You do not have permission to edit this page, for the following reasons:

This IP address has been blocked from editing Wikipedia.
This does not affect your ability to read Wikipedia pages.
Most people who see this message have done nothing wrong. Some kinds of blocks restrict editing from specific service providers or telecom companies in response to recent abuse or vandalism, and can sometimes affect other users who are unrelated to that abuse. Review the information below for assistance if you do not believe that you have done anything wrong.

The IP address or range 44.201.0.0/16 has been blocked (disabled) by ‪ST47‬ for the following reason(s):

The IP address that you are currently using has been blocked because it is believed to be a web host provider. To prevent abuse, web hosts may be blocked from editing Wikipedia.
You will not be able to edit Wikipedia using a web host provider because it hides your IP address, much like a proxy or VPN.
We recommend that you attempt to use another connection to edit. For example, if you use a proxy or VPN to connect to the internet, turn it off when editing Wikipedia. If you edit using a mobile connection, try using a Wi-Fi connection, and vice versa. If you are using a corporate internet connection, switch to a different Wi-Fi network. If you have a Wikipedia account, please log in.
If you do not have any other way to edit Wikipedia, you will need to request an IP block exemption.

How to appeal if you are confident that your connection does not use a web host's IP address:
If you are confident that you are not using a web host, you may appeal this block by adding the following text on your talk page: ((unblock|reason=Caught by a web host block but this host or IP is not a web host. My IP address is _______. Place any further information here. ~~~~)). You must fill in the blank with your IP address for this block to be investigated. Your IP address can be determined here. Alternatively, if you wish to keep your IP address private you can use the unblock ticket request system. There are several reasons you might be editing using the IP address of a web host (such as if you are using VPN software or a business network); please use this method of appeal only if you think your IP address is in fact not a web host.

Administrators: The IP block exemption user right should only be applied to allow users to edit using web host in exceptional circumstances, and they should usually be directed to the functionaries team via email. If you intend to give the IPBE user right, a CheckUser needs to take a look at the account. This can be requested most easily at SPI Quick Checkuser Requests. Unblocking an IP or IP range with this template is highly discouraged without at least contacting the blocking administrator.

This block will expire on 23:54, 31 July 2024.

Even when blocked, you will usually still be able to edit your user talk page, as well as email administrators and other editors.

For information on how to proceed, please read the FAQ for blocked users and the guideline on block appeals. The guide to appealing blocks may also be helpful.

Other useful links: Blocking policy · Help:I have been blocked
Your IP address is in a range that has been blocked on all Wikimedia Foundation wikis. The block was made by ‪AntiCompositeNumber‬. The reason given is Open proxy/Webhost: Visit the FAQ if you are affected .
- Start of block: 13:55, 18 August 2022
- Expiry of block: 13:55, 18 April 2025
Your current IP address is 44.201.244.194. The blocked range is 44.201.0.0/16. Please include all above details in any queries you make. If you believe you were blocked by mistake, you can find additional information and instructions in the No open proxies global policy. Otherwise, to discuss the block please post a request for review on Meta-Wiki. You could also send an email to the stewards VRT queue at stewards@wikimedia.org including all above details.

You can view and copy the source of this page:

((Short description|Gridiron football tactic))
((more citations needed|date=March 2010))

In [[gridiron football]], '''blitzing''' is a tactic used by the [[American football#Defensive unit|defense]] to disrupt [[Forward pass#American and Canadian football|pass attempts]] by the [[American football#Offensive unit|offense]]. During a blitz, a higher than usual number of defensive players will [[Pass rush|rush]] the opposing [[quarterback]], in an attempt either to [[Quarterback sack|tackle]] them or force them to [[Quarterback sack#Pass pressure|hurry]] their pass attempt.<ref name=":0">((Cite web|url=https://www.sportingcharts.com/dictionary/nfl/blitz.aspx|title=What is Blitz?|access-date=2017-01-01))</ref>

In practice, a blitz involves five or more players rushing during a single [[Down (gridiron football)|down]], rather than the four or three rushers used during normal play.<ref>((Cite web|url=https://thefootballconcepts.com/2016/01/28/bob-shoop-and-the-fire-zone/|title=Bob Shoop and the Fire Zone|last=Price|first=Seth|date=2016-01-28|website=Football Concepts|access-date=2017-01-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102082303/https://thefootballconcepts.com/2016/01/28/bob-shoop-and-the-fire-zone/|archive-date=2017-01-02|url-status=dead))</ref> For example, in a defense that normally uses [[4–3 defense|four]] [[Lineman (gridiron football)#Defensive line|defensive linemen]] to rush, a blitz can be created by adding one or more [[linebacker]]s or [[defensive back]]s.<ref name=":0" /><ref>((Cite news|url=http://football.about.com/cs/football101/g/gl_blitz.htm|title=About Football Glossary - Blitz|newspaper=About.com Sports|access-date=2017-01-01|archive-date=2017-01-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102171451/http://football.about.com/cs/football101/g/gl_blitz.htm|url-status=dead))</ref>

Blitzing is a higher-risk strategy, as fewer defensive players are left to [[American football strategy#Pass defense|cover receivers]] or to [[American football strategy#Run defense|defend against running plays]]. However, a successful blitz will result in a [[Quarterback sack|sack]] or will force the quarterback into making an error.<ref name=":0" />

The term "blitz" is German for "lightning" and a reference to the [[blitzkrieg]] tactic of [[World War 2]].

