Playbooks
Mike Sim 2 out of the 3-4 Tite Grizzly set is a Mike linebacker simulated pressure package tied to a Cover 2 shell behind it, giving you a five man rush look while dropping extra defenders into underneath and deep half zones. The Mike shows blitz pre snap then bails or the SS/Will cross to fake confusion, so the offense sees pressure but actually gets a two deep, five under zone shell that disguises the rush. Your primary read as the defense is to identify whether the quarterback holds the ball expecting pressure that never comes, allowing your zone defenders to jump underneath routes and squeeze crossing patterns while the two deep safeties cap anything vertical.
Watch the quarterback's eyes and sim pressure animation, if he starts his throwing motion early expecting blitz you can jump the route with your zone defender Key on the tight end or running back releasing into the flat, since the Mike sim drop is designed to wall off those shallow crossers and force the ball elsewhere Identify if the offense is running man beater route combos like slants or drags, this call beats those concepts because the underneath defenders sit in zone rather than chasing man assignments This play struggles against deep vertical shots and four verts if your deep safeties bite on any underneath action, so trust the two deep shell and do not crash down too early Beware of play action rollouts and RPOs that attack the edge, since the simmed rusher's delayed drop can leave a window if the quarterback resets and throws off platform quickly
Use Mike Sim 2 on early downs and third and medium when quarterbacks are conditioned to check for Mike blitz pressure and speed up their internal clock
Show the same pre snap alignment as Mike Blitz 0 and Mike Hot Blitz 3 from this set so offenses cannot key on personnel or depth to diagnose the sim pressure versus real pressure
Bait the quarterback into throwing hot or checking down into the shallow underneath zones where your simmed defenders are sitting, then close on the ball with user control
Pair this call with Cover 3 or Cover 3 Drop on the following snap to keep the quarterback guessing about whether the Mike is actually rushing or dropping into coverage
Avoid calling this against teams that love to check into quick game or slants since the underneath zone bump can be a beat late if your defenders do not sink fast enough