The Blitz with Jeff Howe & Karen Guregian

Bill Belichick dishes on differences between '12' and '21' personnel packages


Photo by: 

John Wilcox
Bill Belichick leaves the field after Patriots practice with Tampa Bay at Gillette on Thursday, August 15, 2013.


The Patriots opened some eyes last week by deploying a couple different sets with a pair of running backs on the field. Maybe it's a tease of things to come, particularly as they explore new ways to operate a reshaped offense.

Bill Belichick was asked today to explain the different advantages in sets with two running backs and one tight end ("21" personnel) instead of one running back and two tight ends ("12"). Both sets also include two wide receivers.

Here is his entire answer, which is loaded with football X's and O's.

"Well, I think when you, just fundamentally, when you have one back in the backfield and you have four on-the-line receivers, that gives you an ability to get into the defense potentially with four people," Belichick said. "Or even if it’s three of them, sometimes the defense isn’t sure which three of them it is. One tight end could be in it and the other guy could be in protection, that type of thing. I think you’re able to attack the defense from the line of scrimmage a little bit quicker and with a little less predictability, depending on who those players are, of course. That's certainly a factor.

"But as far as your running gaps, I mean, you can put more width at the formation by having a guy on the line, whether it’s four on one side and two on the other side of the center, or three and three. You just have a wider front, which there are some advantages to that. By having them in the backfield, you can create that same four-man surface or three-man surface after the snap so the defense doesn’t know where the four-man surface or three-man surface is. The fullback has to –- he can build that from the backfield.



"It just creates a different –- it creates some advantages, I think, and it also creates some things you have to deal with. You just have to decide how you want to deal with them. Obviously when you have a guy in the backfield, it’s harder to get those two receivers vertically into the defense in the passing game. They’re usually running shorter routes to the flat or checking over the ball or those kind of things, short crossing routes, versus having that fourth receiver on the line of scrimmage who can run some downfield routes, again depending on who the individual person is. The skill definitely changes what you can do with that guy.


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