they will situationally sub a few positions out for a different look. DEF can MATCH any OFF out of their base by being very creative. Blitzing from different areas/positions, using stunts, mixing up coverages, dropping DL into coverage, ect..... This is the strategic part of the game and why coaches get paid so much . Teams study & scheme all week to prepare for that one game each week !!!
Many teams mix up zone/man coverages and sometimes have a hybrid of both. Like everything, there are pros and cons: Zone Pros: - The defenders are facing forward most of the time (because the players behind them should be protecting their respective zone). Facing forward allows the defenders to see what is going on with the offense and allows the DB's to help stop the running back, a running QB or a short pass, and makes it easier to intercept a pass. Zone Cons: - It's easier to find openings in the coverage, especially when a defender makes a mistake on their zone assignment or if the safeties fall for a fake run. Man Pros: - Receivers are less likely to be wide open because they are being followed by the same defender during the entire play. Man Cons: - Many of the DB's will have their backs turned, so they won't see what's going on. This makes it easier for the offense to run the ball or get short completions.
Congrats! You guys now know more than most American NFL fans! In all seriousness, your effort to learn the game is awesome. In regards to your question about defenses "adjusting", the offense makes substitutions before the play. The personnel that the offense chooses ultimately determines what formation a defense will play. If an offense comes out with 2 wide receivers, the defense will most likely be in base. 3 or 4 wide receivers and the defense will play nickel or dime. If the offense subs any personnel, the defense gets a chance to match. Great question and I hope this helps explain it some.
One of the major overlooked differences in American vs European football is how substitution works. So remember that subs are being brought in and out at a much much higher frequency than in European football. Remembering that may help you conceptualize how these different coverages and formations are changed throughout the game
The defensive plays were the hardest for me to grasp growing up. How they can read the offense and make adjustments on the fly still kinda blows my mind.
He just went into the hall of fame this year so I will mention Revis as a guy always in man to man. Often called the isle of Revis defenses would put him against the offenses best receiver and it usually meant that player was erased from the game. This allowed multiple blitz packages to be employed because the quarterbacks number one receiver was always covered, and when a 300 lb man is charging at you instincts kick in and you throw to your most reliable receiver.
This is great! I like that you guys are learning the game and not just watching highlights and not knowing what’s going on. American football is great once you know the ins and outs of it. You start to see how athletic players are and how the minds of the coaches play out through the game.
To answer your question about man vs. zone, some players are considered basically uncoverable in man coverage. They're usually extremely fast or extremely big. So usually the person assigned to cover them has help. Every now and then if you watch enough football you'll see when the offense has gotten themselves into an extremely favorable match up on a given play, say Rob Gronkowski one on one with a defensive back. Some defensive backs are known for their exceptional man to man abilities. They'll be referred to usually as "lock down corners." Deion Sanders is the greatest ever at that. If you have an exceptional man to man corner you can devote an extra player to defending the rest of the formation because they don't need help.
Defenses can be pretty hard to read when watching live (whether they're in man or zone or a mixture, and who is covering who) since the entire point is to confuse the offense. The offense often does things before the ball is snapped to help identify what scheme the defense is running, like by sending a wide receiver "in motion" they can see if one defender follows or how all the players shift around.
I’d love to answer the questions y’all had about defensive schemes. Y’all were correct with the assumption that the offense comes out and the defense looks to mirror what the offense does. Typically, the defense wants to match the amount of secondary players with the number of receivers the offense sends out. 3-4 is naturally designed to stop the typical 21 personnel (2 RBs, 2 WRs, 1 TE) with a rigid interior. The nose tackle and the two inside linebackers are larger and stronger than the singular middle linebacker in a 4-3. Because the 3-4 is meant to stop the run, you generate a pass rush by blitzing with a combinations of the four linebackers coming from different directions. Where 3-4 tends to suffer is against what’s known as “play-action”, where the offense fakes a run and throws a pass. 3-4 allows you to load the box with linebackers, but the two middle linebackers act as run stuffers and tend to be liabilities in the pass game. 4-3 is better against the pass because you have a 4th defensive lineman and can therefore potentially generate similar pressure as you can with the 3-4, but don’t have to utilize any linebackers to generate pressure, freeing them up to roam in pass coverage. Where 4-3 fails tends to be against inside runs and option schemes, especially ones with misdirection, because, as 4-3 is specifically designed for the defensive line to generate pressure in the pass, the defensive ends are meant to seal the pocket and then close in on the quarterback and tend to be taken out of plays quite quickly, giving the offense lineman opportunities to get to the second level and block the linebackers. Most teams don’t use 5-2, but when they do it’s to stop 22 personnel (2 RBs, 2 TEs, 1 WR) or 23 personnel (2 RBs, 3 TEs, 0 WRs).
