Question for the Experts: Some defensive formations questions.

[MBison]

I'm trying to get better with defenses and I have some questions for the experts.

There's a lot of terminology in defenses that would be nice to understand.

Can someone help me understand some of the terms in the formations?

For instance, what does these mean:

Under, Over, Solid, Cougar, Bear, Split

These are like "3-4 Under" or "3-3-5 Cougar". What do these mean?

Also, is there a site that might describe some of the defensive play terms like Cloud?

Thanks for any help!

[Liquidrage]

Quote: Originally Posted by MBison

I'm trying to get better with defenses and I have some questions for the experts. There's a lot of terminology in defenses that would be nice to understand. Can someone help me understand some of the terms in the formations? For instance, what does these mean: Under, Over, Solid, Cougar, Bear, Split These are like "3-4 Under" or "3-3-5 Cougar". What do these mean? Also, is there a site that might describe some of the defensive play terms like Cloud? Thanks for any help!

In the over the the linemen shift to the strong side of the offensive formation.
In an under they shift towards the weakside.

For most of them you should be able to use the pictures of how they line up and figure it out.

[guppycane]

Quote: Originally Posted by Liquidrage

In the over the the linemen shift to the strong side of the offensive formation. In an under they shift towards the weakside. For most of them you should be able to use the pictures of how they line up and figure it out.

FYI, Strongside means the side the TE lines up on. Thus on a defensive play thats "over" the LB's shift towards the strong side or TE side.

[bgeno]

The thing that EA did wrong though is their "over" and "under" formations are really more of a "left" and "right". The call doesn't move with the strong side, you have to move it yourself... annoying.

EA tends to do this a lot. Like, for instance, their safties. There is a "strong safety" and a "free safety". Not in EA's games. In EA's games, there is a left safety and a right safety. Sure, they say "Free Safety" and "Strong Safety," but they aren't really. Something I've notices over the years that they have yet to change. Of course.

[donkeydrop]

Quote: Originally Posted by bgeno

The thing that EA did wrong though is their "over" and "under" formations are really more of a "left" and "right". The call doesn't move with the strong side, you have to move it yourself... annoying. EA tends to do this a lot. Like, for instance, their safties. There is a "strong safety" and a "free safety". Not in EA's games. In EA's games, there is a left safety and a right safety. Sure, they say "Free Safety" and "Strong Safety," but they aren't really. Something I've notices over the years that they have yet to change. Of course.

lol, you are right that the safeties line up in the wrong place if the formation is reversed (i.e. tight end to the left rather than the usual right), but apart from that they do actually play their positions. So for example the strong safety will cover the tight end whether the tight end is on the right or left of the formation, although he does admitedly start out of position in the latter case.

[Bremser_Rules]

Quote: Originally Posted by MBison

I'm trying to get better with defenses and I have some questions for the experts. There's a lot of terminology in defenses that would be nice to understand. Can someone help me understand some of the terms in the formations? For instance, what does these mean: Under, Over, Solid, Cougar, Bear, Split These are like "3-4 Under" or "3-3-5 Cougar". What do these mean? Also, is there a site that might describe some of the defensive play terms like Cloud? Thanks for any help!

Well, I can tell you cloud means that a corner has flat control, meaning that he does not follow his receiver down field. He sits near the flat looking for a back coming out of the backfield. Usually this is related to cover two, where both corners are in a cloud. If you see "sky" it means that the safety is occupying a short hook zone similar to what the corners would be doing in a cover 2. Cloud is for corner and Sky is for Safety. I would suggest visiting both http://www.westcoastoffense.com, and http://footballoutsiders.com I have learned a great deal about defense and offense at these sites.