Commanders Scheme Breakdown: The Zone Blitz
Breaking down the zone blitz and how the Commanders’ defense makes use of it
As we enter the dead part of the NFL offseason, I thought I’d take this time to break down a few defensive schemes that the Commanders use regularly. One scheme the Commanders defense uses regularly is the zone blitz. The zone blitz, also referred to as fire zones, was popularized by Dick LeBeau first with the Bengals in the 90s and then with the Steelers in the early 2000s. It isn’t quite as popular now as it was in the 2000s, but it has begun to rise in popularity again as a good change up for teams that primarily work out of quarters coverage concepts.
So what is the zone blitz? The zone blitz is seen as a “safe” way to rush five defenders instead of just four, while keeping a relatively secure zone coverage behind it. Typically in order to rush a fifth defender, the defense would have to play some form of man coverage behind it, which then gives the offense a chance to generate favorable one-on-one matchups. But by using the zone blitz, the defense could gain the benefit of rushing a fifth defender while still playing zone coverage.
The zone coverage behind the rush can vary, but most of the time when a team uses a zone blitz, they use three underneath zones and three deep zones. Some teams might mix it up and have four underneath with just two deep in certain situations, but the vast majority of teams that zone blitz will stick to the standard three deep, three under structure.
Here’s a good example of a zone blitz from the Commanders last season. The Bears face third and eight, so the Commanders want to bring pressure as its third down, but also want to have a relatively safe zone coverage behind it as the Bears still need eight yards for a first down. So defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio calls for a zone blitz.
In this example, we can see how the defense starts in a two deep safety look, but one safety ends up rotating to the deep middle with the cornerbacks sinking either side of him, while the other safety steps up into the underneath hole. Linebacker Cole Holcomb joins the rush as the fifth rusher, lining up on the line of scrimmage with the four defensive lineman and looping from the left side of the line to the right as part of a defensive line stunt.
The coverage works perfectly for the Commanders as Kam Curl rotates down from safety to match the middle hook route while the slot corner and outside corner match the two other receivers to the trips side. The Bears anticipate a rush from Holcomb, sliding the protection his way, but as he stunts he ends up looping around the protection and getting a free rush on the quarterback. Unfortunately for Washington, Holcomb is unable to finish the play and quarterback Justin Fields does a nice job avoiding the sack before scrambling up the middle for a first down. But you can see how with a better finish from Holcomb, the scheme can be very effective.
One of the best parts of the zone blitz is the disguise it can give a defense. At its core, it’s a three deep, three under zone coverage with five rushers, but there’s a million different ways a defense can get to that look. As we just saw from that previous play, Washington liked to use it as a change up to their normal quarters coverage because they can show a two deep look pre-snap and rotate one safety down and the other deep post-snap. They could just as easily have both safeties stay back and have a linebacker fill the middle hole.
The other side of that coin is that it allows the defense to rush whatever fifth defender they want to. On that play we saw it was a linebacker, but it could just as easily have been a defensive back. In fact, at the start of last season we saw the Commanders use the zone blitz with the slot corner being the fifth rusher.
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