Football Offseason

Inside Penn State’s Playbook: Creeper Pressures

This 4-man blitz popularized by current Baylor HC Dave Aranda roughly a decade ago is probably the ‘safest’ pressure package in Manny Diaz’s Balls-to-the-Wall defensive binder.

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On Dec. 17, 2021, new Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz – still very much a stranger in a strange place on that date – “met” with the local media for the first time over Zoom.

After a series of clunky, repetitive, and unnecessary pleasantries from every reporter asking a question from their bedroom/home office, multiple inquires seeking more details on how Miami did him dirty, and even some prodding into his ‘Grand Opening, Grand Closing’ 18-day tenure as Temple’s head coach in 2018, we finally got to the good stuff: What’s a Manny Diaz defense all about?

“Philosophically, (former Penn State DC) Bob (Shoop) and I are very closely aligned in the way that we like to be aggressive, attack-pressure defenses,” Diaz said that day.

Sure as sugar, that’s exactly what the 2022 Penn State defense was under Diaz. Brandishing a full clip of exotic pressure packages and coverage schemes tailored to confuse opposing QBs, Diaz’s 2022 Nittany Lions improved in most every major defensive metric from the previous season – a campaign stellar enough to earn Brent Pry a P5 head coaching gig – despite having to replace 5 starters drafted by the NFL.

In 2022, Penn State’s sack percentage rose to 8.12%, a sharp increase compared to 2021’s 5.39%. Diaz’s Nittany Lions defense surrendered nearly 5 yards less per possession (25.8 vs 30.4 in 2021), finished Top 10 in FBS in points allowed per game (18.2), recorded a school-record 99 PBUs, and generated 20.8 HAVOC plays per contest – the 4^th most of any FBS defense since 2009. And, for the most part, Penn State accomplished all that on defense by Manny simply being Manny – commander of a proactive, not reactive, scheme willing to risk it all for the bountiful game-changing rewards that come with sacks, TFLs, and turnovers.

Notice we included the four-word disclaimer “for the most part” to that last run-on sentence because one of Diaz’s most successful pressure packages in 2022 wasn’t really that reckless. Complex, yes. Confusing, yes. Calculated, yes. Conservative, also yes.

They’re called Creeper pressures.

Creeper vs. Fire Zone

If you’ve been following the pirated-film fun over on our YouTube channel, you’ve probably heard Coach Codutti mention the phrase “Fire Zone blitz” approximately 150-ish times over the course of three years.

And if you haven’t been following our YouTube channel, well, shame on you.

During Brent Pry’s tenure as DC in Happy Valley, many (although not all) of his Fire Zone calls featured blitzing second-level defenders trying to overload one side of the line of scrimmage while the DE away from the pressure dropped into zone coverage. If you’d like to see this concept illustrated in moving pictures, click here.

If you don’t, here’s a screen-grab diagram:

4-man front. Saliva sommelier 55-Antonio Shelton, Toledo’s 8^th-leading tackler in 2022 77-Judge Culpepper, and 18-Shaka Toney all rush the QB – with Toney “longsticking” across two gaps – while real estate agent 34-Shane Simmons backpedals into pass coverage. Second level LBs 13-Ellis Brooks and 12-Brandon Smith (Smith is off the screen, but that’s his yellow arrow) both pressure the left side of the Terps OL, thus outflanking Maryland.

So that’s a version of Brent Pry’s Fire Zone pressure.

Here’s a version Manny Diaz’s Creeper pressure.

Kinda looks the same, huh? 4-man front. 3 rush while the DE on the opposite side of the pressure – this time, 44-Chop Robinson – bails to cover the area vacated by the boundary corner, 8-Marquis Wilson, who rolled into a 2-high role post-snap. Second-level defender LB 23-Curtis Jacobs blitzes, forcing a hurried throw underneath that turns 2^nd & Forever into 3^rd & A Few Yards Less Than Forever.

So what’s the difference? How can we distinguish Fire Zone pressures with a retreating DE from Creeper pressures with a retreating DE?

Numbers. It’s just numbers, Lazy Transition Device. Fire Zone blitzes and Creeper blitzes are both designed to accomplish the same thing – manipulate the offensive line’s protection to free up pass rushers and force the QB to deliver the ball prematurely…if he has time to deliver the ball, at all.

Only Fire Zone does it by sending five defenders…

…where Creeper does it by sending four defenders.

That’s it.

Strategy/Philosophy

Essentially, Creeper pressures allow defensive coordinators to have their cake and eat it too, in that they foster confusion along the offensive line (i.e. blown assignments) and juicy 1-on-1 blocking matchups – a 190-pound running back on 235-pound, chiseled human torpedo Abdul Carter, for example – WITHOUT compromising coverage because you’re only sending four dudes and dropping seven.

