How Colts DC Lou Anarumo Will Scheme Open Laiatu Latu: Overload Fronts

The NFL is a matchup league and Lou Anarumo has been one of the best at scheming plays for his best players.

The NFL is a matchup league. It’s a cliche—but there also is a lot of truth to it. College football has such a wide range of offensive schemes that it’s forced defenses to defend concepts not players. In the NFL, there’s turnover and a focus on putting game-changing players in position to make plays.

Lou Anarumo, as we know, has a flexible system designed to defend the opponent, not the width of the field. Some systems want to get good at running specific coverages and pressures that they know they can execute well on Sundays. Lou, on the other hand, wants to be multiple so that he has all the ammo he needs to defend the opponent schematically.

In his time as a DC he’s done a great job putting his pass rushers in advantageous situations. Trey Hendrickson is one of the leagues best pass rushers, and Lou did a great job putting offenses in a position to pick their poison and let Trey affect game.

Overload Front Structures

As a defensive end, you want the most amount of 1-on-1 rushes that you can get on passing downs. You want to put your hand in the dirt and have a two way go at the offensive tackle.
As an offense this is exactly what you do not want. I do not want Trey Hendrickson 1-on-1 with no help. That’s the chess match.

Besides chip the player, you often see teams do the following:

• Put a TE to the side of the edge rusher creating traffic and eliminating a two way go. He can either Chip and release or free release into the pattern depending on the concept.
• Slide the protection to the edge rusher and have the near tackle overset and force the inside move into the guard looking to help.

Lou likes to force teams to slide the other way so they have to leave Trey 1-on-1 or throw hot.

Let’s take a look at this sack vs. the Steelers last season. The Steelers are in Jet Protection or six man half-slide protection. Half-slide protection is kinda what it sounds like— half the OL is sliding to the gap furthest from the center, while the other side and the RB are man-on-man.

How do you know who is sliding and who’s man-on-man? Well that gets called into the huddle but can change once you get to the line and see the defense’s presentation. When it’s called in the huddle, the base rules are as followed: The OL is responsible for the 4 down lineman and the Will or weak side linebacker. The RB is reading Mike to Sam and then running his route. As a starting point, you want the QB to be most protected where he isn’t looking on his first read— that’s why you slide for the Will.

But as I mentioned,...