The Jim Leavitt 3-4 Defense: Single High Safety Coverages when Blitzing

Cameron Soran Analysis

In the previous two posts, we covered Jim Leavitt’s coverage structure with 2-high safeties. Now we are going to cover his main coverage concepts with 1-high safety. Leavitt primarily runs 1-high safety looks in run-first down-and-distance situations and when he is going to blitz. Leavitt ran two forms of Cover 3 when sending four rushers, both of which operated by …

The Jim Leavitt 3-4 Defense: Trips Coverage with Two-High Safeties

Cameron Soran Analysis

In the previous post, we explained how Jim Leavitt‘s 2-high safety coverage concepts operate for when there are two receivers to a side. Now we will be covering his 2-high safety coverage concepts for when there are 3 receivers to a side, most commonly known as Trips coverages. The Trips Coverages With 2-high safeties, Jim Leavitt will run: (a) Stubbie, …

Understanding the Jim Leavitt Defense: Oregon’s Basic 3-4 Structure

Cameron Soran Analysis

Being that I live in Oregon (though not a Duck fan myself), I’ve had a sort of voyeur interest in watching both the collapse and rise of Oregon’s defense in recent years. For a decade and a half, the Ducks defense was guided by the adaptive hand of Nick Aliotti. Following his departure, Oregon enjoyed one more good year on …