Identify These Four Weaknesses in Your Defensive Playbook to Make Great Adjustments
Great defensive adjustments are designed before the game. Knowing the weaknesses of your defensive playbook puts you ahead of your opponent.
Space is one of the four most important weaknesses in your defensive play call. This Cover 3 coverage behind the 33 Stack Defense front has weaknesses in the deep seams, where there is space between the Cornerbacks and Free Safety.
NOVEMBER 08, 2025
Written by Joe Daniel
Joe Daniel Football
Every defense in football has a weakness. Every defense has several weaknesses. That is part of the beauty of the game. It is what creates the endless chess match of strategy between opposing coaches.
As a play caller, you must be aware of the weaknesses in your defensive playbook. You can't solve problems if you do not know what they are.
Knowing the weaknesses on your defense helps you in many ways. You know where to move personnel so that you can minimize those weaknesses. You'll be able to plan defensive adjustments for when the offensive coordinator attacks those weaknesses.
It always helps my players when I tell them what the weaknesses in our defense are, too. If your athletes know there's a weakness, they don't have to get down on themselves when the offense finds it. They stay confident because we knew it was a weakness, and we came into the game with a plan for it.
Every defensive play call has different weaknesses. When you strengthen the defense in one area, you create a weakness somewhere else. The only way to get rid of every weakness in your defense is to have far superior athletes to your opponent.
If your players are just flat out better than everybody else's, you should keep reading. Eventually, they always catch up.
Three Levels of Defensive Play Calling
Your defensive playbook has three levels of defensive play calling. I wrote a deep dive guide on how to simplify your playbook using these three levels. When we're talking weaknesses...
Defensive Play Call Level #1: Base calls have the fewest weaknesses. It's the Swiss Army Knife of your defense. You could call it against anything.
Defensive Play Call Level #2: Movement calls create more weaknesses. These include pre-snap movement like coverage disguises or stemming. Defensive Line Stunts and other post-snap movement also fall into this category. Movement calls have more potential for breakdowns and more weakness than the base.
Defensive Play Call Level #3: Aggressive calls create the greatest strength in one area. Blitzes are the most common aggressive call, adding numbers to one area. The result is that your aggressive calls like heavy blitzes have the most weaknesses, too.
Over Mawl 3 is a Crossfire Zone Blitz from our 4-3 Defense System. This blitz overloads the middle of the defense with the blitz. Committing numbers to the middle of the offensive formation creates both numbers and leverage weakness to the outside.
Four Weaknesses in Your Defensive Playbook
There are four ways the offensive play callers can look to attack your defense. But good news! Most offensive coaches at the Youth and High School Football level don't know this stuff. You'll be ahead of the game when they luck into something.
The four weaknesses you need to look for in every defensive call in your playbook include:
- Numbers Advantages
- Space on the Field
- Seams & Bubbles
- Leverage & Angles
We're going to break down every one of them. Most calls in your defense have more than one weakness. This is not about how to eliminate weaknesses from your defense.
The key is to know the weaknesses in your defense. Then recognize when the offense discovers that weakness. How are they taking advantage of your defense? Then make the right adjustment to take the weakness away.
Endless chess match. Strategic punch and counter-punch. None of this is as important as teaching the fundamentals for each position group. But knowing how to manipulate the offense gives your defenders an edge. And it's one of the many things that makes coaching fun!
Defensive Weakness #1: Numbers Advantages
The most obvious disadvantage for any defense is numbers. If they have more blockers than you have defenders, you have no chance. When the offense has as many blockers as you have defenders, it's a big problem.
The simple start to counting numbers is to draw a line down the middle of the offense and defense. Draw it right through the Center to split the formations in half.
Count up how many offensive players are on one side of the line. If the line goes through a player, he counts as a half for each side. The Center always counts as 0.5 for each side of the offense. The Quarterback almost always is a 0.5 for the right and left. The same is true for a head-up Nose Guard on the defense.
The most basic numbers advantage is to get more offensive blockers to one side of the formation than you have defenders. This is a balanced 3-4 Defense alignment to a Pro-Twins Formation. There are five-and-a-half players on both sides of the ball for both teams.
For base offensive formations and base defenses, you usually have six and five. Six defenders to one side, five defenders to the other side.
