Playbooks
At a Glance
In 16 playbooks
Overview
Grizzly is the heavy front personnel wrinkle inside the 3-4 family, and it is a defensive set, not an offensive one, so treat it as a run-stopping and edge-pressure package rather than a coverage foundation. Instead of the standard 3-4 alignment with two down ends flanking a nose tackle and four linebackers spread across the box, Grizzly loads the interior with a Base 5-2 personnel group: right left end, right right end, and nose tackle all on the field at once, with two linebackers stacked behind them. That RLE, RRE, NT grouping means you are fielding your three biggest interior bodies simultaneously, which is exactly what you want when an opponent goes heavy and tries to run gap scheme downhill at you.
Strengths
- 1 Edge Pinch and 3 Edge Pinch crash both ends inside while the linebackers scrape, which shuts down inside zone and short yardage dive concepts before the handoff is clean.
- Mike Blitz 0 and Mike Hot Blitz 3 send interior pressure through gaps already occupied by heavy bodies, so the offense often has to slide protection and still leaves a free rusher.
- Tampa 2 Show 3 and Mike Sim 2 give you disguise out of a front that screams run, so you can show blitz with the Mike, back him out, and drop into two deep without changing personnel.
- The 5-2 body count makes it very hard to double team the nose tackle and reach the ends at the same time, which forces offenses into edge runs and outside pitch plays you can user chase down.
- Cover 3, Cover 2 Invert, and 2 Invert Strong let you sit in the same heavy front on second and long without substituting, so your opponent gets no personnel tell from the sideline.
Weaknesses
- Only two linebackers on the field means hook and curl zones are thin, and any three receiver spread set will immediately outnumber you in the middle of the field.
- Trips and bunch formations force your safeties and corners to carry everything, so slot fades, seams, and option routes off the numbers come open fast against the man concepts here.
- Mike Blitz 0 is true zero coverage with no deep help, so a single beaten man defender turns into a touchdown against any vertical hot route.
- Your down linemen are slow in pursuit, which makes outside zone, tosses, and quarterback rollouts effective if the offense gets the ball to the perimeter.
- Quick outs, flat routes, and running back swing passes all attack the space the 5-2 vacates, and there is no nickel body to take those away without substituting out of the set.
Usage Tips
Bring Grizzly out against two back and heavy personnel on first and second down, then substitute back to your base 3-4 or nickel the moment the offense shows three or more wideouts.
Use Tampa 2 Show 3 and Mike Sim 2 as your disguise calls on second down so the offense cannot tell whether the heavy front is pressuring or dropping.
Save Mike Blitz 0 for third and short or goal line situations where you have a real chance to finish the play behind the line, and never call it against empty backfield looks.
User control a safety in Cover 3 and Cover 2 Invert instead of a linebacker, because your two linebackers need to stay in their run fits and you need eyes on the deep middle.
Pre-snap, watch the offense motion a back or tight end outside. That is your cue to check out of 1 Edge Pinch and 3 Edge Pinch, since both pinch calls surrender the perimeter.
