The Madden Minute - April 3, 2008

Nickel: Normal Flat Four

We are going to take a look at the Trips Bunch formation from the Pittsburgh Playbook. This formation may be in other playbooks but we are using the Pitt book for this section. Defensively we will come out in the Nickel Normal Flat Four vs the Trips Bunch Curls Attack, but the defensive play doesn't really matter because we are going to be looking at a scheme to attack the Trips Bunch.

I'm going to be using a formational concept that Big B has been using for a few years when talking about the Compression Offense. As you can see so, far in the passing section of this guide the majority of these formations have been compressed sets. They present a serious problem for the defense, and in particular, the Trips Bunch is a set that you can't out right defend.

There are plays that get pressure but they also leave multiple areas open. I'm not fond of plays like that, so what I want to do is point out a concept that I use, based on a concept Big B originally talked about, Marrying Routes or Combo Routes. I want to show you how to do this on defense.

Defensive Plays Used:

Offensive Play Used:

The majority of the time when the offense comes to the field they will streak the split end and the slot receiver (A). They streak the slot so that he can free up both the slant out and the slant in routes.

From a defensive standpoint, prior to the play we don't want to give up anything to the outside, inside and we don't want to give up anything deep. These are our main concerns when facing any Trips Bunch or 5WR Bunch sets.

We want to first call press coverage (Y + Down) and then click on the d-end to the trips bunch side of the field and put him in deep zone coverage. (A + Up on Right Analog)

We then click on the corner back to the trips bunch side and put him in flat zone. (A + Right on Right Analog) This protects us against the quick, out, slant out, or drag out routes.

So as you look at the current coverages we have our cornerback locking up the outside. Our D-end and our strong safety are in deep zone. The D-end will keep the slot receiver from getting a clean break inside and keep the (RB) receiver from getting an inside release if they are running a streak up the seam. Our linebacker in the yellow zone is our protection versus the inside slant route.

I'll continue to make changes sometimes right up to the offense snapping the ball. I put the weak side D-tackle in QB spy (A + Left on Right Analog)

I then take the linebacker to that side and have him blitz. (A + Down on Right Analog)

Put the D-end into contain coverage. (A + Down on Left Analog)

I put the backside corner in man coverage and then based on real life playing experience the safety will be responsible for the #2 receiver to this side. So what we are doing here is playing zone to the front side and man on the back side. I've highlighted these 3 defenders because these are the players you can manually control during the play.

As the play starts you see how the coverages that we combo-ed or married to the front side are working. We have great coverage and no route looks to be open, or is even a threat of being open, because we have an angle on all the pass lanes.

The Quarterback looks to the quick out as he is used to taking. But he really has no open option anywhere on the field.

Our cornerback is already sitting on the route.

He jumps the pass and makes the interception.

I know a lot of you may say I made a lot of adjustments and that may not seam realistic, but I would disagree with you on that because many players who use this formation make a lot of pre-snap offensive adjustments. Even if that is your concern, this is a concept so you don't have to worry about that, you can start looking for plays in your playbook that already have our men in the assignments that we will be putting them in.

If we are really just worried about the trips side then we can come out and put our corner in flat zone, our D-end in deep zone and our linebacker in yellow zone. That would take care of it, but I added additional coverages, because that is how I run it. The great thing about this, is this is a concept so you can move around in different defenses to get the same type of coverage even out of a different front.

This gives you the chance to create your own coverage scheme for this formation, because there is no specific play that will cover the Trips Bunch.