Anyone have any experience using or facing Tight 3 Defense?

[chrisw73]

I coach in a 10-12 year old league and saw maybe 8 passes against us last year.  We ran a 4-4 last year and I was looking at changing up a bit this year and am considering going with the Tight 3 http://fastandfuriousfootball.com/wp-content/uploads/highschooldefense2/Tight%203%20Defense.pdf look.  Was looking for feedback from those that have used it or faced or any other comments.

Thanks

[coach winnie]

Coach teed and i played together in HS he sent me this d fence last year we were 5th grade we used it about 50% of our defence alinments i can say this it is an attacking D and the kids love to get in and play harder must have good size and speed at LB

[ZACH]

Coach teed and i played together in HS he sent me this d fence last year we were 5th grade we used it about 50% of our defence alinments i can say this it is an attacking D and the kids love to get in and play harder must have good size and speed at LB

As opposed to which defense that doesnt?

[chrisw73]

Coach teed and i played together in HS he sent me this d fence last year we were 5th grade we used it about 50% of our defence alinments i can say this it is an attacking D and the kids love to get in and play harder must have good size and speed at LB

Did you get much disruption from the tight 3 over the center?  I'm thinking at this age level if you can get a big kid head up on the center and have two quicker athletic kids next to him you should be able to get quick penetration and disrupt the play before it develops.  If the guards block down and the tackles go after the ends then the LB's should be in the hole before the RB gets there.  My thought is then to have the safeties fill the vacated LB spots as they blitz.

[seeindouble]

IZ,Power, and Wedge look good against that defense. And I wouldn't staff it like Teed describes, I'd wan't my top 5 players at LB,DE, and S. Don't see the point in wasting 3 studs "bullrushing the C", but hey, if it works for Him, so be it...

[chrisw73]

I wouldn't put my top 3 over the center either.  I'd put my best true lineman at NT and two quicker / scrappy kids next to him shooting the gap.  The two linebackers would have to be my best athletes, followed by the two safeties as they would be filling and essentially become the LB's.  DE's would have to be good enough to contain the outside.

[KFMagee]

I coach in a 10-12 year old league and saw maybe 8 passes against us last year.  We ran a 4-4 last year and I was looking at changing up a bit this year and am considering going with the Tight 3 http://fastandfuriousfootball.com/wp-content/uploads/highschooldefense2/Tight%203%20Defense.pdf look.  Was looking for feedback from those that have used it or faced or any other comments.

We faced it once last year... slightly different because our league requires that any man lined over the center must either be one yard off in two points, or must be in a three point stance if playing closer.  But the scheme was the same... either bull rush the center, or split a whole and blitz the middle guy.

The team we played was the eventual league champs, but we gouged them mightly after the first quarter when we figured out their scheme, and told our linemen what to do.  We lined our FB like a "sniffer" in the DW, and told him his job was to blow up the wedge behind the center every play.   We run the wishbone, and used the other two backs to run the LEAD play in the B gap all day long after that.  We had one 14 play drive, and another 15 play drive.

Another team that did beat that team played the shotgun spread and threw bubble screens and handed off on delay draws through B all day.  The tight three often got there and slammed the QB hard... but too late.  The QB took a beating, but won the game 22-8.

[coach winnie]

We used one big strong kid head up and two quick kids to penatrate into the backfield all were pretty good ath and dispruted the flow 90% of the time

[chrisw73]

Thanks for the feedback.  We start this week and I'm going to go with this defense.  Every team in our league runs the same couple plays - dive, blast, power.  There may be an occasional reverse and as I said before I saw about 8 passes in total last year.  I think the key to this being successful is getting a good sized kid playing head up on the C at NT.  If you can do that with 2 athletic kids next to him there should be a great deal of disruption, which is what I'm going for.  There are a few components to the defense that I'm going to tweak and will let you all know how it goes.

Thanks again

[Bob Goodman]

Did you get much disruption from the tight 3 over the center?  I'm thinking at this age level if you can get a big kid head up on the center and have two quicker athletic kids next to him you should be able to get quick penetration and disrupt the play before it develops.

Someone observed here recently the slowness in getting the ball away from center by inexperienced players using a conventional C-QB exchange.  To the extent that's true, it may be worth sacrificing a lot of athletes against the center if they can drive him into the QB's lap.  It'd be kind of like when Canadian football used a 3-man scrimmage (like a hooker & 2 props in rugby) back-heeling the ball, when a dominant scrimmage could disrupt the opposing team's offensive timing & execution.

This is why on offense I'd like to have the QB facing a sideline and also the option to snap to deep backs.

[coachscott1]

Chrisw73 or others- Curious to hear your experiences (strengths and weaknesses) of the Tight 3 after you ran it for a year. On paper against tight formations like wishbone or double wing it seems to have problems with either B or C gaps, depending on how you play the LBs. How did you deal with that?

[KFMagee]

Addendum - we went up against a team twice this year... in the first game, they put three kids inside our guards, with two of them (by call) going after the center to overwhelm him, and the third one shooting through.  They basically shoved the center back into the QB... and the third kid squirted into the backfield to drop us for a loss.  It worked well the first two plays so I called a timeout, and told my guards to cutblock dive the outter two rushers, and the center would cut the NG.  Then we ran toss sweep... we mauled them for the rest of the game...  They were just a big pile of meat scrap in the middle, and didn't have enough outside to stop us.   

The second game they had moved away from that scheme all together and tried to run a 4-4 (and yeah... we still mauled them!).

[durfee4]

I,d run Jet,or fly agianst that D.Slip in an over call attack the perimeter.Make the DC do something unsound and pounce.The back side will open for a counter.

[Daniel Lyons]

I coach in a 10-12 year old league and saw maybe 8 passes against us last year.  We ran a 4-4 last year and I was looking at changing up a bit this year and am considering going with the Tight 3 http://fastandfuriousfootball.com/wp-content/uploads/highschooldefense2/Tight%203%20Defense.pdf look.  Was looking for feedback from those that have used it or faced or any other comments.

Thanks

8 passes?  For the season?  I don't think it matters what defense you pick. 

Send everyone forward until these guys learn to throw the football.

[KFMagee]

Coach Lyons is right.... If you are only seeing one pass per game against your defense, you should run the 73  bandit (it allows a tight 3 stunt if desired).  It is a run smothering defense, and all that we use till 5th grade.  You will play the entire game in their backfield.  Only thing that hurts is spread passing attack, and pitch option - but it sounds like your league is not air oriented, and few rec teams I have seen in 15  seasons can make a living on the qb pitch option.