Playbooks
WS Blitz 1 out of the Even 4-2-5 Big Nickel package sends the weak side linebacker on a delayed blitz while the underlying zone shell rotates to cover the vacated gap. This is a pressure package designed to disguise a five man rush behind what looks like a standard four man front, making it effective against both the run and quick passing concepts. The primary read is the offensive line protection scheme: if the WS gets a clean run through the weak side gap, user him immediately to bait a checkdown or force an early throw, otherwise drop into your zone landmarks and play the shell as a Cover 3 or Cover 2 look underneath.
Watch the running back alignment pre-snap. If the back is set weak side, expect the WS blitzer to be picked up in protection, so plan to spy or user the blitzer manually to work around the chip block. Read the quarterback depth of drop post-snap. A quick three step drop signals hot route or slant concepts designed to beat the blitz before it arrives, so widen your underneath zone drops accordingly. Identify empty backfield or trips formations pre-snap since the WS blitz lane can be exposed by RPO reads or bubble screens away from the pressure. This call beats teams that rely on man protection schemes with no running back help, since the extra rusher overloads the weak side edge. Shut this down against play designs with quick screen or RPO tags to the weak side, and against offenses that slide protection toward the blitz, which forces the coverage shell to hold longer than designed.
Use WS Blitz 1 on early downs when the offense is in a run heavy personnel grouping since the WS blitz can blow up inside zone and gap schemes before they develop.
Pre-snap, check if the offense has a running back set to the weak side. If so this blitz has a strong chance of winning immediately against man or zone blocking schemes that slide protection to the play side.
Disguise this call by mixing it into a sequence with Cover 3 Match and Cover 2 Match from the same set so the offense cannot key on the WS alignment before the snap.
User the WS defender through the snap to time the blitz against shotgun spread sets, then bail into a shallow zone drop if the quarterback pump fakes or resets, since the coverage behind the blitz is a match zone shell.
Save this call for third and short or second and medium situations where quick game concepts are expected, since the blitz timing is built to disrupt three step drops and hot route throws.