FILM STUDY: 3X1 FORMATIONS HAVE PROPELLED THE EVOLUTION OF PATTERN-MATCHING DEFENSES
When Urban Meyer, Tom Herman, and the rest of their offensive staff began installing Ohio State's new offense in the spring of 2012, players inside of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center were introduced to seven different formations in their new coach's spread-to-run shotgun system. While the most notable change from the prior regime appeared to be the permanent removal of a fullback in favor of an additional receiver, the new system would look to stretch the field both vertically and horizontally with multiple receivers lined up from sideline to sideline.
But of the seven new alignments introduced to the Buckeyes that spring, four of them would overload defenses by featuring three receivers to one side. What had previously appeared to be a gimmick would now become the default.
n only six short years since the system's installation, Meyer and the Buckeyes have amassed a record of 73-8 while rewriting the offensive record books along the way. Clearly, something is working.
But during this relatively brief period, the way opponents have defended the team in scarlet and gray has evolved a great deal. Notably, pattern-matching schemes that mesh the spatial responsibilities of zone defenses with man-coverage techniques have become the norm in the modern game. Even the Buckeyes themselves invested heavily in such a philosophy upon the arrival of Chris Ash in 2014, winning a national championship that season after shutting down the vaunted Oregon Duck offense.
Of the aforementioned eight losses experienced in the Meyer era to this point, though, half have come at the hands of Mark Dantonio of Michigan State and Brent Venables of Clemson, two of the game's premier defensive minds. While Dantonio's system is far simpler on paper than that of Venables, both have found ways to vex Meyer and his staff on multiple occasions, thanks largely to their abilities to take away the inherent advantages gained by the offense's 3x1 formations.
With three true receivers to one side of the field and only one to the other, the defense is in a difficult position. As former Alabama defensive coordinator and current Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said of the
Trips set shown above at a coaching clinic in 2013:
"We consider it a bastard formation. This set becomes an issue for us. The formation has all the speed receivers to one side and the running strength to the other. We do not want to rotate the free safety down to the weakside with all the speed the opposite way."
Stretching back to the days of Sid Gillman and Don Coryell, both of whom greatly influenced the likes of Bill Walsh and Lavell Edwards and effectively built the modern passing game as we know it today, offenses have tried to create triangles with their pass routes, giving the quarterback as quick and easy a read as possible.
Previously, the triangle was often made up by a split receiver, a tight end, and a back releasing out of the backfield. But sets with three capable receivers to already split out like these give the power back to the offense, as the defense's alignment could easily show their play-call before the ball is ever snapped.
As we'll show, however, defenses have now found countless varieties to counter sets like these in their pattern-matching
Quarters systems.
MAN-COVERAGE
The first, and most basic, approach to covering a trips set is with straight man-to-man coverage. Instead of worrying about how to trade routes from one defender to another, each player will simply declare which receiver is their responsibility and stick with him throughout the play.
As seen in the example below, though, this kind of approach can play directly into the offense's hands if they expect it. On this play, the defense is in a traditional 4-3 set with a safety covering the #2 receiver in the slot as they anticipate a run.
If the offense does throw the ball, that safety is now left on an island with no help to the outside, leaving the corner route wide open for Buckeye receiver K.J. Hill to make a play.
Entire article:
https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...dy-the-difficulty-in-defending-3x1-formations
