Dr Blitz: Todd Bowles Exotic Pressure package

Todd Bowles is great at bringing pressure and confusing qbs, both young and old!

He's done it to Aaron Rodgers, who usually is the best against the blitz and to other QB throughout the league. He is well known around the league as Dr Blitz for his creativity in bringing pressure. He will bring some creative pressures and run them with both man and zone concepts.

He gets into some interesting personnel grouping which makes it even more difficult when it comes to protection.

Lets look at some pressure concepts:

2022 vs the Steelers

Man Free Concept

Front-Odd Exotic with an overload to the right.

They go with 1 DL. ,5 LB(depending how you classify Barret) so arguably 2 DL and 5 DB on 3rd and 7 vs the Steelers. Odd with a heavy 3 man look to the defensive right.

The Pressure is shown below and the Steelers squeeze on the left side rather than man it with the left guard stepping out and taking the inside rusher and the tackle working outside.

By squeezing it puts the RB in a unwinnable situation.

Film

You can see the man coverage on the play!

One of the LB has the back and they add in on the pressure. Pickett gets the ball out sooner than he would like leading to the incomplete as he feels the pressure.

Man Free vs the Saints,

The Bucs cause an issue as the go and put #50 at LB. 50 is Vea. That causes the issues as they mess up the protection call. The back and O Line both go to the same side. Looks lie the RB should work back but the OLine and RB are on different pages.

They 4 man slide but the RB goes the same way as the RB.

Here’s the clip and sack.

Here is the wide angle. The qb has no chance as the confusion with the RB and QB in protection.

Man free vs the Eagles

In the last scenario he brings the will and CB to the nub side but the nub side cb is actually in coverage. This allows the Will to come clean. The mike gets over and has the TE on the single side.

3 Under 3 Deep

vs the Vikings

Bear Front

4 man overload concept

Cover 3

Go 3 under 3 deep with the overload concept. Vikings do a good job in protection as the RB does a nice job on his double read.

They bring the mike and sam off the same side.

Coverage Concept with the LB dropping opposite the pressure.

The blitz concept

Film Below

In the playoffs vs the Eagles in 2021

3rd and 8

Front Load

Double edge pressure, NG and DT drop and play hook. 2 300 LB DT playing the hook. Gotta love Todd Bowles.

They drop dt into coverage 

 Vea is playing the hook as well as the Right DT as they bring great pressure off the edge. Excellent design with the 4 man pressure from their traditional 4-2 front.

Bring 2 off the edge forces Hurts to step up in the pocket. No place to go with the football.

The great pressure causes hurts to scramble and forces the sack.

Film with the great pressure below.

In the Super Bowl Vs the Chiefs  3rd and 8, Bowles runs a 3 under 3 deep from a 3 safety high look.

They go cover 3 with a 5 man rush.

Davis recovers to make a nice play.

On 1st and 10, the Packers come out in 12. Bowles dials up a nice 5 man 3 under 3 deep pressure. The crossing route gets open late but the pressure gets home.

A nice 5 man pressure from the Bucs

Great pressure from the Bucs.

They get 2 on 1 on the tackle on the nice pressure.

Nice design by Bowles as the 5 man ,  3 under 3 deep and the pressure gets home

VS The Broncos 

The Bucs brought pressure at an enormous rate this past season . They brought pressure on 60% of their pass plays vs the Broncos and Qb Lock. That doesn't mean Todd Bowles is an all out blitz every other down coordinator. He does what it takes to win. The week before against Carolina he brought pressure only 25% of the time. But in the Broncos game they had great success and kept the heat on all game only holding the Broncos to 10 points..

Bowles wasn't content to just bring one extra rusher on each blitz, either. Of their 27 blitzes, the Buccaneers brought five on 17 of them, but also mixed in nine plays in which six defenders tried to invade the backfield. He mixed in some man free coverage and some what looked like 3 deep on 1-2 of the snaps. Bowles even mixed in a seven-man blitz on one play.  

The one pressure package i wanted to take a look at was their cover 2 pressures.

Lets look at a couple of the different fronts and ways Coach Bowles and  the Bucs got after the Broncos and play cover 2

Here is a write up of the first 2 blitzes on the clips below:

In the first blitz above and on the first video clip they play cover 4. 

In the 2nd video clip they play cover 2 to the weak side (hback side) and play cover 4 to the field(passing strength. 

Here’s another blitz, Mac pressure out of the bear look with a 5 man pressure and they play cover 4.

They bring the safety and the mike and drop the 2 de while playing cover 4. They have 2 scif players.

The Lb gets home and gets a hit on the qb. You can see the cover 4 and they get the completion but no where near the 1st down.

Below are 4 clips which you will see the various cover 2/cover 4 pressures Todd Bowles brings.

I hope you enjoyed some Todd Bowles exotic pressures. More to come!