Defensive Line Stunts and Twists Explained

Coach Nana defines the football term "stunt," which primarily applies to defensive linemen but is essential for linebackers to understand what their D-line is doing. A stunt essentially means that the defensive linemen will "show where we are, but we're not actually going in that gap". For example, a "twist call" is a type of stunt where a tackle and an end switch their assigned gaps. Instead of the tackle attacking one gap and the end attacking another, they twist so that the tackle attacks the end's gap and vice versa. The main goal of using stunts like a twist is to confuse the offense so they don't know where the defense is going, making it easier to disrupt the play. Other stunts include "pinch calls," where all defensive linemen attack toward the inside.