Bear Install: Delay Rushes from 5-0 Presentations

By Mike Kuchar
Co-Founder & Senior Researcher
X&O Labs
@MikekKuchar

“We started to insert the down safety and then blitz him. We did it two or three times and they were all sacks.”
- Power 4 Defensive Coordinator

“It’s Now an Every Down Front:”

Our Loaded front study last month produced a 68% output on third down. Bear is the opposite: first and second down account for 502 of 774 snaps (64.9%), third down for only 217 (28.0%)

The Bear front started out as the preferred defense for goal line and short yardage situations but recently has morphed into a front / pressure that coaches have incorporated into gameplans on a weekly basis on 3^rd down and base down and distances as well.  The coaches that I worked with on this study generated simple ways to manipulate the two most common protections offenses are using against Bear, or 5-0 presentations.

The Bear Front Checklist:

There are only two protections you’re going to generate using Bear fronts and they are both described below. Once a DC knows that, then the fun begins. My sources go through the following checklist in devising their pressure schemes:

1. How do we get as many one on one’s as we can?
2. How can we change up the fourth rusher can be anyone- inside backer, outside backer, corner, etc.?
3. How can we attack their worst blocker?
4. How can we produce less escape lanes for the QB
5. How can we get matched up on the Back?

In these circumstances, your contain rushers are the most likely candidates to have a one-on-one matchup vs man protection or slide protection. In working with Jeff Long, the defensive coordinator at Bucknell University (PA) he talked about understanding your gameplan to get your best speed rushers in this spot.  “Your 3 techniques will get their one-on-one opportunities vs man protection – your study of opponent tendencies is important here,” he told me. “If you want your 3 techniques in a guaranteed one on one, the bear front pressure will give you this.”

Two Most Common 5-0 Protections:

Two Protection Types:

Man Protection (Big on Big) – this protection will have the 5 offensive linemen identify and lock on to one of the 5 rushers in their assigned gaps. If the tailback is involved in the protection, then he will sort the 2^nd level threats (rushers not on the LOS) before check releasing once no threat is identified.

Slide protection – this protection will be the changeup for an offense if they believe there is a high likelihood of twists from your bear front. Some teams will incorporate a full slide and have the tailback set the edge away from the slide. Some teams will split slide (4-man slide) then the TB will insert B gap away from the slide and keep the backside tackle locked on the edge.

The bottom line: The front’s job is to cover the center and kill the slide. The center stays home on 45.0% of snaps against Bear versus 6.8% against loaded fronts, and offenses answer with five-man protection 55.6% of the time. Every source in our study says this in words; and our reporting says it in numbers. And max protection does not help: six-man protection produced faster pressure (2.55s) and a higher pressure rate (78.9%) than five-man, because the defense simply adds a rusher.

Here is the breakdown of the most common protection faced against these Bear presentations:

Introducing: The Premise of the Insert Rusher:

First, the pressure comes from inside: the two guard-covering tackles alone account for 33.0% of all pressure credits, and the interior three (both tackles plus the nose) account for 47.4% — nearly half — against 30.3% for every edge player combined. Second, this is not a four-man simulated-pressure library. The five-man rush is the plurality at 35.8%, four-man is 32.7%, and a blitzer is charted on 59.8% of snaps. When defenses do bring five or six, they get there faster (5-man 2.51s, 6-man 2.28s vs 4-man 2.66s) and sack more often. Bear buys the one-on-ones; the defense then adds bodies to cash them.

Why did these coaches build in insert rushers from Bear presentations? They simply get forgotten about during the protection scheme. These are often delay rushes where a second or third level rusher gets added onto the pressure. He’s taught to find the quickest path to the quarterback. “We don't tell him where to go,” Southeast Missouri University offensive coordinator Ricky Coon told me. “Our rules are based on personnel. Is our guy better than their guy? Are they doing things in the pass game that sends their guy away? That’s what we try to exploit.”

And here’s where our research really pops. One line: the fastest pressure in a Bear front is a free interior runner at roughly 2.16 seconds, but the most reliably fast blocked lane is the edge at 2.49s. The structural reason is worth stating in the article, because it is the inverse of the loaded/overload finding. An overload front creates free interior runners by design, so the interior wins the race. Bear covers all three interior linemen, so nobody comes free inside unless a twist creates it.

Introducing X&O Labs Install Anthologies: 5-0 Front Presentations

These Bear front presentations - including the complementary pressures that are built off them- are included in our Installation series. It’s a new series designed to prepare you with everything you need to know installing and utilizing these loaded presentations heading into this season and its exclusive to our X&O Labs members.

Inside the full report, the coaches behind these clips break down exactly how they build, teach, and disguise these delay rushes — and how they turn Bear's guaranteed one-on-ones into sacks. Log in to get the complete breakdown, including:

• The 5 most common pressure patterns in the study and the quickest time to pressure for each, including the free interior runner that gets home in roughly 2.16 seconds.
• The full analytics on all 774 snaps — why 51% never became a forward pass, and how the Bear front displaces the quarterback instead of simply sacking him.
• SEMO's "Center Pick with Delay Rush," the single most common pattern in the entire study — plus the "B-Gap to Bounce" rule that tells your 3-techniques exactly when to go vertical and when to bounce out.
• The Cross Dog pattern Washington, UTSA, and Notre Dame used to attack the weakest guard — including how Coach Ash walks his Will linebacker out onto the tackle to force the protection to declare.
• Bucknell's interior twist game against man and 4-man slide protection — and the one looper rule that keeps your edge rushers' one-on-ones with the tackles intact.
• The complete coverage breakdown behind these pressures, plus raw game film on every pattern — Center Picks, Cross Dogs, interior twists, and exterior Up-and-Unders.