Football Explained: Baiting The Fullback

I'm taking the weekend off as Sunday's my wife's birthday and Monday she leaves for California. Before I claw my eyes desperately fending accursed natural light, I want to share this very cool short video created by Scruffy Lefty. This is not a Seahawks specific play, but a generic weakside linebacker delay blitz. The defense sends the front four, but when the right defensive end successfully edge rushes the left offensive tackle, the weakside linebacker blitzes, baiting the fullback to step up and block. Unfortunately, the fullback is the quarterback's last line of defense, and with the strongside linebacker in a short zone underneath and the left defensive end controlling the right "C" gap, the quarterback is a sitting duck. There's a couple other cool little nuances thrown in there, too.

(via ScruffyLefty)

Hopefully, this is the start of regular feature. Once the season starts, it could demonstrate an opposing defensive coordinators marquee blitz or be used in The Tape series to animate an especially important play. Tell us what you think.