Dictating to the Offense With Blitzes

The best blitz designs dictate to the offense. They show an initial pressure look, force the offense to set the protection to account for it, and then attack the vulnerabilities of that specific protection.

This example comes from the 2020 season, featuring Wink Martindale’s Ravens defense against the Giants.

New York was in an empty formation (5-man protection). The Ravens aligned with 4 potential pass rushers to the right:

To make sure they could handle those 4 potential pass rushers, the Giants used a 4-man slide to their left: