Earlier this week I looked at one of the defensive schemes that the Washington Commanders like to use fairly often, the zone blitz. Today, I thought I’d look at another scheme the team likes to use: simulated pressures. Simulated pressures, or sim pressures, are defensive schemes that are designed in such a way that the offense thinks a big blitz is coming, but actually the defense is only rushing four, just not the original four down lineman. 

Sim pressures can be as complex or as simple as the defensive coordinator wants. They can opt to line up with seven defenders on the line of scrimmage and show a huge blitz before rushing four or just show a basic look and send a linebacker instead of a defensive end. Jack Del Rio’s defense has tended more towards the latter.

Here’s an example of a sim pressure from last season against the Jaguars. The Commanders use a very typical nickel front with four down lineman and two linebackers behind them. Typically they would just rush the front four and have the linebackers drop into coverage. However, on this play the Commanders have Casey Toohill drop into coverage from his defensive end position while linebacker Jamin Davis rushes from the other side. 

This is the core idea of the type of sim pressures that the Commanders typically use. Most protection schemes are set so that the offensive line is able to pick up the four down defensive lineman and perhaps one other rusher, so they will assume a defensive end is usually going to rush and account for him in the protection scheme. This provides the defense with a chance to switch things up. By having a defensive end drop out into coverage, and replacing him with a linebacker rushing from the other side, suddenly the protection scheme can break down. The offense can be left overloaded to one side despite on paper having enough lineman available to block every rushing defender. 

As the ball is snapped on this play, you can see how the Jaguars are in a partial slide protection with the center to the left tackle all sliding left. However, the defensive end to that side ends up dropping into coverage, which leaves three offensive lineman to block one defensive lineman. Daron Payne stunts across the face of the right guard to that left side of the line, which forces the center to help. But that still leaves four offensive lineman blocking two defensive lineman, which means Montez Sweat is left with a one-on-one matchup against the right tackle and Jamin Davis has a clear lane up the middle. 

The running back is forced to step up and block Davis, which is a matchup that the Commanders like for multiple reasons. Firstly, the back is much smaller than Davis, so Davis should be able to overpower him and win the rush. Secondly, it means the running back is forced to stay in and protect, so can’t work out and run a route. That takes away one of the Jaguars eligible receivers, meaning that the Commanders now have seven defenders in coverage to try and cover a maximum of four receivers. The pressure from Davis forces the quarterback off the spot and makes him late for his throw, which ultimately ends up incomplete.

Later in the same game, Washington tried the same sim pressure scheme but flipped the side it was run from.

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