==History==
The “red-dog", likely first completed by Carl Battershell, a MAC football legend. 

The term "red-dog" referred to a rushing [[linebacker]] that created a six-on-five matchup against the offensive line; and blitz meant rushing seven, thereby leaving one potential receiver uncovered. <ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1133924/2/((dead link|date=October 2017))</ref>

[[Chuck Drulis]] is widely credited with inventing the safety blitz in 1960 while serving as defensive coordinator of the [[Arizona Cardinals|St. Louis Cardinals]]. He had devised a play called "Wildcat" which called for a safety to be the extra pass rusher. He believed the pressure on the quarterback would be severe, since defensive backs had almost never taken part in pass rushes before.

[[Bill Arnsparger]] is the likely creator of the [[zone blitz]].

==How blitzing works==
On passing plays, the offense always has at least five people blocking. From the quarterback's left to right, they are the left tackle, left guard, center, right guard, right tackle (known collectively as the [[offensive line]]). The quarterback will throw the pass, and is not an available blocker. Any other player is available to block, or to be a target for a pass, depending on the play design and modification by the quarterback and center based on what they see the defense doing.
[[File:US Navy 071201-N-6463B-543 Navy Quarter Back Troy Gross (14) gets sacked by a blitzing Army defender at the 108th annual Army vs. Navy football game at M^T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, MD.jpg|thumb|A blitzing defender sacks a QB]]

By nature, blitzes are risky endeavors for the defense. Since the defense is taking away coverage defenders to rush the quarterback, this usually means that the [[defensive back|secondary]] can not afford to miss any coverage assignments.  The defense does not and cannot cover all offensive players, but rather through the blitz, is proactively involved in pressuring the quarterback—specifically, trying to [[quarterback sack|sack]] him, throw off his timing, or force him to make an error such as an [[interception]] or [[fumble]].

The most common blitzes are linebacker blitzes. Less common is sending a defensive back on a blitz, whether safety blitzes in which a [[safety (American football position)|safety]] (usually the free safety) is sent, or corner blitzes where a [[cornerback]] is sent. Sending a defensive back on a blitz is even riskier than a linebacker blitz as it removes a primary pass defender from the coverage scheme. Despite this, the pressure is very severe because a blitz by a defensive back is usually not anticipated by the offensive team's blockers.

==Defensive shells and techniques==
((unreferenced section |date=March 2021))
Blitzes are usually run from "[[American football strategy|Cover 1]]" coverage shells, which assign one man to guard the entire deep field, though blitzes can be employed in nearly any type of coverage scheme. Cover 1 is most effective in terms of blitzing because it allows a larger number of defensive players to tighten down on the line of scrimmage, thus increasing the variety of blitzes possible.

Since the main goal is to disrupt the offensive play before it even develops, many blitz packages encourage cornerbacks to play tight man [[bump and run coverage]] to disrupt the wide receivers' release and prevent them from running their pre-assigned routes. The non-blitzing safety, usually the free safety, has an enormous amount of field to protect and is at a serious disadvantage if the blitz is unsuccessful and receivers threaten his coverage area or if the offense can quickly move the ball forward through immediate [[checkdown]] passes or [[draw play]]s. As such, he usually works for depth upon the snap of the ball, backpedaling into his assigned zone.

Linebackers are either blitzing or in pass coverage. Blitzing [[linebackers]] can employ various stunts to confuse the offense's blockers and break down their protection scheme. Coverage linebackers in a Cover 1 scheme will usually have man responsibility on a [[Running back|halfback]], [[fullback (American football)|fullback]], or [[tight end]].

Some defensive schemes employ "key" blitzes where a player will blitz only if his assigned man stays in to block, thus keying his action off the action of his man. If his man releases into a pass pattern, then the defensive player will cover him. For example, if weak side linebacker has the fullback as his man, if upon the snap of the ball the fullback blocks, the linebacker will blitz.

==Advantages and disadvantages==
Advantages gained by blitzing are obvious: proactively disrupt the [[American football positions#Offense|offense]]'s play before it develops and cause enough pressure on the [[quarterback]] to force him into a [[Turnover (football)|turnover]], sack, or incomplete pass.