7:19 yes. When you watch an NFL game or even college games between 2 elite teams, you'll see the offense and defense come out in certain formations and you'll see the QB for the offense change the play at the line of scrimmage using a combination of hand signals and coded verbal cues. This is called an audible. The shot-caller for the defense, usually either a LB or DB with the most experience and understanding of offense formations, will adjust accordingly by calling an audible of his own and prompting defensive players to move around and match what the offense has done with their audible. All players at the highest level, in the NFL, have an intricate understanding of offensive and defensive formations programmed into their heads from years of experience. The game often is decided based on who can adjust better between the offensive and defensive units of both teams. This dynamic is fascinating to watch unfold on the field during a game. It's one of the reasons that I, as an American, have always loved watching football and playing it during my youth.
This really blew my mind because I grew up watching and playing football. I had no idea how much information I just took for granted as standard knowledge. I’m for sure going to have to tone it down this season when I watch with my girlfriend who knows almost nothing about schemes and different packages.
Situational football is very complex and it is what makes Football the chess of sports. Critical factors for choosing plays: Down & Distance, position on the field, time remaining in half, number of time-outs, injuries
I'm getting flashback when I taught English in Tokyo in the late 90s and a lot of my co-workers were British. There was a British pub that would show all the Premier League matches down the road from my school and my colleagues would give me a tutorial on European football over pints.
What’s up guys! I love the channel and I gotta say I did not realize how entertaining and wholesome it is to see someone actively learn our sport! I’m sure most of the questions you asked have been covered by other people but the last question I just saw where you asked “is it common to watch a team and say if someone is better for man or zone coverage” the answer to that is absolutely yes 👍🏼 Perfect example is with the cornerback position, which is (along with quarterback) the hardest and most valuable postion to play. (You gotta think, these guys have to run with the fastest men on earth… backwards. The receiver knows when they need to turn left, right, stop on a dime, or act like they’re going to turn and then keep going straight. The corner doesn’t really know any of this unless they’ve watched a lot of film on the team and the player. Oh, and also they are turned away from the other teams quarterback most of the time so they have to read the eyes and hands of the receiver as to when to expect the ball to come) yeah it’s a tough position lol. But when it comes to elite cornerbacks, if one is amazing in zone but isn’t as good in man coverage they’re not viewed as highly. Once every 10 years or so we get one corner in the league who is just an absolute animal and every single play they just follow the other teams best receiver and just essentially take them out of the game…. The best to ever do this was Darrell Revis. (Some say Deion sanders) Darrell had a nickname “revis island” where for about a 7 year stretch of time, ‘08 to about ‘15-16, he would take hall of fame caliber wide receivers and completely shut them down. Darrell revis’s 2009 season was the best season for any cornerback in the league, ever. He took players like chad Johnson, Terrell owens, Randy Moss, Steve smith, Brandon Marshall, calvin Johnson, and Andre Johnson (as you learn more about football all of these names will pop up as the best receivers of our generation) and completely shut them down. Like 0 catches for 0 yards, or 1 catch 7 yards, week in and week out for an entire season. Do yourselves a favor and watch “Revis island” on RU-vid you will not be disappointed 🙏🏼 Y’all have me hooked! Great work guys!
@@DNReacts no worries at all! Sorry for the long reply 😅 watching Revis was my whole childhood so I still get goosebumps whenever I go into it haha. Keep up the awesome work, and I hope you’re enjoying learning about our favorite sports!
