The 6-2 Defence

If you want to have a solid run stopping defence one of my favourites is the 6-2 defence. This defence puts 8 men in the box and with outside linebackers gives you good contain. For youth programs that face teams that like to run the football the majority of the time, it's the defence you' want to play.

The defence is basically designed to pressure the offence into making mistakes by filtering the running back into the middle where you have lots of help to stop the run. Basically to sum it up, you coach your two outside linebackers to line up about two yards from the outside shoulder of the OT. On the snap of the ball they explode straight up field about 5 yards or to ball depth, their job is to contain and force the running back to cut back inside. Your two DTs line up in the A gaps and are coached up to shoot the gap hard on the snap of the ball. By doing this they pressure the center and two guards to stay in and block which means you have two of your defensive linemen occupying three of their offensive linemen.

That's a good trade off!

Your two DE's will align straight up on the OT's in a three point stance and on the snap of the ball will play two-gap responsibility, jam the OT, read and rip to ball side. The defence is set-up to protect your two middle linebackers which means they are able to flow to the ball and punish the running back. I like the secondary to play man to man and read their receiver. If they release cover them, if they stay in and block step up for run support.

This defence gives you solid inside protection against the run, as well as good contain.

The problem with this defence is that you are vulnerable to give up the big play from time to time. If they do bust through the Line of Scrimmage it's usually for a big gain. Excellent defence to run against teams that like to zone block.

Cheers!