re: Can someone explain Baker’s soft zone or prevent defense to me?

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Can someone explain Baker’s soft zone or prevent defense to me?

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I’ll make a good faith attempt. And this is to offer a different perspective, not defend the last drive in regulation against Kentucky and how we defended it.

Off the top, I’ll say the number 1 objective in terms of your coverage is to not consistently make it obvious what you’re in. If the QB is having to determine on the fly what coverage he’s seeing, that’s generally good. Literally every coverage has route combinations that beat it. You’re goal as the guy calling the defense is to, as often as possible, not be in a defensive call against an offensive play that runs a route combo designed to beat that call you’re in.

A lot of ppl who over simplify these discussions think we should consistently play press and send extra rushers. Understand that if an offensive play caller picks up on this, he has calls in his playbook perfectly designed for that look. Those plays also have a higher probability of busting for big chunk plays. The most extreme example of this is our opener in 2020 and what Mike Leach did to Bo Pelini that day.

Another factor, the DBs aren’t having to run as much in softer zones. The receivers are having to run a lot more often than the DBs. In a hurry up drive with no timeouts, by the 4th play, receivers are starting to gas out. If you tackle them in bounds and short of sticks so clock runs, and they need to sub a guy who’s tired, you get to do the late sub as a defense and really let the clock run down.

I think overall, the idea is the offense having to string together a long drive with these constraints and no time to spare, you’re betting that you will bait them into a mistake or they gas out.

The key is not allowing the chunk play. Baker failed at this, some may be his specific scheme and some may just be an individual player not keeping good leverage against the route.

An example; if you watched Flynn and Hester eye in the sky last week, they showed a specific cover 2 look where we had Keys I think playing way up to the line and then dropping into his zone. He had to cover A LOT of ground, and Flynn points it out saying “we can get a little too cute just for the sake of creatively getting into these different coverages, there’s still a big hole behind Keys because of where he’s starting”. The seam ball on that last drive that I think Darby got for a chunk play I’m pretty sure is this exact coverage, where it appears Keys is screwing up and getting beat. The truth is we’re putting Keys in a position to fail, and that’s coaching. I expect Flynn to point out this exact play in a “told ya so” manner this week.

I like dropping Prince into coverage that first play of the drive, because it’s the last thing you’d expect. Then we do it again the next play, and it immediately shifts to us being too cute. I put this in the same bucket as the Keys zone drop play. I think Baker seems more fixated on being creative in how he shows things than just prioritizing having guys in the best spots to make a play. Sometimes trying to confuse the other QB just makes it easier for him to find a hole in the zone.

Hope this helps, sorry for walk of text.

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Literally every coverage has route combinations that beat it.

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many, not all have man and zone beaters in each play. all depends on coverage. plus receivers know if it is not man and you expected that, go sitdown in a hole in the zone and be ready to catch the ball or work back to the Qb if he is scrambling.

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hink we should consistently play press and send extra rushers.

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yeah u cannot always do just that for obvious reasons. but we can play off and be in more man and mix it up because we are not good in zone. we just arent. d has to adjust to what O is doing and vice versa.

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yeah u cannot always do just that for obvious reasons. but we can play off and be in more man and mix it up because we are not good in zone. we just arent. d has to adjust to what O is doing and vice versa.

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Agreed.

I think any defensive coach’s dream is have a secondary filled with really smart, experienced players that he can give a lot of liberty within the scheme. Mixing up zone looks so the QB never knows for sure, and your DBs have rules within the rules. They can make subtle adjustments mid play depending on the routes where guys have freedom to cheat, pass things off, etc. you gotta have guys who’ve seen a lot of ball and are really smart to pull that off without having busts.

Sometimes I think the excessive creativity is a bad sign, in the sense it’s so creative for a reason. Like maybe there’s a reason you hardly see anyone else do the Maryland I on defense.. if it were so effective wouldn’t you see it more commonly?

Personally after Baker, I wouldn’t mind a shift to something like what Kirby does. He can dial up some unique blitzes coming from Saban, but I feel his identity is more just being assignment correct, and hit everything 100 mph. When you watch UGA, you’re not thinking oh shite that was really exotic. I watch them and feel like I can feel the way they hit through the TV. Kirby even said after Bama that he didn’t care if they won or lost, just wanted Bama to feel us. Pretty wild statement but I think it’s sincere and you get that sense watching his defenses play. They aren’t perfect, for example they haven’t been great at consistently getting a pass rush for a while, but I just love how all 11 play with such conviction and fly to the ball.

And I agree with both of your comments. You get great by doing a few things very well and not by doing a million things ok.

The fans have been watching soft prevent defenses for decades...so it is not surprising that LK runs it also. Must be in the La water.
Hate it with a passion.