Aranda Scheme: 3-4 ONE gap

Seen a lot of people talking about the 3-4 and how it would work here with us. But, Aranda runs a 3-4 ONE gap D, a big difference than the traditional 3-4 D. Its more of a hybrid D. So thought I would go into detail about the 3-4 1 gap D.

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What is "two-gap?" Two-gap for lack of a better explanation is "read and react." The player is responsible for the gaps to each side of his man and must read the flow of the play in deciding which to defend. He must be strong enough to hold his ground and not get pushed or sucked into the play, and he must be athletic and quick enough to get to the quarterback.

The first thing to understand about Wade Phillips 3-4 is that it is a one-gap system. The play call is made and the down-linemen attack. It is not read and react, players do not need to occupy space, read the play, then decide what to do. From the snap they are ready to attack.

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Two Gap 3-4


One Gap 3-4

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Predictably, this scheme calls for the defensive line to only be responsible for a single gap rather than two. As a result, this scheme is more aggressive than the 2-gap 3-4.

Once again, the one-gap 3-4 is built around the nose tackle (N). However, what dictates that this is a 1 gap scheme is the NT attacking a single 'A' gap. That dictates to the offense where the double team will be. By directly threatening a gap with a tackle who has to be double teamed, it dictates the offense's blocking scheme. By dictating the blocking scheme, the defense is able to create a numbers advantage. In the diagram above, there is a 4 on 4 match-up on the right side of the offensive line. However, the center and right guard should have to double team the nose tackle, creating a 4 on 3 advantage for the defense. On the left side of the offensive line there is a 3 on 2 advantage for the defense.

All of that means that there should be two defenders unaccounted for along the line of scrimmage.

Because the defensive line isn't occupying blockers, but attacking gaps and attacking upfield, it uses smaller players than the 2-gap 3-4.

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So like I said, it's not a true 3-4. It's much more of a hybrid 3-4 that relies on speed, slants, stunts, and pressure up front. It's a 1 gap 3-4 instead of a 2 gap. Meaning instead of having the responsibility of the gaps to your left and right, you only have 1 gap responsibility. 2 gap takes a lot of reading, reacting, and fighting across blocks. You can really pin your ears back and attack in 1 gap. Its an attack style D that can dictate what the offense does, therefore creating mismatches for you to exploit.

And he uses anyone of the 4 LBers as the 4th pass rusher. Sometimes it's the OLB, sometimes it's the ILB. Sometimes it's the wide side LBer, sometimes it's the short side. Very difficult for the OL to pick up on the 4th pass rusher because they don't know where it's coming from. It creates a lot of confusion and mismatches, which he exploits. Gonna be nasty.

He's an extremely smart coach and knows how to prepare for an opponent and call a game. Hes also very good at connecting with his players and explaining things to them so that they will understand what he wants. And he knows how to tweak his scheme and adapt to his players.

Home run hire. It's pretty much the same D that Wade Phillips has run in Denver the last few years. Hope this helps clear some of the confusion up!

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