American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

, an eight-in-the-box defense is a defensive alignment in which 8 of the 11 defensive players are close to the

line of scrimmage In gridiron football, a line of scrimmage is an imaginary transverse line (across the width of the field) beyond which a team cannot cross until the next play has begun. Its location is based on the spot where the ball is placed after the end o ...

Description

The area occupied by

defensive linemen In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

and

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

s is often referred to as "the box". The box is usually about 3-5 yards in depth and spans the

offensive line In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

in width. Normally five to seven defensive players occupy this area but frequently another player is brought into the box for run support against smashmouth-oriented offensive teams or short yardage situations. The most common occurrence of eight in the box in the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

involves the

strong safety Safety is a position in gridiron football on the defense. The safeties are defensive backs who line up ten to fifteen yards from the line of scrimmage. There are two variations of the position: the free safety and the strong safety. Their dut ...

walking down from his position (moving to within) 10-15 yards off the line of scrimmage before the ball is snapped.Kirwan and Siegerman, p. 215. From this tightened position he can offer the aforementioned run support as well as jam WRs and TEs, blitz the QB, or provide flat coverage. Due to the superior athleticism of NFL players, it is not uncommon for the box safety to even provide deep coverage after the snap, giving the QB a pre-snap Cover 1 read but effectively transitioning into

Cover 2 Zone coverage (also referred to as a zone defense) is a defense scheme in gridiron football used to protect against the pass. Zone coverage schemes require the linebackers and defensive backs to work together to cover certain areas of the field ...

or another shell post snap. Often, to hold a disguised defense, the safety will not come down until the snap of the ball. While this is not the eight in the box strategy, it gives the same results without showing what your defense is before the snap of the ball.

Advantages

Obvious advantages come off the eight in the box strategy including more defenders to stop the run game of the opponent which is the main reason for this strategy. The eight in the box scheme is also often used by teams throughout the NFL as a disguise to which players will be coming after the quarterback. This creates a level of difficulty for the offensive linemen because they will not know pre-snap who they will need to block. Quick decisions will need to be made after the snap of the ball.

Disadvantages

Defenses would rather not have to go to the eight in the box strategy because it takes away from the pass coverage. However, teams that run the ball effectively force defenses to go to this strategy. Once a defense does this, the offense can run play-action passes to keep the defenders near the line of scrimmage as the receivers (usually 1 or 2 since, often, heavy packages are in the game including tight ends in place of receivers) run by them and have an entire field to run away from a cornerback, putting the defensive backs at a disadvantage. This scheme can also work against the team that is covering the run. In a base defensive set, there are 3 levels of defenders; line, linebackers, and safeties. The safeties are there to keep runners from going all the way for the score. However, when one safety creeps down toward the line of scrimmage, that leaves only one high safety to make the tackle once the runner has broken the first line of defense.

References

Bibliography

* Kirwan, Pat and Siegerman, David, ''Take Your Eye Off The Ball'', Triumph, 2010. * Rahme, Dave, ''With foes stacking the box to stop the run, Syracuse University offense turns to passing game'' The Post Standard. Sept. 24, 2010 {{American football strategy American football formations