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Early in the history of the National Football League, teams stacked the defensive line of scrimmage with seven linemen, typically using a 7-diamond or the 7-box. [1] With the liberalization of the forward passing rules in 1933, the defenses began to evolve along with the offensive changes, and by the later 1930s, the standard defense in the NFL and college was the 6–2.
46 Formation, original 4–3 base set. The 46 defense is an American football defensive formation, an eight men in the box defense, with six players along the line of scrimmage. [1] There are two players at linebacker depth playing linebacker technique, and then three defensive backs.
Basic 3–4. This is the base defense of some teams. It consists of three defensive linemen, four linebackers, and four defensive backs (two safeties, two corners). The advantage is that while 4 players still usually rush the line, the quarterback can be less sure of which of the 4 linebackers will join the 3 linemen.
The two most common formations are the 3–4 defense and the 4–3 defense, where the first number refers to the number of defensive linemen, and the second number refers to the number of linebackers (the number of defensive backs can be inferred, since there must be eleven players on the field). Thus, a 3–4 defense consists of three ...
The Tampa 2 is an American football defensive scheme popularized by (and thus named after) the Tampa Bay Buccaneers National Football League (NFL) team in the mid-1990s–early 2000s. The Tampa 2 is typically employed out of a 4–3 defensive alignment, which consists of four linemen, three linebackers, two cornerbacks, and two safeties.
A diagram of a typical pre-snap formation. The offense (red) is lined up in a variation of the I formation, while the defense (blue) is lined up in the 4–3 defense. Both formations are legal. A football game is played between two teams of 11 players each. [39] [40] [41] Playing with more on the field is punishable by a penalty.
After two seasons of mediocrity the Giants surged in 1993, once again leading the NFL in scoring defense, but fell hard to the 49ers in the playoffs losing 44–3. While the defense would remain respectable the team never returned to their dominant ways and the days of Giants defensive dominance were gone.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have used the 3–4 as their base defense since 1982, the season after Hall of Fame defensive tackle Joe Greene and end L. C. Greenwood retired. In fact, the Steelers were the only NFL team to use the 3–4 defense during the 2001 season, but finished the season as the number one defense in the NFL. [2]