As long as your count comes within 0.5 of the opponent, consider the numbers matched. But if you have six and they have seven? That's a weakness.
This is just the beginning of using numbers to identify defensive weaknesses. It could be numbers in the box, or numbers over split receivers. You can go even deeper, counting average players as a 1 while below average players are a 0.5 and D-1 prospects as a 2.
Numbers are critical. But as important as numbers for your defense is...
Defensive Weakness #2: Space on the Field
The ol' Spread Offense argument is that they're going to make you defend all 53 and 1/3 yards of the field. One primary goal of the Spread Offense is to create space and attack it.
Wherever your defense has space, you have a potential weakness. The offensive coordinator that identifies it wants to get his best athletes there. With the ball in their hands.
A simple example of space is with the Cornerback lined up on an outside receiver. If you press the corner, the space is behind him. The offense wants to throw a fade route.
If your cornerback alignment is 8 yards off that #1 Receiver, the space is in front of him. They'll use a hitch route or even a quick screen to take advantage of it.
The amount of space that is a weakness depends on how fast your players can close that space. Like with numbers, the Jimmy's and Joe's mean as much as the X's and O's.
While space is usually on the outside, space in the box creates...
Defensive Weakness #3: Seams and Bubbles
Seams and bubbles are breaks in your defense. Most coaches know about bubbles, but seams are a less talked about concept.
Bubbles are any gaps on the offense that are not immediately covered by a defensive lineman. In our 4-2-5 Defense System's base front the most vulnerable bubble is the weak side B-Gap.
Back in the misty dawns of football when I started coaching (the 2000s) teams would line up in a Pro "I" Formation. To attack that weak side B-Gap bubble, they ran Iso Weak. The fullback leads through the bubble to block the Will Linebacker.
Today you don't see as much of the pure "I" Formation Iso run. You will see Wing-T teams running the Belly weak run play, though. In our Pistol Power Offense System, we run a Zone Lead to attack that gap as a tag to our base Inside Zone run.
Seams are like bubbles but they are on the edge of the defense. And they are more dangerous than bubbles. Seams open up after the snap, when the play is already running. But the fix is sometimes a simple pre-snap alignment change.
There are two types of seams to look for in your defensive weakness:
1. Horizontal Seams: Splits in your defense at the line of scrimmage. This is when the force defender in your Umbrella Run Fits is too wide or gets kicked out. Couple that with the Defensive End, your last spill defender, getting easily reached. It creates a huge horizontal seam, too wide for the alley defender to fill.
2. Vertical Seams: Most common, most dangerous weakness for many defenses. This happens with even the best playbooks. If your force defender gets too far up the field, an outside run play can cut underneath him. There is no way to force a change of direction with a big vertical seam.
Seams are a deep discussion. Vertical seams especially take some time to understand. But we have levers built into our defensive systems to fix that weakness fast.
One more category of weaknesses you need to identify in your defensive playbook - and one you cannot avoid...
Defensive Weakness #4: Leverage & Angles
Like the Spread Offense craves space, the Wing-T Offenses crave leverage and angles. You get to decide where the space is going to be on the field, and the Spread has to figure out how to get the ball there.
You get to decide where the leverage and angles are going to be, if you are smart enough to recognize it (you are now). Those gap scheme blockin' Wing-T guys decide how they want to attack it.
Every defense has leverage and angle weaknesses. Can't avoid it. But you can recognize it, and move those strategically to adjust your weakness with your play calls. At least make the advantage harder to find!
What does this look like in your defense? Take our 4-2-5 Defense System with an Over Front. If the offense lines up in a Double Tight End formation, the Weak End now has a Tight End lined up on his side.
If the 5-Technique Weak End in the 4-2-5 Defense does not check his alignment against a Double Tight formation, he’s outleveraged. The weakness is the perfect down block angle for the Tight End to collapse the edge and create a large horizontal seam.
The Weak End's base alignment is a 5-technique, outside shade of the tackle. If he stays there when the second Tight End shows up, it is a leverage and angles weakness. The TE can easily down block the Weak End because he has a great angle on him. That angle creates a huge leverage advantage to get around the edge of the defense.
One weakness creates another, too. When the Weak End gets down blocked, it creates a big horizontal seam between him and the force defender. One that might be too wide for the Alley player to fill.