You guys are asking great questions. I love these videos, and I'll jump into the comments to try and help out when I can. The standard around the league right now for base defense is a nickel scheme, as the video stated. The best NFL teams today can score quickly by throwing the ball deep, so having five defensive backs on the field does help level the scales a bit. As a result, safeties and linebackers are staring to resemble each other in body type because both are expected to provide pass coverage and run tackling. Traditionally, linebackers were taller and heavier and safeties were skinner, faster and quicker. They look pretty much the same now. Also, the play calling role on the defense used to only be the responsibility of the middle linebacker, but many teams are having one of the safeties pick up that duty due to the implementation of more complex secondary schemes. Against really great pass teams like Kansas City, Dallas, or Philadelphia, the average team might start the game playing at least cover two out of nickel, or "two high". That means you have two safeties over the top who can roam around and break up deep pass plays, and the other three DBs play man against three wide receivers. There are some downsides to having two high players. It is easier to run on and easier for quarterbacks to exploit soft spots in the zone with short passing plays. From there, teams will adjust the players on the field between drives, but not necessarily between plays. Defenses are reactionary, so they don't need to swap out players in direct response to the offense. Most schemes have some amount of build in flexibility that can tailor coverage to what they see when everyone lines up. Defenses will typically play one deep or even a cover zero, which is just straight man to man, if they think blitzing the quarterback will be effective. In a cover zero, the defense will line up 10 players on 10 players, the opposing quarterback will have the ball, and one defensive player will be free to create a mismatch or rush the QB. This doesn't make much sense against a quarterback with elite movement who can throw on the run like Mahomes because he plays so well under pressure. Against less talented, less mobile and less seasoned QBs, blitzing out of a cover zero or cover one can really disrupt an offense. Against run-first teams like the Titans, defenses might opt to play a cover three or cover four zone so they can have more players line up in the box to stop the run. Cover three has one deep middle safety and two corners drop to split the width of the field into deep thirds for coverage. This frees up the other safeties and the linebackers to quickly crash down into the box if they think a run play is coming. A team could have a nickel package on for the first few drives of the game and play cover two, but then switch to a cover three with the same personnel if they believe the opposing team is going to try a run play. Cover four is interesting - the cornerbacks will line up on the sidelines like they are in man coverage with receivers, but they will let their man run past them deep and pass them off to a safety in real time. This can create confusion for a quarterback, and he might walk right into a bad throw to a safety switching onto a player. That is just one of the many ways that the defense can disguise their coverage to create confusion. Another thing to consider is that man to man and zone will typically look different before the ball is snapped. In m2m, you'll see the corners and even a safety or two right on the line of scrimmage or a few yards back to lessen the distance between the guy they are covering. Conversely, zone schemes will have the corners and DBs starting the play seven or ten yards back before the ball is snapped so that they can keep everyone in front of them and cover their zone more quickly. But once again, defense can and do get tricky with their pre-snap looks, so you can't always rely upon what you see before the ball is snapped to figure out the coverage. Defenses might line up very aggressively on the line, and then drop into a really conservative zone coverage to trick the offense. You are probably getting a sense of how important good coaching and good game planning is by now. Games between high level teams are literal chess matches. Also, a team like Kansas City is so hard to stop because Mahomes is elite at almost everything, and they have both a deep game and an incredible shallow passing game with Travis Kelce. You have to pick your poison. Bill Belichick, as you probably know, is the legendary Pats head coach who won six rings with Tom Brady. He has always been a more defensive minded coach, and his philosophy was to always stop the greatest threat first. Against KC, that would probably mean putting a DB on Kelce in man coverage all game and figuring the rest out when you stop him. For good defensive study, I would recommend watching a full game or two of Kansas City losing against any other team from the past few years - maybe check out them verses the Bengals in the AFC championship game from 2021. KC has such a balanced passing attack. Only high level coaching and tricky defense has been able to stop them.
