To help some of you that are new to the game I will be including a section each week on Football 101. This is a basic introduction to football taken from various sources on the internet.  I hope you find this information helpful.

THE DEFENSE
The job of the defense is to stop the offense. The 11 men on the defensive team all work together to keep the offense from advancing toward the defense's end zone.

The defense uses different players to help stop the offense. The defense uses ends, tackles and nose guards to stop the run. Linebackers help in runs and passes. Cornerbacks try to stop passes. The strong safety helps against passes and runs. The safety prevents long plays.

The defensive formation usually matches up with the offense. But the defense can try to do different strategies to stop the offense. The defense can move players around to cause the offense problems. Defenses may add extra lineman or backs if they think the offense is going to run or pass.

THE DEFENSIVE PLAYERS
* Linebackers defend against the pass, and push forward to stop the run or tackle the QB.
* The defensive line (ends and tackles) battles head-to-head against the offensive line.
* Cornerbacks and safeties defend against the pass from the QB to the wide receiver and help to stop the run.

DEFENSIVE STRATEGY
Football calls for many different defensive strategies in a game. The offense decides on a play and the defense tries to counter with a way to stop the play. It is like a chess match, each team trying to outwit the other. Watching how teams try to stop a play is what coaching defense is all about. What plays are chosen and against what offensive formations are all part of the defensive and coaching strategy.

DEFENSIVE STRATEGIES
1. Base Defense. This is when the defense sets in their basic or normal set. The defensive coordinator calls different plays from this set. He can call for linemen to rush differently, linebackers where to go and what pass defense to run.

2. Run prevent. This is a way the defense uses extra linemen to stop the run. The defense expects running plays and commits players to the run. A team faces an opponent that runs the ball a lot will use this style.

3. Pass prevent. Defenses expect a team to pass. Many times near the end of the game if the offensive team needs to score quickly they will pass on every down. Defenses like to use this prevent style which includes extra defensive backs.

4. Zone Pass Defense. This is a pass defense where the defensive backs go to a zone or area on the field. They cover the player that comes into the zone.

5. Zone blitz. This is a new style of defense. Defenses use a zone blitz to trick the offense on how they will play the pass and who is going to blitz.

6. Play calling. Setting up the offense in a certain formation does not mean they will pass or run. Teams have many different plays for each formation. The offensive coaches try to make the defensive coaches guess what play is going to be run.

COACHING STRATEGY
Teams have scouted their opponents and look for tendencies in their play calling and what they do in certain situations. For example if a team always passes on second and ten, then the defensive coaches would call a pass defense. Each defensive segment coach scouts their opponent to look for ways of beating them in a specific defense. The line coach watches for the way the offensive line blocks. The linebacker watches the quarterback and running backs how they move and where they run. The secondary coach watches the receivers and the patterns they run. All the coaches then meet as a staff and report their findings to the defensive coordinator. Then they come up with the game plan for the opponent.