What is a blitz?

MatchQuarters Explains Creepers, Simulated Pressures, and Hot and Max Blitzes

The Seattle Seahawks have one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL today, if not the best, and Mike Macdonald’s signature on his scheme is disguising where the pressure is going to attack the offensive line and dropping defensive linemen into coverage to replace second and third-level defenders.

This specialty been well-covered by our good friend All_22, a Baltimore Ravens film breakdown channel, who has cited it as Macdonald’s “GLITCH BLITZ” (VIDEO HERE IF YOU DIDN’T SEE IT OR WANT TO SEE IT AGAIN), but today I want to relay some information I just learned about blitzing and pressures from a differemt Xs and Os creator: Cody Alexander at MatchQuarters.

You can read/subscribe to MatchQuarters substack by clicking here!

WARNING: We’re getting DEEP into the weeds today. It’s terminology-heavy, but there’s a video and pictures, so that should soften the blow.

It is important to emphasize that the work done here is by MatchQuarters — and only by him — and I’m just relaying this information to you because I know how valued these explainers are around here. I want to understand football better and I’ve heard from this community many times that you also want to understand it better. As Cody says himself in the video linked below, defensive football is exponentially more complicated than its counterpart:

“Defensive football can get very complicated very quickly because the vernacular is not streamlined. There is not just a run, a pass, a play action, and a boot. We have different types of pressures from simulators to creepers and replacement pressures to different fire-man pressures, from dogs to fire zones, then we get into the max blitz world, where you’re a cover-0, you could be a six-man pressure with cover-1 behind it, or running a hot pressure. It’s on the defensive coordinator how they want to structure the coverage.”

Macdonald has attributed his success as a coordinator not to anything special with his scheme necessarily, but in how he teaches it and simplifies the calls for his players as highlighted in this 2024 article by Ted Nguyen:

Another important feature of Macdonald’s system is purposeful nomenclature for each pressure. Though using nomenclature seems like a simple tool, the language of football — even at the highest level — can be confusing with terminology drawn from different systems and eras that have nothing to do with each other.

Macdonald has a naming system for his pressures that makes it easier for players to learn and recall. For example, the defense could have 10 ways to run a simulated pressure with one player blitzing from the strong side and the weak end dropping into coverage. Each of those pressures is siloed together. Hypothetically, those types of simulated pressures could be named after NBA teams, so if players hear an NBA team name, they know what pressure they are running. The first letter of the name could be where it’s coming from, and from there, they can figure out everyone else’s job.

For example, “Suns” can tell the defense that the safety is blitzing from the strong side, while the end from the weak side is dropping. The defense can run “Suns” from multiple fronts without teaching an entirely new blitz.

So that’s a little bit about Mike Macdonald’s preferences for calling blitzes and simulated pressures, but what about the fundamentals of it all?

Here’s how Cody starts to breakdown the question, “What is a blitz”?

“A blitz in the simplest form is when a designed off-ball defender inserts himself into the box. He’s blitzing through the line of scrimmage. But when talking to coaches, a blitz can also mean any time the defense is sending six or more defenders.”

Before you go any further, I recommend watching the 13-minute video and giving MatchQuarters a well-deserved click before continuing:

Great, so you’ve watched the video! What are your immediate thoughts and questions?

Now, did you feel like you digested the information on one viewing? I watch videos like this literally every day of the year and I never retain the information on one viewing. It’s easier for me to have multiple viewings, but also if I write down what I learned and read it over again. So these are the notes I took from the MatchQuarters video on blitzing:

What is the difference between a “blitz” and a “pressure”?

Pressure is when the defense sends five defenders towards the line of scrimmage. Pressures allow the defense to hold a relatively stable coverage scheme.

MQ is going to breakdown 3 blitz terms here:

• Creeper (A replacement pressure)

• Simulated Pressure (Show internal A-gap pressure, but drop somebody into coverage)

• Designer Pressure (Load the box but only rush 4 and bring a blitz)

If that already sounds confusing — it does to me and I wrote it! — then keep reading and hopefully it gets easier to understand with pictures.

Creepers vs. Simulated Pressure

Creeper: Replacement Pressure

Send a second or third-level off-ball defender (LB, NB, S) through the line of scrimmage and replace him in coverage with a first-level defender (DT, DE).

In the example image by MatchQuarters below, called NEWTON 3 (the most common in the Creeper family) he uses the example of sending the “KNIFE” and dropping the EDGE:

All of these images come from the MQ video and were NOT created by me. I hope that you are able to view/read these on whatever device you’re using for Seaside Joe. If not, try clicking on the images.

Fire Zone: Five-Man Pressure when you’re going to send somebody, drop a guy, but you’re still sending 5 defenders to the QB

We’ve heard this term a lot, right? It’s good to finally be able to talk about fire zones with some explanation attached.

3rd-Down Creeper: “BRADY” or “WHIP”

Send the WILL linebacker through the B-Gap. Here you can see the purple “W” G-READ goes to the B-Gap, the MIKE middle linebacker drops into the Will’s zone, and the opposite side Defensive End drops into coverage to replace the Mike:

There is a lot going on in these images, but if our eyes just follow the important parts then there’s only so much we need to process at first: The coaches are simply rotating the assignments. What is a simulated pressure?

Internal Off-Ball Simulated Pressure: “ALLEN”

Simulated Pressure: Show internal pressure but drop somebody out

“We have internal off-ball simulated pressure because we are simulating pressure, we’re simulating a five-man pressure, but we’re really only going to end up rushing four.”

Cody never quite explains why these particular quarterbacks are used as names, does he?

Cross-Dog Blitz: “MANNING”

In this case, both linebackers rush the quarterback through the A gaps and both defensive ends drop into coverage:

Designer Simulated Pressure

Designer Simulated Pressure: “Any time you see five or more on the line of scrimmage and then they only rush four with a blitz off of it, that is a designer simulated pressure”

If I were to send Cody questions about this breakdown from you, what would you want to ask?

LB Blitz Paths and Terminology:

Hot and Max Blitzes

Bottom-Right Example of a “MAX Blitz”: Every gap is covered, blitz everybody, man coverage on the back end

Top-Right Example of a “HOT Blitz”: Taken from Vikings DC Brian Flores, who took it from Pat Narduzi at the college ranks, sends six with two under and three deep defenders.

AGAIN: Any time you have send more than 5 pass rushers, that is going to be a “blitz”.

Seahawks Defensive Play Examples

MatchQuarters has been posting a lot of short clips on his YouTube channel of the Seahawks defense lately. These could be for an upcoming video or article about Macdonald, I’m not sure.

“Seattle’s Signature Pop-Out Cover-0 Pressure”

“3-Buzz vs 49ers”

“Cover-0 Double Rat (SPY)”

“Double B-Gap blitz with Hot Palms”

“Devon Witherspoon fits the run”

I have to again make sure that I’m giving 100% of the credit to Cody Alexander of MatchQuarters and if you want to actually learn about football from someone who knows what he’s looking at on the film:

You can read/subscribe to MatchQuarters substack by clicking here!

My hope is that with days like today we’re all learning more about football and the Seahawks together and we’re able to press each other to dig deeper, question ourselves more often, and keep being curious.

Seaside Joe 2280