[dirk digler]

Thought this was interesting and there is more to read with videos in the link.

https://www.cover1.net/new-york-giants-steve-spagnuolo/

Giants fans are very familiar with outgoing defensive coordinator and interim head coach Steve Spagnuolo. As a reminder, he was an assistant defensive coach under legendary defensive coordinator Jim Johnson in Philadelphia for eight seasons. Johnson was known for his blitzes, pioneering double A-gap blitz looks and other types of exotic delayed blitzes from safeties and other overload looks before the snap that wrecked havoc on the 5- and 7-step passing schemes of the era.

Throughout Spagnuolo’s coaching career (New York Giants, obviously, but don’t forget St. Louis Rams head coach, New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator, Baltimore Ravens defensive assistant) the amount of pressure he has brought via the blitz has varied, but many of Johnson’s schemes were backbones of his attack.

Fast forward to the 2017 season and Spagnuolo is back in Big Blue and coming off a strong 2016 season. His defense was, in his words, in “graduate school” in regards to understanding the schemes and concepts they could now run. This absolutely applied to the blitzes from the secondary, often delayed and originating from off the line of scrimmage. Their design centered on almost a one-two combination, in which a blitz look was shown on one side, and then a blitz would come from an unknown area on the opposite side. There was no better example of this than versus the Eagles in week three of 2017, a game that if the scales had tipped in the Giants’ favor, the entire season may have ended up on a starkly different trajectory. This was a 3rd-and-8 near the end of the second half, and a big stop by the Giants:

The clear front side distracting pressure (and resulting relatively complicated man coverage scheme) was coupled with the back side boundary safety blitz. Spagnuolo wanted the offense to react as it did with a protection slide to the initial pressure look, allowing one of his blitzers (Collins) to face a lesser quality blocker (RB Blount). This is an example of things that should work, and this game partially laid a foundation of how teams attacked Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz for the rest of the season.

Unfortunately, though, many of the secondary blitzes featured last year were not as successful. Spagnuolo featured secondary blitzes often, according to FO again, with a frequency rate of 14.7 percent, or 3rd highest in the league. They came from both safeties, outside cornerbacks and slot corner/nickel back positions.