Base Cover 4 Alignments for the 3-3 Defense

From pee-wee football all the way up to the NFL, defensive coaches are always looking for ways to be creative on defense to slow down opposing offenses. With experience on both sides of the ball, Coach Ernst gives you his adaptation of how he runs the 3-3 defense to create pressure and force mistakes from the offense - specifically, the quarterback.

Ernst breaks down the philosophy and method to running a 3-3 defense. You'll learn the five basic defensive formations and how they're adjusted against pro, spread, deuce, doubles, ace, trips and trey offense formations. Finally, you'll see in-game examples of the basic 3-3 defensive formation utilized at Ripon College.

This video will help coaches at the high school and collegiate levels teach athletes how to maintain gap responsibility, line up properly, and make necessary reads and adjustments. This leads to turnovers and big plays defensively because opposing offenses are forced into making tough decisions.

Philosophy

Discover why the 3-3 defense might be the right fit for your program. The philosophy of why the 3-3 defense is such a unique and functional defense to use is presented, and Ernst gives you the benefits behind the 3-3 defense, which include:

• Gives the offense different looks without having to change personnel
• Matches up well against multiple offense sets
• Helps keep the game simple and gets players to play with confidence

Implementing a 3-3 Defensive

You'll see the easy and quick way that Coach Ernst installs the 3-3 defense. You will learn:

• What must be covered during pre-game walk-throughs in order to make sure players are on the same page
• How to limit your hand signals to communicate with players
• The three basic defensive fronts used to install the 3-3 defense
• How to make your a team a "field and boundary" squad

Defensive Formations

Using the five defensive formations (stack, steeler, hawk, under and over), Ernst shows how you can have a variety in formations while staying in the 3-3 defense. You will get to see diagrammed formations and adjustments that can be made out each formation, and how to adjust against six offensive formations.

Game Footage Breakdown

After showing alignment against a multitude of offensive formations with strengths to both the field and boundary, Ernst provides game footage discussion on gap responsibility, alignment responsibility, and situational adjustments with each defensive front and personnel package.

Coach Ernst has cultivated a straight-forward approach to building an aggressive 3-3 defensive team. You will love his simple approach, clear gap and alignment keys, which always put your players in a position to maintain leverage on the ball and play both the field and boundary to prevent giving up explosive plays.

62 minutes. 2016.