Yeah. As someone has already mentioned i will just dive in a wee but more. Most of the time the defensive structure will be based on the players and the knowledge of the coordinator. There are times when you might have a limited coordinator where whats best player wise might not be whats best as a whole because of the weaknesses of the coordinator. But thats overcome in college by recruiting specific players for your scheme and in the NFL by drafting or trading to fit your scheme. But with that being said defenses may look at the strength of an offense and create a defensive strategy that might not fit the strength of their defense in order to try to cancel out the strength of the offense. The best example i can give you is army. Army is one of the few teams to still run a triple option (a fairly old ideology of football with a run heavy approach). Because of this many teams will switch up their normal defense to get more guys in the box. Meaning either adding more DLs and LBs or bringing their DBs into the box. Or the opposite may be true. Especially in the late 90s and early 2000s. The sec was run focused defenses but the big12 had pass focused offenses. In order to cope sometimes the SEC teams added more DBs. But basically this is well thought out before hand. Most strategy is decided pregame, then except in blow outs, only minor altreations are done in the game.
The formations defenses use tend to vary team to team based on the players and coaches. But when these changes in formation or plays occur “should” be based on scouting of the offense. Offensive coaches usually have tendencies on down and based off personnel (the offensive package) good defenses scout those tendencies and try to anticipate the best play based on down and distance tendencies.
You would generally use a 4-3 defense if you have an abundance of large and talented defensive linemen. If you have pass rushers who are very talented, but also very lean, you would run a 3-4 so that you could take some run defense responsibility off of them. You would run a 5-2 if you're stuck in 1964
One of the major considerations when setting a defense is gap control. You don't clump a bunch of defensive players together and try to overwhelm a point: that leaves other areas of your front undefended, if the offense happens to call a play somewhere else. Everyone in your defensive front is assigned a lane, or an area near the line of scrimmage that they're initially responsible for. Whoever you assign as the widest player is responsible for "contain," which is when you try to funnel the ball carrier back to the middle of the field where the other tacklers are. You saw Adrian Peterson breaking contain, and getting around the outside of the defense.
I love that you are trying to learn American football. I'm more of a fan of the offensive line than defense. They spoke about the defensive tackle - nose guard in particular. But, usually the defensive line is not even close to the size of the offensive line. The defensive nose guard goes head-to-head with the offensive center on the offensive line - the person. who snaps the ball to the quarterback. The center (and the offensive line) is usually much bigger and stronger than anyone on the defensive line. Congratulations on how much you have learned in such a short time. We grow up with this knowledge, as kids start playing football at about the age of 7. You're picking up football 🏈 and baseball ⚾️ very quickly.! Love your videos. You'll get it!! We just grew up with it! 🇺🇲
This is the odd thing about American football: participation in the tackle game is like a pyramid, with a very broad base of children, narrowing in the teen years, and a tiny apex of adult players. But as they play less, they watch more. Americans are very different regarding rugby, which we take up at a much more advanced age than you would in the country they're making that reaction video from, to where we have more playing rugby as adults than American football, though nobody knows this because Americans aren't much interested in watching each other or anybody else play rugby. I should know; I played rugby a long time, off and on, as an adult, but I coach children in American football.
A big thing to remember is the offense controls the play. They huddle, call a play, line up, and then snap the ball and if the defense isn't ready it can lead to a penalty or a disaster play. So the defense has to first try to predict the play the offense is going to call, sub in players, then make adjustments once the office lines up but be ready for the snap. Offense will sometimes take advantage of this by going uptempo and calling plays at the line to keep a specific defense scheme on the field.
I love how you both seem so genuinely interested. I am American and a huge Sports fan. I think more people around the world would find a lot of sports that are uncommon in their areas very entertaining if given a chance. If you were to come to my house on any given day I may be watching Football, Baseball, Basketball or Hockey of course, but you may also find me watching Soccer, Table Tennis, Curling, F1 racing, Golf, Water Polo, etc. 😂 We need to stop the international rivalry and debates about who's sport is superior and just realize that all Sports in general are amazing. Cheers gents.
Generally a team sticks with one base defensive formation. They'll run their own different combo of schemes out of it but they stick to the same formation throughout the season except nickel can be implemented with just two guys switching out. LIke if the offense has a 3rd down a long and are expected to pass.
