Running Against 3 Man Fronts

The key to building a solid running game is knowing how run to against all fronts. A Front is the setup of the line and linebackers in front of your offensive line. Each front has a weakness. The key here is knowning what running plays take advanage of these weakness. This is a 3 man front. The key to beating this is counters, traps, and “A” gap running plays. The 3 man fronts are good against outside running plays. The key is to beat the middle up and use misdirection.

This is a “A” gap running play. If you look you see that we have a gap that we can overload and get 3-5 yards easy.

This is an overhead shot of the line-up. You can see the gap we want to expose. The key here is to pound them out of this set into a 4 man front to expose the outside.

You see that the offensive line made a seal that allows us to get upfield. The key is hitting the hole and getting what you can.

Now LT has room to work with and can get a sizable gain on the ground.

Because we know how to expose the weakness of a 3 man front we are able to establish a nice ground game.

This is a misdirection play - a basic quick counter. The reason why counters and traps are supposed to work against 3 man fronts is you need an offensive linemen to pull. Since no defensive linemen are in front of a tackle or guard you can pull them for a kick out block. Then you may can get the OLBs sucked in so you can get outside.

Now this is a behind the line shot to show you that the defense is in a 3 man front with stacking. This is something you need to know about this. If you see stacking in the area the player is set to pull from, you will need to flip the play or go to an “A” gap running play. At times the stacking allows the LB to come in clean and crack you.

I went along with the play because LT has enough speed to get away and the line is good at picking up defenders. You see that I have a wall going outside and I was able to get the OLB sucked in from the double move in the backfield.

This guy is the one that springs the whole run open. You see that the gap is empty and that the LB is supposed to contain that bubble. Now what we want is to have the guard pull because no lineman is there to shoot that gap. The center should pick this guy up and the guard can help us on the kick out or free someone else up.

You see that the center picked him up and that the guard is on the move. We also have a great seal.

Now the guard is going upfield looking to puniish someone. This is what I call reading your upfield blocking. You see that the FL made a block and that the guard is running upfield.

He lay a hat on someone and now I have the outside wide open.

This is another inside running play. This time we use some form of jumbo package. This allows us to get a better seal and pick up loose defenders.

Again you see that the line just overpowers them. The 3 man front is not able to handle the inside pound or misdirections.

LT has an excellent hole and if the run commit was used we would have the outside open with no problem.

Now it’s about your stick and ability at this point. The line did there job very well.