Smoke, Mirrors, & Speed

Defending the Mighty Wing-T with Hustle and Guile

By Matthew Brophy

Formations
The Wing T and Double Wing offenses are premised with the guise of an
aggressive, quick hitting run game with the element of misdirection. Stopping the speed
sweep, power, Iso, 3 step passing game, and sprint out series of the offense is a different
animal altogether, so for the sake of brevity in this discussion, we will zero our efforts on
stopping the unique threats of this offense
First things first, what are you initially defending? The formation. Wing teams
commonly use the double-tight double wing, single-wing, or single wing with flexed split
end. All these formations can be handled separately in their own right and aligning your
players to attack the formation is the primary key. Next, what does the wing team you’re
facing do out of these formations and how do you intend to defend this from a coverage
and run support perspective. Many teams will only run specific plays out of particular
formations. Because the footwork is affected when back alignment is altered, teams may
become predictable from a formation standpoint. We will explore WHAT these teams do
and how the defense can increase its odds of stopping the offense.

Belly Series
The belly is the bread-and-butter ‘power football’ for this offense. Most Wing T
offenses are built with this series in mind and coordinate their personnel with this
premise. They can operate with suspect athletes at all positions, but you’ll find that most
teams that run the Wing T / Double Wing, they take pride in putting large, powerful
athletes on the line. The Belly series features three front side rushing attack points and is
complimented by an explosive play action boot game.
When facing a potent Wing T team, understand you will probably never truly shut
this brute-force attack with scheme, but keep the basics in perspective. As long as you
can keep them out of their comfort zone, you begin to put tremendous strain on an
offense not known for scoring quickly.
First thing, teams that run the belly, do so because they spend in inordinate
amount of time repping this series to perfection. The timings of the backs, footwork of
the QB, and the minutiae of the mesh point on
exchanges is a science in and of itself. So much time
devoted to this series leaves little time to ‘perfect’
other facets or attacks of their offense. This is not a
shortcoming, but a truth. Frustrate their belly series;
get them out of their rhythm, and irritate their linemen
by making them work / efforting to find their blocks.
Wing T teams pride themselves on brute linemen
play. As long as you sit still, you are playing into
their hands. Being an undersized team and playing the
Nickel defense, we acknowledge that if we were to go
toe-to-toe, man-for-man, we will be physically

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outmatched. We don’t enter into this arena with a stacked deck – we intend to use our
speed as an equalizer to size. Our players are wound and ready to be fired from the snap,
therefore as coaches, it’s our job to 1) put them in positions to make plays and 2) protect
them (limit the toe-to-toe matchups we probably won’t win).

We have found a few successful concepts in stacking the odds in our favor defensively
against Wing T teams (Smoke & Mirrors).

I. Play balanced – keep the MLB free to attack the FB and

nothing else. Three benefits can result from this.
a. Since the FB is capable to attack either side of the ball, now you have a
dedicated defender to this major rushing threat. The Wing T backs are
trained to NEVER cut back until he’s beyond the linebackers – pursuit can
help get a steady bead on this player because of that.
b. Playing even lends itself to a favorable defensive match up; Our (best
athlete) MLB versus your (not-so-great athlete) Center. The center will
largely be responsible for handling the MLB because of the even
alignment of the defense. Not only will he have to snap the ball, but also
he will have to have considerably more mobility than your MLB to get
him blocked. Odds are for the defense in that contest.
c. Because you are even (coverage) the main areas to be threatened in the
passing game lay in the perimeter in the flats, in the curl seams, and the
deep out. The man you can ‘sacrifice’ in zone coverage here more often
than not is the MLB. Blitzing the MLB and / or using stunts with the MLB
and any of the other two interior tackles allows for effective penetration
either to disrupt long-developing backfield actions such as the dreaded
double-handoff or cross buck and aid in pressuring a throwing
quarterback.

II. Alternating base personnel

a. Stopping the inside belly requires quickness not strength. If you are
playing ‘speed defense’ it’s probably a result of not having the most
physically imposing athletes to begin with. Don’t bring a knife to a
gunfight when you can bring a grenade - explosive athletes in the ‘A’ gaps
can cause more problems for the belly than a 300lbs kid that can’t get out
of his stance before the linebackers are reached. Instead, try inverting your
personnel. Put the explosively quick athletes in the interior positions
(especially the nose) and put your bigger hosses on the perimeter
(especially the strong side end). The outside hitters of the Wing T take a
little more time to develop and require help from either the HB or TE.
Moving your bigger athletes could be a chore for them rather than pushing
over your smaller ‘base’ package ends. In the Wing T offenses, you will
rarely find highly motivated tight ends. They will either be smaller
linemen who are not physical enough to be tackles or guards, or tall kids
who aren’t very fast. By inverting your linemen, you are picking your
battles wisely and winning the wars you CAN win.

