John Blanchette: Cougs have adapted well in 3-4 defense

Tackles and corners. Those are the meat and potatoes of Bill Doba’s defensive menu, the two positions where good defenses start – and where bad ones are exposed.

Big brutes in bad moods to occupy as many blockers as possible, whether to bottleneck the run or free up the pass rushers on the edge. And cover men capable of man-on-man survival, without the help of a two-deep zone.

So you can imagine how Washington State’s football coach might be a tough sell on the efficacy of the three-man front, which has suddenly become the net under the Cougars’ trapeze.

“Yeah, that’s true,” Doba admitted. “But I hate Cover 2 (the two-deep zone), too, and we’re playing a lot of it. It’s just the best thing for this group of guys.

“You can be stubborn to the point of getting yourself fired, or you can do what you need to do.”

Needs and wants. In a profession vulnerable to hair-trigger critics railing about a lack of flexibility, it’s remarkable how little credit is accrued when resourcefulness is obvious – as it has been with the Cougars’ increasing deployment of the 3-4 defense, last seen hereabouts with any regularity about, oh, 20 years ago (Milford Hodge, white courtesy telephone, please).

Not that it would seem to be that dramatic an exchange – replacing a lineman with a fourth linebacker in a team’s defensive alignment. After all, isn’t an extra defensive back routinely shuttled in and a linebacker shuttled out on obvious passing downs?

And maybe that’s been the genius in something Doba and defensive coordinator Robb Akey say isn’t all that brilliant, in the end.

“It’s easy to draw the defense – anybody can draw up the 4-3 or the 3-4,” Doba said. “The real coaching part of it is teaching it without changing too much in terminology, without making it two completely different things. You try to run similar blitzes out of the three-man front, for instance, where maybe one linebacker has to hit a different gap, but the tackle and the ends do the same things. Our guys have done a nice job of that.

“The key is to put in enough to be competitive and confuse the offense – and not so much that you confuse your own guys.”

The confusion of the first part is evident. The Cougars are fresh off a split with the Pacific-10 Conference’s two most potent teams – and have surrendered only three true offensive touchdowns in those two games, while having to resort to the 3-4 a goodly portion of the time.

Meanwhile, WSU’s defensive yield has shrunk more than 100 yards and 12 points a game from a year ago, when the “D” was getting nothing but “Fs.”

“I don’t want to say I’m surprised,” Akey said, “because that would mean you didn’t think it was going to work – and if that’s the case we wouldn’t have done it. But I’m pleased with the way our kids have handled it – and the way they’ve played their tails off.”

Now then, about necessity being the mother of this invention … that’s not precisely true. The midwife, maybe.

Doba said that Akey and linebackers coach Leon Burtnett did some reconnaissance with NFL staffs in Pittsburgh and Indianapolis on the 3-4 during the off-season “just to look at it as an alternative and possibly as a third-and-long defense.”

But then defensive end Matt Mullennix ripped up a knee in fall camp. The Cougars toyed with moving tackle Aaron Johnson out to end, but on Tuesday before the Auburn opener discovered that starting tackle Feveae’i Ahmu had a stress fracture in his left foot. Then last week came all sorts of calamity – Johnson (elbow) and tackle Ropati Pitoitua (knee) were lost in the first quarter, and No. 3 end Mike Graise was out with a hamstring strain. So the Cougars were down to their fourth and fifth tackles, and a raw freshman, Kevin Kooyman, as a backup end.

For the last three quarters, the Cougars were almost exclusively in a 3-4. The fourth linebacker, Cory Evans, chased Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon from the game with a drive-ending interception. And erstwhile middle linebacker Greg Trent continued to grow in the “flex” role that requires him to masquerade, on occasion, as a down lineman.

“Trent is a big, mean guy, though,” said defensive end Mkristo Bruce. “He can put the whole weight room on his back.”

But the fact is, it’s probably less about scheme than it is about mindset.

A year ago, the Cougars lost emotional leader Will Derting and Pituitoa early, and almost appeared to go into a psychological holding pattern – assuming all would be right once those two returned.

This team seems to have grown stronger with every hard knock.

“Last year we got hit where we couldn’t afford it,” Akey said. “Injuries and how you respond become the biggest thing in your success. Kids are going to get hurt. The question is whether somebody can respond, and our kids have.”

And maybe that’s where good defenses really start.