A few weeks ago, I started up the Football 101 posting series with an initial post dealing with technique and gaps.  Once free agency approached, I decided to hold off on moving further into the series to concentrate on the latest rumors and signings that the Eagles were involved in.  Now that the initial frenzy is winding down, I’m going to get back to the series and get our general football knowledge database well stocked.  If you’re new to the site, you can read my introductory post here and also the first post of the series here.  Also, now that there’s more than one post and the series will be filling up fast, I’ve added a new Section on the left side of the BGN homepage to keep things nice and organized for you.  Today’s topic is going to be the Base 4-3 Defense.

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I’m going to get things rolling on our Football 101 series here with the defensive side of the ball.  As we’ve become accustomed to hearing, Andy believes that you need to build a team from the inside out, and I’m going to take that same approach with this series.  The first topic that I’m going to take a look at is techniques and gaps along the defensive line.  Before the play can even begin, everyone needs to be lined up correctly and know what they’re doing at the snap.

As a quick note, and this will most likely apply to every post in the Football 101 Series, what I’m saying isn’t exactly gospel.  The basics will apply universally, but moving from system to system and even from scheme to scheme within the same system, things may not always apply.  Most of this information will be the bare bones basics that each team has made their own.  However, I’ll try to point out specific discrepancies along the way where possible.

So, let’s get to it…

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