Bront's Forums

Generaly your standard defense is a 4-3  (Technicaly a 4-3-4)  consisting of 4 down linemen (or defensive linemen), 3 linebackers, and 4 defensive backs (generaly 2 Cornerbacks, and 2 Safeties).

A nickle Back is a 3rd cornerback who plays instead of a linebacker, generally useful in passing downs.  A dime back is a 4th cornerback who plays instead of a linebacker.  Both are good for covering longer passes, but tend to give up some bulk against the run.  Generally, if you have more conerbacks out there than your opponent has WRs out there, that's a problem.

The 46 D has one of the Safties come forward and play as if he was a linebacker (The term 8 men in the box is often a 46, though not exactly).  This was the famous Bears D of 85, however in todays NFL, it's more dangerous with faster recievers.

The 3-4 is three down linemen and 4 linebackers.  It's a bit different because you end up with a lot of blitzing by linebackers, and occasionally your defensive ends drop back into pass coverage as well.  Pittsburgh plays a 3-4, so look for that in the Superbowl.

Offensive packages often describe how the formation goes.  Shotgun is the QB back 5-7 yards from the Center and gets the snap at a distance.  The I formation is a the QB, Fullback (your bigger back, used for blocking or occasionally heavy load running), and Halfback(Your Walter Paytons and Matt Fortes of the world) lined up directly behind the center.  Offset I has the fullback off on one side or the other.  Many formations have sub formations dealing with where the WRs and TEs are, like double TE packages, 3-4 WR packages, or even packages where the HB or FB are in different places or gone.

Strong side is the side with the Tight End (Generally the Right end for right handed quarterbacks), and weak side is the side without.

If you can, look at the diagram of the formations (You can do that in formation substitution windows), and that will help you get an idea of what they look like.