How to Attack the 4-3 Under Defense Part One

A common defense played either at the high school or college level is the 4-3 Under defense (as diagrammed below) 4-3 Under

The first thought you must have when game planning any defense is how are they doing to defend triple option? ho will we be reading when we run our plays in either direction? !our second thought process should be" by them aligning in this fashion what are they giving up? Third# in order to run triple option# will aligning in a different formation help us do so? $ame planning against this defense# gives you the head coach or offensive coordinator the chance to e%amine this defense fully# then develop a game plan to beat it& Teams who utili'e this 4-3 Under type of loo( on defense will more than li(ely give you the )-*+ loo( to the field and the 3-* loo( to the boundary& hat they are trying to do in theory is to outnumber you to the field to try to get you to run everything into the boundary where you will have a numbers advantage& Any play that occurs in the middle of the field will li(ely force them to play the numbers to what they perceive as your strong side& hen loo(ing at this defense from a ,le%bone Association Academy perspective# you will notice you can run triple option to both sides& -deally against any defense you want to run this to the )-* side if you can# although this particular defense does present some problems in doing so# namely the defense technically has you outnumbered by using the shaded defender to that side& .elow is the diagram of how the count system would loo( against this defense& Triple Option Count to 1-5- !ide "# 4-3 Under

The bloc(ing rules against this loo( are as follows& /. 0 1ead 2)# 3itch 4ff 25 . 0 Aim at -nside 6eg of 37$& 1un Through 647 and 1ead the Action 8ey 37A 0 .loc( 23 37 1 0 9eep 9efender .7A 0 Tail :otion ; 3itch 1elationship .7 1 0 <ut 4ff 37T 0 =eer for 376. 37$ 0 Ace < 0 7coop ; Ace .7$ 0 7coop .7T 0 7coop -n theory you can still run triple to the )-*-+ side of this defense# but they will have you outnumbered if they play this defense well& As soon as they are able to get the -6. on that side to escape the 4T>s veer release they will have you outnumbered on the perimeter& They will have three to play all phases of your option& As soon as this occurs you have to loo( to get into a different formation to be able to run triple to that side& !es you can run it to the 3-* side which will be a topic of a future article on this topic& ?one the less# this offense is based on the triple option and the first thing we want to be able to do is run triple option against any defensive front& 6i(ely the first thing we and you should loo( to do when confronted with this defense is to run your plays out of @eavy (tac(le over)& -f you run triple out of @eavy# you can assure yourself that

you can run triple to the )-*-+ side because the -6. will be bloc(ed no matter where he goes& 4nce he is secured in the bo% and being bloc(ed# you can be confident to once again run triple option to this defense& (7ee .elow) Triple Option Out of Hea"$ to the 1-5- !ide "# 4-3 Under

,uture articles in this series will show you what plays you can run bac( to the 3-* side# what some common adAustments from the defense could be to your @eavy loo( and what choices you are presented with at that point& The defense cannot fully prepare for the full arsenal of the ,le%bone Association Academy 4ffense& !our Aob as the head coach and or offensive coordinator is to fully prepare your team to unleash the full arsenal of the offense& e were presented with an e%tremely tough opponent on ,riday& e went three and out twice to start the game and found ourselves down )4-B& e (ept prodding the defense until we found our wea(ness& e were able to come away with a 4)-3C double overtime victory over a very athletic team&