NICKEL DEFENSE
In the fall of '98 we were getting ready to play a team that was undefeated in five games. They had a very good passing attack and were averaging over 300 yards passing a game. Obviously this was a concern for us and we were tossing around ideas for defensive adjustments.
One of the things that we really wanted to do was to get three defenders deep and still be able to cover all the receivers in the short zones. A number of years ago, we employed a 5-under, 2-deep concept to face a "pocket style" QB who did not like to run all that much with great success. He had made the USA Today rankings for the previous week with over 450 yards passing. We held him to under 150 yards passing with 50 coming on a trick pass play. While thinking of this I was watching the "Big Boys" play on TV and noticed that they were playing lots of nickels and dimes out there with only three linemen and doing it successfully. I thought to myself, all other things being equal, why couldn't we do the same thing?
Now this is a radical thing. I had been a 5-2 defensive devotee for many years and only went to the 4-3 because we had just too many adjustment problems for those one back sets with a 5-2. Here I am thinking about not 5 linemen, not four linemen, but three linemen. And some of that time the defensive tackle is a 148 pound wrestler. This is a major adjustment in philosophy.
We went ahead with the idea and inserted the Nickel into our defensive package. Our defensive coordinator came up with the idea of playing "nickel man" and also "nickel zone." We did not play this defensive the whole game - not even half the game. But we did play it according to tendency from the scouting report. It was a real success.
One of the major reasons I believe it has been successful for us is that most defensive people these days do not play cover but pressure. You can take a good thinking QB and teach him to make some reads and hit the open receiver against that rushing defense. But what happens when the QB makes his drop, sees that all receivers are covered, and there is no one to throw to? PANIC sets in lots of time. He either tries to force the ball into coverage which leads to interceptions (we averaged 1.5 interceptions a game last year), or he will pull the ball down early and start to run destroying the pass play. Since we are in nickel most of the time in a "long" situation, pursuit gets to the QB before too many yards are gained and they are still in a long situation.
We feel that the Nickel Package is now an integral part
of our defensive game plan, especially when we are facing those pass happy
one-back/no back offenses. It is very difficult for those guys to move the
ball down the field when there is no one open. 
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