I usually don't appreciate react content, but I loved this video because it was very simple and genuine. To answer your questions: 1st one about teams switching in different packages -- teams use different systems for this, but usually a coaching staff member will be responsible for relaying signals (often hand signals) which will tell players to get off the field if they're not in the package and to get on if they are. Second question about if defense opt for specific schemes in response to the unique attributes of the offense: absolutely yes. And this can be for many reasons. Sometimes it's because of the strength of specific personnel e.g. a star receiver or tight end can pressure teams into avoiding man coverage if their own defenders don't match up well. Other times it's because of the team's general tendencies. For example, in the super bowl a couple years ago, Tampa Bay's defense crushed the life out of what had been (in the regular season) a terrifyingly explosive Kansas City offense by opting to play nothing but cover-2. Cover 2 had fallen out of favor for a long time because it tends to leave holes in the middle of the field. However, it proved devastating on this occasion because Tampa's corners were able to hold their own in man, and the 2 deep safeties took away the long ball without which KC appeared frustrated. Meanwhile, Tampa's front seven made Patrick Mahomes' life miserable. It was a gameplan crafted specifically based on understanding that KC wanted nothing but large chunk plays (and taking that option away) and understanding that Tampa's own personnel could make it work.
Generally there are 2 ways a defense can adjust to a different offensive look. 1. The defensive captain can call an "audible" where he sends the defense on the field into a new formation. 2. If the offense substitutes players to go into a new formation before the play, the rules stipulate that the defense must be allowed to make its own personnel substitution.
The biggest thing is that it can change play to play. They are radioing in what to run based on what offensive players are on the field. There’s always new concepts and formations being created. It can change week to week based on who you’re playing but it’s a constant chess match.
Pros/cons of man and zone defenses: The advantage of zone coverage is that each defender is responsible for a predetermined area of the field. Playing zone defense allows a defensive back to have vision on both the ball and the receivers in his area, allowing him to quickly read a run or pass. Additionally, zone coverage doesn't require every player to be extremely fast or extremely athletic to keep up with their assigned player the whole play. The main weakness of running a zone coverage is that zone coverage leaves "gaps" in the field where an offensive player jumps from one defender's zone to another and the quarterback can pick apart a zone coverage utilizing this, usually across the middle of the field. Man coverage does not create those open pockets of space like zone does, however, if the opponents wide receivers are very athletic or run crisp routes, it is easy for the defenders to get beat. Conversely, if you have a cornerback who is very athletic and has good instincts, he can singlehandedly take the opposing team's best wide receiver out of the game.
It’s part of the gamesmanship of football to try to guess or anticipate based on the situation what the other team is going to do and then run your play (offense or defense) to try to defeat it. Also when teams run a base 3-4 or base 4-3 its usually based on the players on their team and their strengths and weaknesses.
Calvin “Meagtron” Johnson was one of the first receivers to have two defensive backs play man coverage on one player which is really significant for the lack of coverage that leaves for the rest of the defense, but he was just that lethal as a single player
One thing they didn't talk about, that is key to HOW a defense is set up is "gap control". Put simply, do the linemen line up "head-up" and try to control the blocker so they can slide to either side (2 gap) or break through on one side (one gap). This affects how the linebackers play. With 1-gap, they have to cover gaps of their own (a 6-man offensive line has seven gaps) while if the line is playing 2-gap they are to stay back and move to the ball (the lines' job is to keep blockers off them). In general 3-4 is 2 gap 4-3 is 1 gap (and Nose tackles are by definition 2 gappers). But there are exceptions (the Ravens played 2 gap tackles when they had Ray Lewis, so that he would be free to run to the ball). Linemen and linebackers are usually split "strong" and "weak" as in who lines up on the side with the tight-end (thus Sam, Will, Mike linebackers) strong side need to be stronger, weak side need to be faster.
