Most quarterbacks are taught to identify 1 or 2 high safeties to try and get a pre-snap read on the defense’s coverage. There are other factors as well, such as, depth of the DB’s, inside or outside leverage, etc. But when considering the safeties, what does a quarterback read when he sees 3 safeties high and corners at normal depth? That’s where the Trio package comes in on obvious long yardage passing downs. In the Odd Stack defense, the OLB’s or spur/bandit players are typically strong safety type players, so to convert from the Odd Stack to the Trio look, simply drop the spur and bandit back to safety depth (See Diagram 1).
Against a spread 2x2 look, we will always walk the strong OLB out on the slot, we will leave the back-side/boundary slot uncovered presnap. However, just before the snap we will move a player down in either zone or man coverage.
The Trio compliments the philosophy of the Odd Stack because you can disguise your blitz and coverage schemes just as you would out of your base package. From the Trio look, you can run cover-3, cover-2, Tampa-2, cover-2-man, cover-1 and cover-4, etc. In diagrams 3, 4 & 5, I illustrate running the same blitz, Mike Strong, with 3 different coverages – cover-3, cover-3-invert and cover-4. Using the cover-3-invert concept, the corners stay down and play a cover-2 corner or flat defender, which I call the “ACE” defender (See Diagram 4).
In the regular cover-3 look, the spur and bandit drop down into the hook/curl area as the “Deuce” defenders (See Diagram 3).
In cover-4 we drop the corners as well as the spur and bandit into deep coverage. The safety drops down in the hole as the “rat” defender and aggressively attacks any crossing routes while the two LB’s play “SCIF” coverage to either side (See Diagram 5).
Another scheme we employ out of Trio is our “BEAR” front. The “Bear” call tells the ILB’s to lineup on the LOS directly in front of the normally uncovered guards. By doing this, we will force most zone blocking teams to check to big-on-big blocking schemes. Once they do this we really unleash the pressure using stunts, twists and by bringing more guys than they can block.
In Diagram 6, we line up in the “BEAR” front and then run our “smack-weak” blitz, telling both ILB’s to blitz to the weak-side A & B-gaps. It also tells the nose to go opposite the strong call, giving us a natural twist between the nose and the mike linebacker. We tend to run some version of man-coverage behind it.
From the Trio package we also like to get our safety involved in blitzing schemes. When utilizing the “bear” front, we like to call “ Bobby-Shark” Lock or cover-1. The “Bobby” tells both ILB’s to blitz the B-gaps and the “Shark” sends the safety thru the weak A-gap (See Diagram 7).
If the safety times it up correctly, either the nose or mike will get penetration to occupy the RB and the safety should be a free runner.
Once we have brought the safety up the middle a few times, we then change up and have him work down pre-snap showing his intentions, only to have him peel-off to outside and come hot off the edge (See Diagram 8).
The Trio package has a built-in adjustment to trips. If we are in a blitz or coverage scheme that we don’t like against trips, we will make a “Bozo” check call. The “Bozo” pre-determines that we are going to slant weak with the mike LB blitzing off the strong-side edge or C-gap. The OLB to the trips side will become the “ACE” defender to trips side. The spur’s job is to drop down from safety depth into hook/curl area as the “Deuce.” The Safety will rotate over the top of trips and play 1/4, 1/4, 1/2-coverage.
In this article, I have referred to the underneath defenders as the “Ace,” “Deuce” and “Scif” defenders. We do this to help our kids understand what their responsibilities are in coverage. The “ACE” defender is the flat defender, his rule is to buzz the flat and hold the comeback or college-out. The “Deuce” defender is the hook/curl defender, his rule is to chase the seam by #2, but wall the cross. The word “SCIF” tells the player that he is to defend the seam by #2 first, then protect the CURL and finally play late to the flats. All defenders apply their rules by reading the receiver from #2 to #1. If a receiver is leaving your area, there is normally someone else coming back.
As you can see with the Odd Stack, the Trio package is only limited by your own imagination, the possibilities are endless.
About the Author:
Coach Thompson is the Defensive Coordinator and Linebackers Coach at the Millersville school. During Coach Thompson’s 5 years, the Patriots have a combined 46-13 record during that time, made 5 straight playoff appearances, 2 county championships and 1 regional championship. Since switching to the Odd Stack defense the Patriots have been the #1 team in scoring defense for Anne Arundel County.