3-4 Bear Front Creates One On One Pass Rush
Running a 3-4 Bear defense is not always about stopping the run. Sometimes it is about creating one on one pass rush matchups. It can also be a better solution if you coach high school football than the in vogue 3-3-5 or 3-3 Stack that you see college football lately. Those two defenses have looked better on paper than on the field against offenses that run the ball well.
Even at the college level, defenses are having trouble getting enough defenders down in the box to stop the run. High school defenses are sure to struggle with the same thing and stopping the run is almost always the priority at that level.
The 3-4 Bear defense can give you a run stopping defense that is also ready made to defend the pass. The philosophy is a reverse engineering of what 3-3-5 defenses try to do. The 3-4 Bear is a great front to stop the pass, except it starts from a run stopping look.
The immediate advantage of the 3-4 Bear defense is that it covers up the center and two guards. This almost always means one of two things. Those three players are going to pass protect one on one or the offense is going to slide/gap protect.
The 3-4 Bear Front Allows A High School Defense To Stop The Run First
Slide protection can bail an offensive line coach out in some situations. However; this is an invitation for a good defensive coordinator to drop defenders and have five offensive linemen blocking three rushers. In the video below we show how a coordinator can easily play cover 2 or cover 4 from this look.
Like always, whoever has the chalk last will likely have an answer but back to the original point. A high school defensive coordinator needs to be careful copying what they see on Saturday TV. If not, the offense they are defending may never have to pass the ball to get a first down.