Defence plays according to multiple things and thus forms up accordingly 1- what down and how far to next down (field position) 2- offensive tendencies during the game and past game scouted tendencies 3- players strengths ( mismatches) 4- Gametime (how much game time remaining) 5- favourite plays (plays that have high likelihood of working in past similar circumstances). American football really is physical chess😊.
When a receiver is particularly good you can run a bracket coverage, 2 players on one receiver. A common form of this is one corner underneath and one safety over the top. This allows the corner to be exceptionally aggressive and physical with the receiver off the line throwing off the timing of the receivers route because the corner doesn't have to worry about being beaten deep.
Look up Calvin Johnson, he was a wide receiver for the Detroit Lions. He was probably the most double-covered wide receiver of his era. Defenses would regularly assigned 2 defensive backs to cover him, either both in man-to-man, or what they call bracket coverage with a cornerback in man and a safety playing zone behind the corner.
You're pretty spot on with the mirror concept. Teams will actively be aware of substitutions, rotating players, etc. You're also given enough time to "mirror" or match and call defensive subs to match what you wish to as a defense. There are tricks and mind games to this. Using your example: You might see a 5-2 defense deployed against 3 receivers if the defense firmly believes that the offense is going to run, so they'll stick with their big front seven formation. An offense could then play mind games and change the play at the line, throwing the ball to take advantage, or bluff a change, and try to run anyways. This might be confusing and worded poorly, but overall yes, the mirror concept is very much real. Furthermore, as far as wanting to focus more man-to-man or zone concepts against specific teams, ABSOLUTELY. As an example, if you're playing a team like let's say the 2022 Patriots or Bears, they didn't have great wide receivers. You can then man up across the board (Cover 0 as mentioned in the video), and send extra defenders into the box. This will help you stop the run AND get pressure on the quarterback. You can get away with this almost the entire game if the receivers aren't good enough to create seperation or get open against the secondary. You may also have teams that run a ton of crossing routes all of the field, or love to throw deep or take shots in 1-on-1 coverage, who have GREAT receivers, you definitely never want to leave your CBs on islands against those teams. You'd be running at LEAST a cover 1, hovering the safety over the best receiver on the field to help the cornerback, or cover 2 with 2 safeties on each side of the field to protect against the deep passes out the outside of the field, and then a cover 3, where corners will play off the receivers, forcing the offense to throw passes underneath, while there is a safety roaming the middle of the secondary to remove deep throws. There's so many factors that play into this, and it's all a chess match. That's partly why there's "so much time between plays" as I hear most people first getting into football say. That 40 seconds feels like 5 seconds if you're on the field as a coach or player constantly making adjustments and trying to out-mental your opponent.
You two are correct on how things sort of work. The best way I can describe it is using English football (soccer) and American football (football). In soccer you have macro managing whereby you set a formation and tactics based on your personnel and your opponents style of play. This includes things like a sweeper or a defensive mid or a double pivot or fullbacks vs wingbacks...etc. On set pieces it would be zonal marking or man marking. Even choices as simple as putting a player on the post or how many players in the box. In football it can be considered micro managing. Again based on your player personnel and your opponents schemes (plays formation...etc) as well as their personnel. A strong and fast receiver may cause a team to design coverage to try to nullify that player. Same goes with a strong running back, so on and so forth. However, because each down is a situation and not a fluid game like soccer, each situation has a general understanding. If a team has third down and 15 yards to go for a first down, you don't generally see a running play. You see a passing play. Also, because you can force them into turning the ball over through not reaching the first down, you can play a deeper zone and keep everything in front of you, ala prevent defense. Keep in mind each game and each opponent are highly scouted and tons of game film is watched before the game so not every call either offensively or defensively are complete mistakes. Majority of the time things are correct and it is the subtle nuances that define a good play call versus a bad play call.
One nuance to the personnel packages-- Sometimes you'll see hybrid players. Defensive ends (more commonly called edge players now) who can drop into coverage while a LB blitzes or a DB plays the run is just one example. Part of what makes these types of players valuable is that it becomes harder for the quarterback to accurately identify what the defense is trying to do when players can do multiple things well. It also confuses the Offensive line, as it becomes less clear what their blocking responsiblilities are.
