"Like watching the cannons on a battleship swing into firing position".

I'll always remember that description from the color commentator of a football game I watched many years ago. He was describing the defensive set up of the play about which I am writing this article. The name of this play is so iconic that it is widely used beyond football, but the name nearly always means the same thing no matter who uses it in what context. That name is the one and only "blitz".

A team will call a defensive blitz when they want to put extra pressure on a quarterback. Rather than using defensive backs to help cover receivers, those backs will "rush" the quarterback.

There are many schemes and defensive packages that have blitzes in them, but the basic concept remains the same. So let's go to the figurative chalkboard to look at a blitz, shall we? In a blitz, a defense will rely upon one player to cover a receiver (called single coverage or man to man), and send the other backs after the quarterback. They count on forcing the quarterback to have to throw the ball before the receivers are open to avoid being sacked, or maybe even reaching the ultimate goal and sacking the quarterback.

In the game I watched many years ago, the two defensive backs who were blitzing initially were positioned to cover receivers on both sides of the field. When the quarterback started calling the play the blitzing backs suddenly sprinted from their initial positions to the line of scrimmage. They both approached from opposite sides of the field, invoking the figurative comparison to the cannons on a battleship by the announcer, and just before the ball was snapped they were both leaning menacingly over the center, ready to fire. The entire stadium and television audience knew there was a blitz coming. The only question was whether or not the quarterback could get the throw off quickly enough, or survive the coming brutality that these two backs meant to visit upon his sorry... posterior. I imagine that quarterback barking out the play, watching the cannons swing into position to blast him, and having his voice suddenly sound several octaves higher than normal.

Not all blitzes are so transparent as what I have described to this point. Blitzes that are not from backs who are crowding the line of scrimmage are called "delayed" blitzes. For example, a back starts a play ostensibly covering a receiver on a sideline, but when the ball is snapped sprints twenty yards from the sideline to the middle of the field to pressure the quarterback. Maybe the blitzer is a back covering some area in the middle of the field. The advantage of a delayed blitz is that the linemen protecting the quarterback are preoccupied with the initial rush, allowing the blitzing back to find holes in the defense on their way to the quarterback.

Every red blooded football fan raves for their team to blitz and fears the other team blitzing. There is a very good reason that not every defense blitzes on every down though. If an offensive line is very good at protecting the quarterback, blitzing can lead to disaster for the defense. Receivers who are covered one on one have an advantage, and that advantage is multiplied if the quarterback is given time as the receiver gets open.

So the next time you hear a frenzied football fan scream at the T.V., "BLITZ! BLITZ!" you can just look at your wife and know that she is not screaming about the German invasion of France in 1939... Well, that works in my house anyway.

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