The Football Coaching Podcast with Joe Daniel
How to Game Plan for Junk Offenses | FBCP S21E13
How do you prepare your defense for an offense that has no clear identity and throws formations, motions, and wrinkles at you all night? In this episode, Joe Daniel and Daniel Chamberlain explain how a sound defensive system, simple player rules, formation checks, and offensive "containers" let your defense adjust without rebuilding the game plan every week. Learn how to defend junk offenses by protecting your base defense, simplifying run fits, assigning adjustments to the right players, and recognizing what formations are actually trying to accomplish. If you want your players reacting fast instead of thinking through a different defense for every offensive look, this episode will help you simplify the game plan while still having answers for what opponents throw at you. 10:41 - What Is a Junk Offense 11:58 - Characteristics of Offenses With No Identity 18:10 - Building a Defensive System to Handle Junk Offenses 22:57 - Umbrella Run Fits for Any Offensive Scheme 23:30 - Trips and Bunch Formation Checks 26:57 - Double Wing and Heavy Formation Adjustments 31:49 - Read the Quarterback Not the End Man 32:44 - Adding Defensive Automatics for Specific Looks 35:31 - Assigning Defensive Checks to Individual Players 44:45 - Containers for Offensive Formations and Wrinkles Build a Defense That Has an Answer for Everything Step 1: Build the System Before You Build the Game Plan Your defense needs a consistent foundation that lets players handle formations, motions, shifts and schemes without learning a new defense every week. Establish the core rules and adjustments that stay consistent regardless of what the offense shows you. FBCP S21E13 Defend Junk Offenses DOWNLOAD: Defensive System Guide Step 2: Make Your Run Fits Universal Build your run defense around rules that apply to any blocking scheme. When force, spill and alley responsibilities remain consistent, your players can defend zone, gap schemes, option football and unusual formations without needing a separate answer for every play. READ: Coach the Umbrella Principle to Get Perfect Run Fits for Your Defense Step 3: Learn to Defend Schemes Without Changing Defenses Apply your base rules against an offense designed to create hesitation and misdirection. Focus on identifying what the offense is actually trying to accomplish, then use your existing defensive structure instead of chasing every formation and motion. LISTEN: How to Defend the Wing-T Offense | FBCP S21E03 Step 4: Trust Your Rules Against Option Football Extend the same approach to an offense that can appear much more complicated. Learn how consistent run fits account for the dive, quarterback and pitch, then make targeted adjustments without rebuilding the defense specifically for the opponent. LISTEN: How to Defend the Flexbone Offense | FBCP S21E10 Step 5: Give Every Adjustment a Specific Job Organize your defensive playbook so Base, Movement and Aggressive calls each solve specific problems. Eliminate unnecessary calls and make sure your Base defense remains the answer you can return to when the offense presents something unexpected. READ: 3 Levels of Play Calling For Your Defensive Football Playbook Step 6: Find the Smallest Adjustment That Solves the Problem When your base defense needs help, identify exactly what needs to change before adding another call. Use alignment, stance, keys and assignments as individual levers so you can make targeted adjustments without forcing the entire defense to learn something new. LISTEN: Levers: The System for Faster Defensive Adjustments | FBCP S20E17 Step 7: Prepare Answers Before You Need Them Study where your defense is vulnerable in numbers, space, seams and leverage. Build answers to those weaknesses into your system so unusual formations and unexpected wrinkles become recognizable problems with prepared solutions instead of reasons to abandon your base defense. READ: Identify These Four Weaknesses in Your Defensive Playbook to Make Great Adjustments
