Here is an excellent article breaking down the the Patriots Defense and why it has been successful while Bill Belichick has been the head coach of the team.
The following is an excerpt from the following article that was posted by Alen Dumonjic under The Tape Never Lies on Sep 01, 2011.
“A few years ago, Bill Belichick stood in front of a room full of coaches and said, “regardless of your personnel, the 3-4 is more flexible.” The longtime Patriots head coach has been widely viewed as a defensive genius since his days as the defensive coordinator of the New York Giants. He’s always believed in the 3-4 defense because of the aforementioned flexibility, but now it appears that he is going away from the popular front, reverting back to the 4-3. Why would a coach who has long been associated with the 3-4 abandon it after running it the majority of his coaching career?
The truth is, Bill Belichick has always been a 4-3 guy, but like his friend Nick Saban, he’s played it out of a 3-4 shell, and he’s not abandoning the 3-4. Belichick has often rushed four defenders out of the 3-4 shell while dropping three into coverage, thus making it a 4-3 rush concept. However, it has always been tough to nail down Belichick’s true scheme because of the various concepts he throws at NFL offenses. We’ve seen Belichick use various fronts based off of the personnel that he has to work with. The personnel is used to the strengths of the players, which Belichick has a keen eye for identifying in his guys, which also is why the players are often in a rotation. When labeling the various fronts that NFL defenses throw at their opposition, it is important to note the covered and uncovered offensive lineman as well as the techniques used by the defenders. All fronts in football can be narrowed down to five identifications, and they are as follows:
- Even – Center is uncovered.
- Under – 3 technique is to the strong side of the formation presented by the offense.
- Over – 3 technique is to the weak side of the formation presented by the offense.
- Okie – Center is covered, Guards are uncovered.
- Jam/Bear – Center and Guards are covered.
The five fronts listed above are important to keep in mind when identifying fronts because they are used in both the 3-4 and 4-3 fronts, which consequently minimizes the differences between the two fronts. The former, the 3-4, is more versatile and flexible, but the latter, the 4-3, can also be flexible depending on how the players are used and what kind of talent level they possess.”
To read the full article, please click on the following link – The Tape Never Lies: Breaking Down the Patriots Defense
