Double Nickles and a Dime

Exploring More Defensive Formations

Double Nickles and a Dime

Okay, let’s talk defense again.

As you probably already know, there are numerous ways to deal with pass-heavy attacks.

One of these ways is to stick in extra defensive backs.

Nickle

The nickle formation is called the nickle because it employs a fifth defensive back. This is called the “nickle” back, because it’s the fifth back.

It’s easy to choose this formation in Action! PC Football. You don’t even have to be facing an offensive formation designed for the pass.

As you can see, the 3-3, 4-2, and 5-1 formations are clearly labeled as “nickle” formations. This means that there are 5 defensive backs. The first number represents the number of down linemen your defense has; the second is the number of linebackers.

Thus, the 3-3 formation looks something like this:

In contrast, the 5-1 will look more like this:

As you can imagine, that 5-1 formation is going to leave a lot of room open in the middle for a short pass or a successful run.

Dime

The dime involves a sixth defensive back.

It’s called the “dime” because two nickles make a dime. I’m not making that up.

Here’s what a 3-2 dime looks like, for the sake of comparison:

This is playing in man coverage. The zone coverage looks more like this:

It’s easier to see in the zone coverage shot how pass-focused this formation really is. A running back who successfully breaks through the line would likely have acres of space to run in.

Automatic Nickles and Dimes

Action! PC Football will warn you if you don’t use a nickle against 3 wide receivers, or a dime against 4:

You’ll see a red box with an exclamation mark appear below your play choices:

Clicking on that box (or holding your mouse over it) will bring up this warning:

Now, this box really isn’t all that descriptive. This basically tells you that you don’t have enough defensive backs to cover all the receivers. While you should pay heed to this warning, my experience has been that this doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to change the defense. It all depends on what you expect the offense to do.

Action! PC Football will automatically put you in a formation designed to account for all the offensive players on the field. That doesn’t mean that you have to stick with that formation, though.

Run Defense

Finally, if you’re set up in a dime formation, you can’t call a Run defense.

I honestly don’t understand why this is an “illegal play call.” The wording could be better here.

Anyway, if you feel the need to look for a run against a 4 wide receiver formation, you could consider choosing a formation with fewer than 6 defensive backs (despite the warning message), or you could just call a Basic defense and hope for the best.