Disadvantages abound in any blitz scheme as well. First, the [[offensive linemen]] are usually trained to recognize a blitzing player before the snap of the ball. They communicate with each other at the [[line of scrimmage]] using [[Code word (communication)|code words]] that shift the protection to the blitzing player's side, thus strengthening their [[Blocking (American football)|blocking]] front. The [[quarterback]] can also call other players into the protection scheme with [[Quarterback#Special tactics|audibles]] if he feels that his current protection is weak. With good protection calls and fundamental blocking principles, some blitzes can be "picked up"—stopped at the point of attack.

Second, the tight man bump and run technique typical of blitz scheme cornerbacks can be defeated with aggressive wide receiver release moves. Once this happens, the cornerback is at a disadvantage and must regain ground and position quickly to prevent a catch. If the blitz is picked up, the wide receiver can create enough separation to become open relatively quickly.

Third, if the blitz is picked up, the one deep defender (usually the free safety) has an enormous amount of territory to guard. If two players simultaneously threaten his zone, he must decide which one to cover. The quarterback can read his reaction and throw to the other receiver, usually for a big gain.

Fourth, if the pass is caught, there are fewer defenders and larger gaps between defenders, meaning that the receiver can get more yards after catch and possibly turn a minimal gain into a dangerous play.

== Playing against the blitz ==
Offenses employ the above procedures to beat the blitz as well as two other techniques and passing route combinations designed to exploit weaknesses in a blitzing scheme.

One of those techniques is called "throwing hot," which entails intentionally leaving one blitzing defensive player unblocked. The offensive line usually makes pre-snap adjustments so that the "free" rusher is clearly within the QB's field of vision. This limits devastating blind-side hits on the QB by rushers.  When the preparedness of a quarterback allows him to not have to worry about getting hit from behind, it is one less psychological element of the blitz to be taken away, and thus blitz is incrementally made less effective by that particular element.

The other technique, sometimes used in conjunction with throwing hot, is called sight adjustment. Receivers are taught to run into the empty spot vacated by a blitzing player instead of running their pre-assigned pattern. The QB sees the free rusher or blitzing LB/CB and knows that the receiver will sight adjust accordingly and run a route that takes him into the hole left by the defender.

The [[West Coast Offense]] is an offense that focuses on ball control and short [[Forward pass|passes]]. This is a well timed offense where the [[quarterback]] throws the ball quickly to avoid the rush, but still allow the [[wide receiver]] to get behind the blitzing players.

==See also==
*[[Glossary of American football]]
*[[Zone blitz]]

==Citations==
((reflist))

==Sources==
*Gruver, Edward (2002), ''Nitschke''. Lanham:Taylor Trade Publishing. ((ISBN|1-58979-127-4))

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20041013200038/http://examiner.net/stories/011802/spe_011802061.shtml Don 'Red Dog' Ettinger]
*[http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/member.jsp?player_id=232 Lawrence (Larry) Frank Wilson]

<!--spacing-->
((Gridiron football plays))
((Gridiron football maneuvers))

[[Category:American football plays]]

Pages transcluded onto the current version of this page (help):

Blitz (gridiron football) (edit)
Template:Ambox (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Catalog lookup link (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Category handler (view source) (protected)
Template:Cite news (view source) (protected)
Template:Cite web (view source) (protected)
Template:Dead link (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Find sources mainspace (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Fix (view source) (protected)
Template:Fix/category (view source) (protected)
Template:Gridiron football maneuvers (edit)
Template:Gridiron football plays (edit)
Template:Hlist/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Template:ISBN (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Main other (view source) (protected)
Template:More citations needed (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Navbox (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Pagetype (view source) (protected)
Template:Reflist (view source) (protected)
Template:Reflist/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Template:SDcat (view source) (protected)
Template:Short description (view source) (protected)
Template:Short description/lowercasecheck (view source) (protected)
Template:Unreferenced (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Unreferenced section (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Yesno (view source) (protected)
Template:Yesno-no (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Yesno-yes (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Arguments (view source) (protected)
Module:Catalog lookup link (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Category handler (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/blacklist (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/config (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/data (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/shared (view source) (protected)
Module:Check for unknown parameters (view source) (protected)
Module:Check isxn (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Citation/CS1 (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/COinS (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Date validation (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Identifiers (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Whitelist (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Module:Disambiguation/templates (view source) (protected)
Module:Find sources (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Find sources/config (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Find sources/links (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Find sources/templates/Find sources mainspace (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Message box (view source) (protected)
Module:Message box/ambox.css (view source) (protected)
Module:Message box/configuration (view source) (protected)
Module:Namespace detect/config (view source) (protected)
Module:Namespace detect/data (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbar (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbar/configuration (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbar/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbox (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Navbox/configuration (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Navbox/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Pagetype (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/config (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/disambiguation (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/setindex (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/softredirect (view source) (protected)
Module:SDcat (view source) (protected)
Module:String (view source) (protected)
Module:Unsubst (view source) (protected)
Module:Wikitext Parsing (view source) (protected)
Module:Yesno (view source) (protected)

Return to Blitz (gridiron football).

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitz_(gridiron_football)"