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 III. Twist your Strong side personnel
a. Leaving your SOLB on the nub can make for a boring day for him. Get
him involved in the game plan and keep your opponent guessing. Blitzing
the SOLB into the “C” gap and looping your SDE outside can help open
unexpected shots of opportunity that the offense cannot account for. This
type of stunt is best supported by rolling coverage to the tight end side or
gambling on non-passing downs. Just like mixing up QB option
responsibilities irritates the option game, so do perimeter twists on powers
and sweeps.
b. Playing a tight SOLB and twisting your 3 technique and your 6 technique.
The change up allows a cluster of mayhem and aggressive penetration by
your defensive end crashing into the play side guard and crossing the face
of the tackle (disrupting any counter action weak).

IV. Wedging 4 for 6 Advantage

a. When facing foot-to-foot splits of many double wing teams, we realize
that stunting and blitzing will be largely ineffective. Also, to maintain the
‘sportsmanship’ of the game, we want to avoid the temptation to sub
linemen and grab ankles. This is not a very competitive method of playing
football and is rather cowardly, in my opinion. We at least want to
maintain our aggressive attitude while giving each player a sporting
chance. To bust the ‘wedge’, we want to level the scales of the game in
our favor by forcing the offense to negotiate the field on our terms –
negating your size and playing to our speed. We want to bounce you
outside and open gaps we can run through. We will play two 3 techniques
and two 6 techniques and knife our linemen a full gap inside. We will tilt
all the linemen inside and charge hard at the snap, staying low, keeping
our INSIDE shoulder free. We want to accomplish two things; 1) create an
inside wash of players to take away dive and 2) penetrate and disrupt and
pulling by tackles or guards. We want to spill the ball carrier and force
you to give to your wingback for a slower developing sweep to contend
with scraping linebackers, corner force, and a filling safety.

V. Call strength away from the wing back

a. Many times you will face a Wing T team that will favor a particular back
or will go to an Ace (double wing) formation in an attempt to better out-
flank the defense. Putting your strong side personnel puts them at a greater
advantage as they are more aggressive and more likely to pull the trigger
on run support, cutting off perimeter lanes to a great runner. The more
hesitation you can cause the wing prior to approaching the LOS, the better
your chances are. Allowing a wing back (that will likely be executing
some sort of motion and gaining momentum before receiving the ball) to
not be forced with a decision until breaking the plane of scrimmage, never
is good for a defense.

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 VI. Keys, Reads, and Seeds
Nothing is more important in defending the Wing T / Double Wing than
teaching your players basic football. The what, whys, and hows (rationale) of
your opponent’s offense. A great example is instructing players to take on
lead blockers on the perimeter – many will try to go solo and try to make a
play all by themselves, while opening running lanes - but if you can show
them (sell them) on how, if the defense can cause disruption and/or take out
more than one blocker and constrict the running lane, they enable the rest of
the team defense to make a negative yardage play by allowing pursuit to clean
up the ball carrier. How to play your defense is one thing, teaching your
defensive players what the offense DOES NOT want to see is another. Enable
and empower your players with ownership of the defense’s success.
a. Keys – These are the presnap clues to our players. If I’m a perimeter force
player, I’m keying the EMOL / wing to see if he will tip off where he is
headed at the snap. Does the wing turn his shoulders more to better
execute a flare / arc release? Is the wing’s shoulder more parallel? Will he
be blocking / sealing inside? Use video to teach your backers / corners
what to look for and notice the tendency of the wing’s presnap alignment
for a given play / series. The biggest key will be found at the guard spots
and will clue your linebackers to potential powers, traps, or pass. Very few
Wing T guards are disciplined enough to maintain neutral stances and
because of the speed needed to open and pull, many lift considerable
weight off their forward set hand and will even go as far as leaning
backwards in their stance (further taking weight off their forward lean).
Start training the backers by showing them the linemen’s stance when
running dive and other inside drive blocking plays. Then progress to pass
and counter / super power plays so they subtleties can be noticed.
b. Reads – Reads to us are what we see developing in front of our eyes. The
Wing T defense relies largely on efficient movement with little thought,
because of the precision execution of the successful belly teams; a defense
that does not react (and quickly) will find itself with few answers.
i. On perimeter force players, if the wing vacates (motion away) we
want our players gaining (slight) width and gaining depth.
“Anytime you’re unsure, get width get depth…don’t fall into a
trap”.
ii. If the Wing fires out, as a force
player we want to keep the outside
shoulder free and aggressively work
to the depth of 2 yards in the
offensive backfield to redirect flow
back to help. With our OLBs who
are not force players, they also have
the rule of keeping the outside
shoulder free, but we want them
scraping hard and ripping through
blockers (sweep) while penetrating

