The 7 Most Common Defenses in Football

It will help you play the game more effectively and set the ground work for achieving your goal of keeping the opposing team from scoring a touchdown.

   
Offense and defense are significantly important, but if you have an elite defense and decent offense then you may just have the formula required for you to win a championship. Winning and losing can depend on upon the choice of formation the squads choose that are best suited to the teams skill set and natural athletic ability.

However, the defensive scheme is something that is in our control, so it is important to know the basic defense formations used in football that can ultimately help you win the game. If you know how to play defense effectively, then it can help you predict the offense and also create the offense by generating turnovers, field position, and even points.
 
There are many defenses in the football game, but coaches of the different football team uniforms have their own viewpoints and ideas for the defense formation. Because coach of every team has some experience from their past football games. And on the behalf of that experience, they guide their team.

Still every football player should know the most common defenses in the game whether he is a newbie or skilled.

The 7 most common defenses in football are:

• 4-3:
4-3 is most commonly used at a higher level of the football game like NFL and it is not much used at the lower level of football games. This is the most common defense in the football game. And usually, players use this type of defense formation while playing. In this, there are 4 linemen out of which 2 are tackles and 2 are at the ends; and there are 3 linebackers. This defense is very effective out of all the defense formations. This defense formation is very supple and it's difficult for offence player to find a secluded space.

• 3-4:
In 3-4 there are 3 defensive linemen- two defensive ends which make it called 5 techniques and one nose guard. These three linemen are responsible for the defending the other squad's offensive line, allowing the 4 linebackers to play from the quarterback or to play from their original position, depending upon the situation. This is very versatile and flexible scheme of defense in which any number of linebackers can blitz or we can say fake a blitz.

•4-4:
In the 4-4 defensive formation of the football game, there are 4 linemen and 4 linebackers or we can say that there are 4 defenders and 4 midfielders and two players play forward. The main power of this formation is its right balance. In this, the two center players are the weakness and they should be supported by the other midfielders.

• 5-2:
In 5-2 formation there are five defenders and two defensive midfielders. And from the rest of the players, one is a clean striker and two is offensive midfielders (these two can also play as strikers). This formation is a mixture of 3-4 defense formation. This formation is generally used at school levels or college level.

•5-3:
The 5-3 defense formation is same as 5-2 defense formation; the only difference is that now there are 3 linebackers. This formation is used for stopping the run, specially designed to make use of a strong middle linebacker.

•6-2:
6-2 defense formation has 6 linemen and 2 linebackers also called as standard short yardage defensive formation. The six down linemen are placed in the gap between the offensive linemen with the 2 inside linebackers.

•The goal line defense:
This is somewhat similar to 6-2 defense formation.  The main point of the goal line defense formation is similar to other defense formation to keep the offence from scoring. There are middle two linebackers at the back, 6 linemen, and 2 outer linebackers.

So, if you want to become a good football player you should know to play in all the defense formations.