For instance:

2^nd and 10 during the infant stages of this eventual bludgeoning. PSU MLB 43-Tyler Elsdon – the second-level blitzer – and DE 20-Adisa Isaac attempt a two-man stunt that Michigan sniffs out and silences with ease. The pressure is picked up, leaving Michigan QB 9-J.J. McCarthy sufficient time in the pocket to pinpoint an open receiver in this 5-man route concept. Yet, he never pulls the trigger, unsure of where to go vs. Penn State’s 7 pass defenders…8 if you count the ominous inflated condom (The Ultimate Defender) floating around.

According to the stopwatch app on my cracked-screened iPhone, it takes Elsdon 5.88 seconds to finally hit McCarthy. That’s the beauty of Creeper – loading 7 white-helmeted eggs in your coverage basket provides ample insurance should your blitzers fail to apply pressure.

But, obviously, that’s not Diaz’s intention with Creeper. No, he’s trying to free up one of his four rushers in order to A) get a sack B) force a throwaway or C) bait the QB into what PFF calls a “turnover-worthy play” – a throw with a high percentage of being intercepted. So let’s get to those clips, shall we?

Pivotal play in a game full of them. With less than a minute left, and Purdue down 4 points, Diaz dealt this diabolical Creeper blitz from the bottom of the deck, dropping Boilermakers QB 16-Aidan O’Connell before he could progress beyond his initial read despite having 6 blockers for only 4 pass rushers.

Because this is an obvious passing situation, Penn State trots out 7 defensive backs, 3 linemen with a true nose tackle (0-tech), and a linebacker – a subpackage we dubbed ‘MAGNIFICENT’ in our postgame writeups to pay homage to the classic 1960 western starring Yul Brynner, Charles Bronson, and Steve McQueen. And because this is a 3-man front – and because Creepers always send four guys at the QB while dropping first-level defender – Penn State has to blitz two second-level defenders, in this case CB 3-John(ny) Dixon and S 16- Ji’Ayir Brown.

Nose Tackle 51-Hakeem Beamon is assigned to quickly tap the center then bounce all the way to the C-gap, crossing the face/occupying the attention of the RG and RT who have absolutely no one to block. Beamon’s job on this blitz isn’t to apply pressure on the QB. That’s what Dixon, Isaac and Brown are for. No, Beamon’s job is to maintain and plug up the backside escape valve should the QB try and run away from the overload pressure. He’s a diversion – 3 blockers are eyeing him – and an insurance policy vs. slippery, fleet-footed QBs.

Now let’s turn our attention back to the pressure. It’s 3 blockers vs. 3 rushers. Brown actually goofs this up, running into Isaac when he should be looping around him – Week 1 in a new system…hey, it happens. Even though Brown and Isaac essentially block themselves by “peeing in the same Coke bottle,” they’ve still occupied the LG and LT. So good job, I guess. That leaves Dixon 1-on-1 vs. Purdue RB 22-King Doerue, a court jester of a pass protector (2022 PFF pass-blocking grade in true pass sets: 0.0…and no that’s not a typo. Zero point freakin’ zero.)

Anyway, here’s how this particular version of Creeper is supposed to look:

Impeccable timing. Hard to tell who’s coming until the ball is snapped.

Nose tackle 28-Zane Durant engages then dashes to barricade the back door, just like Beamon did vs. Purdue. DE 44-Robinson “longsticks” across 2 gaps, crossing the face of the RT and RG and eventually dancing with the C. That leaves 25-Daequan Hardy – manning the rush role Dixon played vs. Purdue – 1-on-1 with an RB. This time, though, the RB (with the assistance of the bailing RG) wins. BUUUT…that extra help leaves the looping LB 11-Abdul Carter unblocked, which isn’t great if you’re a fan wearing a necklace full of nuts around your neck.

Coverage-wise, 23-Jacobs rolls to replace the blitzing Hardy. Pre-snap bluff blitzer 3-Dixon rolls to replace Jacobs, bracketing the underneath receiver – an undesirable option on 3^rd and 14. Retreating DE 20-Isaac takes on boundary flat duties so that CB 4-Kalen King can bail into deep-half coverage while 16-Brown sneaks upfield as a robber. If PSU S 6-Zakee Wheatley was 2 or 3 shoe sizes smaller, this would have been an interception.

Sending 4 and dropping 7 into zone instead of sending 5 and dropping 6 into zone opens up a thick catalog of complex coverages in Creeper that can’t be performed in a traditional Fire Zone blitz. At the same time, sending 4 instead of 5 doesn’t compromise where defensive coordinators like Diaz can send pressure, as 10 of the 11 defenders on the field can all rush the QB at any given time – the field cornerback being the lone exception since he’d be blitzing from Boalsburg.

SAM Creeper Blitz: