Playbooks
Quick Reference
Breakdown
Saw Blitz 1 is a five man pressure package out of the Under 4t 3-4 Base 5-2 personnel that sends five blockers/rushers downhill in a staggered fire zone look while the secondary plays Cover 1 man behind it. The diagram shows all five down linemen and linebackers with arrows crashing forward at differing angles to create natural rush lanes and confuse blocking assignments, with a single deep middle safety and man defenders locked outside on the numbers. This is a man beater blitz designed to generate pressure quickly through overload gaps while the single high safety erases any deep shot, so the primary read is getting off the ball fast and reading the running back or nearest hot route since the coverage is banking on the rush winning before routes develop.
Defensive Reads
Watch the offensive line splits and running back alignment pre snap, tight splits or a back cheating to one side often tells you which way the protection will slide. This blitz dominates against five man or six man protection schemes that cannot account for the overload gap since one rusher will consistently come free. It struggles against max protect looks with seven or eight blockers, if you see extra tight ends or backs staying in to block, consider audibling to a coverage heavy call instead. Post snap, key the running back's release path immediately since he is the first hot read against man pressure and the built in answer for the quarterback. If the quarterback throws hot before the rush develops, that confirms he recognized the blitz pre snap, adjust your blitz timing or disguise the look differently on the next call to keep him guessing.
Usage Tips
Call this on third and medium to third and long when you expect the offense to hold blockers in for protection since the overload rush attacks empty and light backfield protections.
Check pre snap for the running back alignment, if he is releasing to the flat immediately user him since he is the built in answer against this blitz.
Use the deep middle safety as your eraser and stay aggressive underneath, do not bail into zone drops or you defeat the purpose of the pressure package.
Pair this with Weak Blitz 1 and Weak Blitz 3 from the same set to keep the same pre snap look while alternating which side the overload comes from, this keeps quarterbacks guessing on protection slides.
If the offense starts hot routing into quick screens or slants to beat the rush, mix in Cover 1 FS Fire or Dbl Safety Blitz to disguise a different pressure angle from a similar shell.
