Do blitz looks work in NFL Flag?
Blitz looks work in NFL Flag, and they work for a different reason than elsewhere: the quarterback may not run the ball across the line, so the only thing showing pressure can make him do is throw sooner. That is exactly what you want, because your four cover defenders are matched against four eligible receivers including the centre, and every second you take off the play is a second they do not have to hold up.
Your S 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 NFL Flag
You are attacking his clock, and nothing else is on the table
In a format where a quarterback can run, showing pressure also discourages him from tucking it. Here he is forbidden from crossing the line anyway, so the only currency a look buys is time. That narrows what you are trying to achieve and makes it easier to judge whether it worked.
The defender you walk up is usually the one who had the centre
Your underneath defenders are the natural fakers and the centre is an underneath receiver, so the two jobs collide. Re-assign the centre out loud whenever somebody creeps, or the disguise creates exactly the uncovered player this format punishes hardest.
In the no-run zones a look is redundant, so bring it for real
Inside five yards of midfield or the goal line the offense cannot run and must throw, which means you already know the clock is short. Faking there tells the quarterback nothing he has not worked out, and it is the one place a genuine extra rusher is close to free.
Standing somewhere that suggests you are coming is free
It costs nothing, risks nothing, and makes a young quarterback throw earlier than he wanted to. A defense that shows pressure and does not bring it has spent no defenders and still changed what the offense did, which is the best trade available on this shelf.
It only works once your players can be trusted to fake it
A defender who creeps up and then forgets to get back to his coverage has not disguised anything, he has abandoned a zone. Teach the retreat before the show, because the value of the look is entirely in what happens after the snap.
The point is the quarterback's clock, not his protection
You are not trying to confuse a blocking scheme at this age, you are trying to make one player feel hurried. That is why walking somebody up into his eyeline works even when the defense behind it has not changed at all.
Where he actually has to be
Same 5 defenders, same alignment. One job changes.
- The instinctWrongNFL Flag: the S takes the instinctive path.
Where a young defender goes when nobody has told him otherwise.
- The jobRightNFL Flag: the S 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.
Three ways to use a look, and what each one gives up
One defender creeps, everybody else holds
Where it excelsCheapest possible disruption in a format where real pressure is rarely worth paying for. The quarterback throws on his second read instead of his third and your coverage only has to last two seconds.
Exposed · the flatWhoever he was covering, frequently the centre, gets a free release while he is walking. That is the easiest completion in NFL Flag and it is available on exactly this snap.
Show it every down from the same spot
Where it excelsCosts nothing to teach and means the offense never gets a clean pre-snap picture. A defense that always looks the same way is a defense that never tips anything either.
Exposed · the combinationIt becomes wallpaper. A quarterback who sees the identical picture forty times stops seeing it, and you have spent a whole season on a disguise nobody is reading.
Fake outside the no-run zones, rush inside them
Where it excelsUses the rulebook as the schedule. Free disruption where you are guessing, real pressure where the offense has been told it must throw. Nothing about the call is a hunch.
Exposed · deepIt is a pattern, and patterns get read. A coach who notices you only rush inside the zones will throw a double move there, and on a short field that is six points rather than a gain.
One defender creeps, and name the centre before he does
The look is worth having because it is the only free thing on this shelf, and in this format the currency it buys, time, is exactly what your four-on-four coverage is short of. The discipline that makes it safe is a sentence: before anybody walks up, somebody says the centre's name out loud. Do that and this call has almost no downside.
The numbers behind the decision
They throw to the centre every time you show pressure
They have read your disguise correctly and are attacking its cost rather than its threat. Move the look to a defender who is not responsible for an inside receiver, or hand the centre off before the creep rather than after it.
Your look does nothing at all
Probably because you have never rushed from it. A disguise needs to be true occasionally; pick a no-run-zone down, bring the same defender for real, and the picture means something for the rest of the game.
When not to rush
When you show the same look every time
A disguise you always wear is a uniform. If the same defender creeps up on every passing down, the offense stops reading it after a quarter and you have simply told them your coverage a second early.
With a defense that is still learning its assignments
Moving people around before the snap multiplies the chances somebody ends up in the wrong place. If your players are not yet solid from a static alignment, adding movement makes the defense worse in exchange for an edge they cannot yet cash.
Take it to your team
Draw your plays in the flag football play creator, collect them in the football playbook maker, and print printable play cards so every player knows them come Saturday.
Draw it for your own team
Open the designer at NFL Flag, 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
Do blitz looks work in NFL Flag?
What is the risk of showing blitz in NFL Flag?
Should you ever really blitz in NFL Flag?
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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.