How many should you rush in 11v11 football?
In 11v11 football four is the default, and the question is not whether to rush but whether to send a fifth. Four rushers is the number that lets your coverage stay hidden, because the offense blocks the same four every down and learns nothing about the other seven. A fifth rusher forces somebody to be uncovered or forces a man behind him to cover two things, and that is a decision about a specific down rather than a way to play defense.
Your LB ends up here. It is the instinctive place to go and it is the wrong one, which is why this keeps happening to teams who are trying hard.
When rushing is the right call in 11v11
Not rushing is not an option, so the trade is shaped differently
Blocking is legal and the offense assigns five linemen to it. A defense that sends nobody has handed a quarterback unlimited time behind a wall that is already built. Every other format on this shelf debates whether to rush at all; here that debate does not exist and the whole argument is about the fifth man.
Five rushers means five blockers and a spare, so somebody comes free
Five offensive linemen can block five rushers. Send a sixth and somebody is unblocked, which is why real pressure at this size comes from sending more than they can count rather than from sending fast players. That arithmetic does not exist in a format where nobody may block.
The coverage behind it changes shape, not just quality
Drop seven and you can play three deep and four under. Drop six and one of those layers loses a man, so you are choosing which. This is a structural decision rather than a degree of risk, and it is the part youth coaches skip when they call a blitz.
Every rusher is a defender who is not covering anybody
That is the whole decision and it is arithmetic rather than attitude. Sending more players does not create pressure out of nothing, it moves defenders from one job to another, and the job they leave is the one where the ball is actually going most of the time.
The right number is a property of the opponent, not of your defense
A quarterback who holds the ball makes one rusher worth it. A quarterback who throws in a second makes any number of them worthless. Decide after watching a series rather than before the game, because this is the one defensive question a single drive genuinely answers.
Two is a call, not a philosophy
There are downs where sending an extra player is right: obvious long yardage, a team that only throws deep, the end of a half. There is no defense where it is right on every down, because the coverage arithmetic behind it stops working entirely.
Where he actually has to be
Same 11 defenders, same alignment. One job changes.
- The instinctWrong11v11: the LB takes the instinctive path.
Where a young defender goes when nobody has told him otherwise.
- The jobRight11v11: the LB takes his actual landmark.
Where the job is. Say it out loud before the snap and most of this page stops being a problem.
This is the landmark. Give it a name your players can repeat back to you. A spot with a name gets occupied; a spot described in a sentence does not.
Four, five or six, and what each one gives away
Rush four
Where it excelsSeven in coverage and nothing given away pre-snap, because the same four go every down. Any coverage can hide behind it and the offense cannot tell which from the front.
Exposed · the middle underneathFour rushers against five blockers will not get home against a team that can protect. You are asking your coverage to hold up for as long as the quarterback wants, and the middle is where a patient offense takes it.
Rush five
Where it excelsOne more than they have blockers for if you bring him from a place they have not accounted for. It is the standard pressure at this level and it works because young offensive lines cannot adjust their count after the snap.
Exposed · the flatThe zone the fifth rusher vacated is empty, and every competent offense has a quick throw to exactly that spot. Hot routes exist because of this call.
Rush six
Where it excelsSomebody is unblocked, guaranteed. On an obvious passing down against a team that cannot pick it up, six ends the drive rather than slowing it.
Exposed · deepFive defenders covering five receivers with no help behind any of them. One missed tackle or one beaten matchup is not a gain, it is a touchdown, because there is nobody between him and the end zone.
Four, and send a fifth from somewhere they are not counting
Live in four so your coverage stays hidden, and buy your pressure by varying WHICH fifth man comes rather than by sending more of them. A young offensive line can block five; what it cannot do is work out that the fifth is a safety this time. Save six for a down where losing the game on the next snap is not possible.
The numbers behind the decision
They have a hot route for your fifth rusher
Then you are not beating them with the blitz and you need to stop calling it into that look. The space a blitzer leaves is fixed and findable, so the answer is to bring the fifth from the other side rather than to bring him harder.
Your four rushers never get home
Look at the rush lanes before you add a body. Four players arriving in the same gap is one rusher with three spectators, and widening two of them usually produces more pressure than sending a fifth would have.
When not to rush
When you cannot cover with the players who are left
Adding a rusher is a bet that your remaining defenders can hold up alone for a second longer. If they cannot, every extra rusher makes the defense worse in a way that looks like effort and plays like a collapse.
When you are behind and chasing
The instinct late in a game you are losing is to send more. It is usually wrong: the offense is trying to run clock and take no risks, so the big play you are hunting is not being offered, and the one you concede ends the game.
Take it to your team
Draw your plays in the flag football play creator, collect them in the free playbook maker, and print football play cards so every player knows them come Saturday.
Draw it for your own team
Open the designer at 11v11, put your defenders where this page says, and print it so everybody shows up on Saturday knowing the same thing.
Open the free play designerRelated questions
How many players should you rush in 11v11 football?
Why is four the standard number of rushers?
When should you rush six?
Related guides
Coach Ray Carroll
Coaches 5v5 flag football from kindergarten through 7th grade in San Mateo and San Carlos, California, and built RC Football to design, teach and print the plays his own teams run.