If you make the wrong adjustment, you create another (even bigger) weakness. Sometimes Weak Ends are so used to being outside of the end man, they line up on the outside of the Tight End.
Now there is a massive bubble with both B-Gap and C-Gap open. That is a huge no-no in defensive alignment.
Our adjustment is to make a "Heavy" check. That slides the Weak End to inside shade of the Tight End, taking away his down block angle. The shaded Nose also slides to a 2i-technique, inside shade of the guard to squeeze the B-Gap bubble.
Identifying Weaknesses to Create Great Adjustments
You had a great game plan. Everything was laid out perfectly. The practice plans were on point and this week in practice, the kids were focused. On the first defensive series, you shut them down.
But your opponent practices too. They watch film. They create game plans and install new twists and tweaks.
By the end of the 1st Quarter, they figured you out. That mean ol' Offensive Coordinator is attacking your weaknesses.
Making the right adjustments during the game is critical to the success of your defense. But great coaches do not pull those adjustments out of thin air in the heat of battle.
The best defensive football coaches prepare adjustments before the game. They stick with the same system year after year, so they have experience of making dozens of adjustments in the past, too. Instead of changing the defense every year to "fit your personnel." (huge mistake!)
Learning to identify the four defensive weaknesses in your play calls ahead of time puts you ahead of the game. You know where the offense is going to try to attack you if they're smart enough to see it. And you can plan those adjustments to take that weakness away ahead of time.
It's all part of the System. Do you have your Defensive System in place and ready to win Championships? Download my free coaching manual, "What You Need to Know to Build the Ultimate Defensive Football Coaching System" to take control of your defense now:
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GET THE FREE DIGITAL GUIDE FOR BUILDING THE ULTIMATE FOOTBALL DEFENSE THAT WINS GAMES
Shut Down Any Opponent When Your Team Misses Fewer Tackles, Allows Fewer Big Plays, and Gives Up Fewer Points. Enter your best email address below, and I'll send you a FREE copy of our latest Football Coaching Guide titled "What You Need To Know To Build The Ultimate Defensive Football Coaching System"!
Your information is safe with us and will not be shared
Defensive Playbook Weaknesses FAQ
Q1: What are the four types of weaknesses I should look for in my defensive playbook?
The four main weaknesses you need to identify in every defensive play call are Numbers Advantages, Space on the Field, Seams and Bubbles, and Leverage and Angles. These categories cover how the offense can gain an advantage in blocking, spacing, or positioning. Every defensive call will have at least one of these weaknesses, and understanding where they exist helps you plan adjustments and keep your defense sound.
Q2: Why is it important for coaches and players to understand the weaknesses in their defense?
When coaches and players understand the weaknesses in their defense, they can stay confident and prepared. Coaches know where to move personnel and what adjustments to make when the offense attacks those weak spots. Players stay focused because they already know the defense isn’t perfect and that there’s a plan to handle those situations. This awareness turns potential mistakes into opportunities to execute adjustments instead of panicking.
Q3: How do different types of defensive play calls affect the weaknesses in your defense?
Each type of defensive play call creates a different balance of strengths and weaknesses. Base calls have the fewest weaknesses and can be used against almost any offense. Movement calls, like stunts or coverage disguises, add more potential for breakdowns and open up more weak spots. Aggressive calls, such as blitzes, create the strongest pressure in one area but also leave the most weaknesses elsewhere. The more aggressive or complex the call, the more exposed your defense can become if the offense finds the right spot.
Q4: How can recognizing defensive weaknesses help you make better in-game adjustments?
Recognizing defensive weaknesses before and during the game helps you respond faster when the offense starts attacking them. Instead of guessing or making random changes on the sideline, you already know where the problems might show up and how to fix them. That preparation lets you adjust alignments, shift personnel, or change calls with confidence. The best coaches do not invent adjustments on the fly. They plan them ahead of time by understanding their weaknesses.
Q5: Can you eliminate all weaknesses from your defense with the right play calls?
No, every defense has weaknesses. When you strengthen one part of your defense, you create a weakness somewhere else. The only way to remove every weakness is to have far superior athletes than your opponent. Since that is rarely the case, the goal is not to eliminate weaknesses but to understand them and make smart adjustments to minimize their impact.
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