What Is Blitzing In Football?

In American football, blitzing is a tactic the defense uses to disrupt the offense’s pass attempts. During a blitz, the defense sends five or more players to attack the offense’s ball carrier by either rushing them in a pass attempt or tackling them, disrupting the offense. 

A blitz is considered successful when it leads to a sack, a play in which the quarterback is tackled behind the line of scrimmage, or forces the quarterback to make an error (fumble or interception) in a pass attempt, potentially resulting in a turnover.

Blitzing is a high-risk defense technique. At a minimum, five defenders are sent to rush the player with the football, leaving the defensive backs to cover all the offense players, which is impossible. That is considered the biggest disadvantage of a blitz.

If the quarterback sees that they alone cannot play against the blitz and their position is weak, they can call more players into a protection scheme. With a good protection scheme, players can “pick up” the blitz and stop it at the point of attack.