The “Red-Dog”, is exactly the kind of mistake every neophyte makes about football, Patrick.

See, this is where you know who knows the game and who doesn’t.

Every neophyte commits that same mistake, and sooner or later everybody asks, “what is the Red-Dog defense?” And everybody bites on it. Football, is a world of coaching — with confusing, convoluted intellectually challenging complex terminology and the “Red-Dog defense”, does not mean what you think it does, and if you do, then it’s probably not you’re thinking about. This is where you understand who played and who didn’t, because — in football, the “Red-Dog” has a meaning…And anybody who’s played in it knows exactly what it refers to.

What’s the “Red-Dog” defense Patrick?

It’s the nickname of the 4–4 defense.

That’s how we call it in the football world. It’s the name of the 4–4 defense. It’s referred to as the 4–4 front. It’s the nickname for it. It’s a mistake that every neophyte makes, and you’re not the first one Patrick, and sooner or later, everybody who’s heard of it asks, “What’s the meaning of the Red-Dog defense?”

Been going on, for..50 years. It’s done on-purpose and by design.

What do I always say about “football”? It’s about insight…Don’t give me second-guess, don’t give me opinions — you can’t “second-guess” in football. You can’t make things up. You have to know the terminology, you have to know why, this particular formation doesn’t work anymore and dismantled by “what defense” — and how it became a poor system under what circumstances, the evolution of football…Explaining the different stages of formations, and their principles. Yadi yada…There are so many unexplored fields in Football, you just can’t imagine. How long would it take to teach you the “Red-Dog defense”?

Well actually, I could — but it would take too long. It would take three-days. it doesn’t take near as long for a player, but for someone like you, at least three-days. Three-days…Non-stop. 96 hours. Really? Oh yes.

Everyone makes that mistake because, intuitively they think, “Red-Dog means blitz” — but in fact, it’s just another name for the 4–4–3 defensive scheme. And I know, “Slamdog”, “Backer-dog”, “Double-dog”, “Zonedog”, “Green-Dog”, “Mad-Dog”, “Hot-Dog”...No just kidding, that one doesn’t exist. Although there is a “Hamburger-Blitz”, we’ll be discussed later. In football we love concepts with “Dog” on defense; and names with “O’s”: “Frisco”,”Bingo”, “Banjo”, “Tango”, “Dumbo”, “Gumbo”, “Torpedo”, “Volcano”, “Franko”, “Bronco”, “Sinko”…There are many names for different base defenses: Eagle, 5-2 Stack, Umbrella defense, Bear front, Goal-line which was actually Buddy Ryan’s defense.

What’s the greatest 4–4 defense in the History of the National Football League?

The “Dome Patrol” — New Orleans’ only and best defense they’ve ever had.

Featuring a unique famed linebacker unit, they went to become the most dominant starting starting four group of linebackers in the league.

Ranking as the #1 defense in football in 1991 and 1992 before they parted ways; they surrendered both the fewest points and yards allowed in those years.

It’s the best linebacker unit I’ve ever seen, featuring: Rickey Jackson, Vaughan Johnson, Pat Swilling who should be a Hall of Famer, and Sam Mills, the little enforcer.

Together, they grew for seven years, and helped the Saints advance to the playoffs for the first-time in nineteen years.

You didn’t want to play against those guys, they spearheaded quarterbacks and rushed to the ball-carrier with outstanding speed.

The unit was so good, that in 1992, for the first time, All Four linebackers were selected to the Pro Bowl from the same team.

But the 4–4 is so hard, it’s too complicated. You need a special breed of players to succeed. You can’t run the 4–4 unless you have very extremely good linebackers. It’s impossible. It requires more than just discipline, you need All-time Great talent. Honestly, I don’t see more than one team in the history of the league that could successfully run that: the 2006 Ravens, with Adalius Thomas, Terrell Suggs, Ray Lewis and Bart Scott. Outside of that, that is pretty much all.

It’s a way too complicated of a defense that requires too much talent. You’re not succeeding without a minimum of three Hall of Fame linebackers and a good coach.

This defense would average a pretty incredible number of: 47 sacks and 48 turnovers a year from 1990–1992.

In 1992, I don’t think they’ve given more than 21 pts all season.

Beast defense!!

Who’s the one guy who created this defense?

The one who has a video-game named after himself.

John Madden.

The “Red-Dog defense”?

Yeah it’s him.

He’s one of the brightest football minds in the History of the N.F.L.

He’s the one who created and really innovated it.

The one who really used it a lot as a coach was —

Jimmy Johnson, “The Jump” — but he has a particularly different coverage to it.

It’s called the “4–4 Stack”. It means the corners are on the same level as the safeties.

You see? It’s called the “4–4 Stack” alignment. It’s a very different kind of philosophy — zone-dog blitzes with three zones. It eliminates the deep-pass, forces the QB to throw-underneath constantly. Against the I-Formation it is deadly.

It’s funny because Jerry Jones didn’t know about it — Jerry actually did to Johnson the same thing he did to Landry, he just didn’t know how much of a terrific schematic maniac Jimmy Johnson was in reality. He had brains.

There are a lot of cardinal points you must know about defenses: who created what.

4–3: Tom Landry. No it’s Tom Landry. Listen…There are over 200 players and coaches who claim to have used it first — but the first guy to run it and apply it successfully against the I-Formation, is Landry. I don’t want to hear about, “how some coach ran it earlier in the ‘50s”, that’s joke talk.

5–2: Chuck Noll. No it’s him. Well actually…In fact, Noll wanted to run it, but his defensive coordinator George Perles preferred to run the 4–3 with Joe Greene. So they ran the 4–3 instead, but he’s the one who conceived it against I-Formations.

3–4: Don Shula. He actually didn’t call it that way at first. I’’ll explain later…Homages to him.

4–6: Buddy Ryan, of course. You should know how he actually created it from. It’s quite special.

I-Formation: well that everybody knows. It’s as cool of an invention as Nike. No pun intended.

“The Hamburger-Blitz”: if you don’t know it, you don’t know half the History of football. You must know the “Hamburger-Blitz”. if you don’t know it, you miss out on 50% of NFL knowledge.

Well, you can thank John Madden for his creation.

Every coach in the Hall of Fame should have his own formation. Without passion, there is no brains.