Nickel 3-3-5

Playbook: Kansas City Chiefs

Formation: Nickel 3-3-5

Play: Cover 3 Cloud

Setup:

1. Base Align
2. Press Coverage
3. Pinch the Dline
4. Slant Outside
5. Shift linebackers right
6. Blitz the right side of screen linebacker and the middle linebacker

Overview: This play brings immediate pressure from the right B-gap only blitzing 5 people. User the linebacker in the yellow zone and takeaway your opponent’s first read and by that time the pressure will be on the QB.

Playbook: Kansas City Chiefs

Formation: Nickel 3-3-5

Play: Loop Crash 2

Setup:

1. Base align
2. Press coverage
3. Pinch the defensive line and crash them inside
4. Shift the linebackers to the right
5. Bluff blitz the right of screen defensive end

Overview: On this play, we are only blitzing 4 people getting nice pressure from the linebacker looping in. Mixing this play in with the rest of the plays from this formation will give your opponent a headache and he will not know what to expect.

Playbook: Kansas City Chiefs

Formation: Nickel 3-3-5

Play: Cover 1 Contain Spy

Setup:

1. Base align
2. Press coverage
3. Pinch the defensive line and crash them inside
4. Shift the linebackers to the right
5. Blitz the right of the screen linebacker

Overview: This is a 5-man blitz that will come off of the right edge. This play is good to mix in because it is a man defense so it can catch your opponent off guard, and still brings good pressure on the QB.

Playbook: Kansas City Chiefs

Formation: Nickel 3-3-5

Play: Nickel LB Blitz

Setup:

1. Base Align
2. Press Coverage
3. Pinch and crash your defensive line down
4. Shift your LBs to the right
5. Put the blitzing linebacker on the right side of the screen into a zone and user him.

Overview: This is an identical play to the pressure we provided from 3 Overload Fire Press, however this is a man version. The man coverage provides a great mixup because your opponent will be very used to seeing zone coverage from this formation.

With the fast pressure from either the left A or B gap, we will force the opponent to make a bad throw right into the man coverage.

Playbook: Kansas City Chiefs

Formation: Nickel 3-3-5

Play: 3 Overload Fire Press

Setup:

1. Base Align
2. Press Coverage
3. Pinch and crash your defensive line down
4. Shift your linebackers to the right
5. QB Contain
6. Put your blitzing MLB in a zone and user control him

Overview: This is one of my favorite blitzes this year because it allows us to potentially get two rushers free while only rushing 5 defenders. Why this works is the left side DE draws the attention of multiple linemen, which leaves the edge rusher and/or the looping linebacker free.

You can also adjust the coverage in behind it to fit your situation, such as playing underneath or overtop coverage.

Playbook: Kansas City Chiefs

Formation: Nickel 3-3-5

Play: Cover 4

Setup:

1. Base Align
2. Press Coverage
3. Pinch your defensive line
4. Crash your defensive line up
5. Shift your line backers to the right

Overview: With every great defensive scheme that brings pressure from all sides such as this one from the Nickel 3-3-5, it is extremely important to have a play that you can play great coverage from as well. For me, I love the cover 4. With us heating our opponent up all game long, we can mix in a coverage play and catch them blocking extra players to stop the heat.

This will have them sending less routes out and will give us even more players in coverage, which is exactly what we want. 8 defenders on 3-4 routes is a great advantage for the defense. This is also my favorite run defense out of the formation because it allows us to blow up the run without committing a lot of defenders and leaving holes elsewhere if they pass.

Playbook: Kansas City Chiefs

Formation: Nickel 3-3-5

Play: Tampa 2

Setup:

1. Base Align
2. Press Coverage
3. Put your OLB on the left into a QB Spy
4. (Optional) Put your DE on the right into a zone or man coverage
5. Right when the ball is snapped, click down on the right stick (R3)

Overview: This technique can take a bit of timing but when you do it right, you can get extremely quick pressure.  This play can be flipped to the other side with all of the directions reversed.

Playbook: Kansas City Chiefs

Formation: Nickel 3-3-5

Play: Nickel LB Blitz (Version 2)

Setup:

1. Base Align
2. Press Coverage
3. Put your OLB on the left into a QB Spy
4. Put your MLB into a zone
5. (Optional) Put your DE on the right into a zone
6. Right when the ball is snapped, click down on the right stick (R3)

Overview: This is the man to man version of the Tampa 2 play.  It can be flipped to bring right side pressure as well.

Playbook: Kansas City Chiefs

Formation: Nickel 3-3-5

Play: 3 Double Buzz

Setup:

1. Base Align
2. Press Coverage
3. Put your OLB on the left into a QB Spy
4. Blitz your slot cornerback
5. (Optional) Put your DE on the right into a zone
6. (Optional) Adjust the zones behind it
7. Right when the ball is snapped, click down on the right stick (R3)

Overview: This is a really difficult defensive look for most users because it is a well disguised cover 3 defense.