You hear this phrase all the time “Defense wins Championships” but what goes into a winning team’s defense. Well it all starts with their base formation. In this edition of Football 101, we look at the 4-3 Defense.
The 4–3 defense is a defensive alignment consisting of four down linemen and three linebackers. It is probably the most commonly used defense in modern American football and especially in the NFL.
The invention of the 4–3 is often attributed to legendary coachTom Landry, in the 1950s, while serving as the Defensive Coordinator of the New York Giants, as a way to stop Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown. Others attribute the creation of the 4–3 to Chicago Bears Hall of Fame linebacker, Bill George. It has also been said that the 4–3 defense was a creation of Garrard “Buster” Ramsey, the Defensive Coach of the Detroit Lions teams in the 1950s.
In the original version of the 4–3, the tackles lined up over the offensive guards and the ends lined up over the offensive tackles, with the middle linebacker over the center and the other linebackers outside the ends. In the mid-1960s Hank Stram developed a popular variation, the “Kansas City Stack”, which shifted the strong side defensive end over the tight end, stacked the strongside linebacker over the tackle, and shifted the weakside tackle over center. At about the same time theCleveland Browns frequently used a weakside shift. The Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry developed a “flex” variation, that moved standout lineman Randy Whiteall over and set two of the linemen a half-step farther back from the offensive linemen. Now every team has its own variations.