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 into the offensive backfield. On sweeps, the OLB will be the true
cutoff player here.
iii. If the Wing blocks down, more than likely we’re looking at a
power play, and we are looking to take on / eliminate the load
block by a pulling guard. Special care has to be taken to coach
aggressive play, but not over penetration. One step is too little;
three are too many, two is just right.
iv. For the inside linebacker, reading guards and fullback and having a
response for each is vital.
The backer looks to fullback
for his first read step, then
cross-keys with the guards.
As the figure illustrates, if
backside opens and pulls
across the formation the
backer holds to the opposite
“A” gap, looking to spill trap.
If the guard opens to the
outside of the formation, he
immediately is keyed that
this is sweep or power and
must look to scrape outside to “C” gap and help support the SOLB.
Upon seeing this reaction, he can anticipate the impending down
block by the EMOL and get in
better position to attack his outside
shoulder with an escape.
v. For the Outside backer, these reads
work in much the same manner. If
guard pulls TO, the backer
immediately fills his play side gap
responsibility. If the guard pulls
AWAY, the backer looks to
aggressively charge the open “A”
gap and run thru the vacated gap.
If wing motions away, the backer
looks to hesitate to get a true read
and gain width and depth to clear
from blockers.

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 vi. Seeds – As corny as this sounds, it cannot be discounted. Going
beyond telling your players football, it is imperative when facing
the wing T to plant as much intuition (seed) into your players as
possible. Wing T teams are seldom unpredictable in their play
calling – many follow a basic style or comfort zone and have
tendencies. “Long yardage situation? Look for double-handoff or
some other misdirection…etc”. Because this offense operates so
quickly, there will be very little time to THINK on the field. This
is why I stress planting the seeds of anticipating plays / areas of
probable attack. Anticipating cadence (and how belly motion is
tied to it), positioning of wingbacks, and linemen stance tendencies
during the course of a game are all elements you players must be
given. When you plant a garden, when you plant 14 seeds you
cannot expect to see 14 sprouting buds. Not every seed germinates
– therefore you must inundate your players with redundant
information from various forms of media…chalk board, video,
printed handouts, send home video, field time, etc… repeating the
message(s) over and over. So that by Friday night, you have
natural responses instead of spontaneous reactions.

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Cross Buck
The cross buck is the home-run hitter of the wing-T. When it’s run, it usually
results in big yards because your defense will be lulled into complacency for the backside
counter. The fullback dive action is simulated then the counter action of the halfback
retracts the steps against flow being led by the backside guard kicking out pursuit and
gashing your defense.
Naturally, to stop
counter action, your backside
support must remain sound.
The diagram depicts initial
flow to the right.
The players illustrated in red
show your backside support
players that must play
disciplined to cut off the cross
buck. With the penetration you
should be getting upfront, you
should at least cause some
hesitation by the countering
halfback. In the event that has
no effect, training the backside
linebacker and safety to work in conjunction is the key. Training your players to remain
gap conscience and recognizing that gaps are the spaces between players and can move –
they in turn must also adjust / move.
The backside linebacker we want closing “B” gap and then moving to stack behind the
eventual double-team of the nose. The safety, whose support is probably the most critical,
is trained to fit outside the backer and inside the corner. It is imperative that in screwing
down to the ball, he does NOT flow past the near side “A” gap. If this happens, he will
have over pursued and opened up the cutback lane.

I hope you’ve gained some ideas or a different perspective on how we handle and attempt
to corral this great offense and wish the greatest success (as long as it isn’t against me) in
the future. Feel free to contact me for any questions or comments at;
mjbrophy@netexpres.net - Yours in football.

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