One of the biggest reasons teams have success is they have the ability to take care of the ball while defensively taking the ball away. As it turns out, the importance of winning the turnover battle has been remarkably static throughout NFL history. Last year, teams that won the turnover battle won 78 percent of their games. This is a statistic that almost always directly affects a team and its success.

Turnovers don’t just happen if defenses are in position to make them. Players have to learn how to force takeaways and then capitalize on the opportunities.

Here are a few ways teams help increase the number of takeaways. Our defense at Sun Prairie (Wisconsin) High School came up with 44 takeaways during our 14-game season in 2017.

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1. Takeaway circuits. One of the biggest things we do at Sun Prairie at the beginning of ever defensive practice is work a takeaway circuit. The takeaway circuit consists of four drills: City fumble recoveries (recovering in traffic), country fumble recoveries (scoop and scores), strip/punch and pop the elbow, and our tip drill.

Out of all the drills we do, one of the best we have done is strip and pop the elbow. It is a drill we got from the New England Patriots, which involves the ball carrier stiff-arming one defender and the opposing defender practicing either his punch & rip or his elbow pop-and-strip. We do this circuit daily in a six-to-seven-minute window, and it has paid off immensely.

Patriots ball protection and takeaway drill. pic.twitter.com/hkTjVKKd9K

— Ted Nguyen (@RaidersAnalysis) December 21, 2017

2. Making it a practice priority. How many times when you are doing inside run or 7-on-7-do you emphasize the defenders to not only tag off but then attempt to get the ball?

Minnesota coach PJ Fleck has been quoted saying, “The ball is the program!” This is something we also firmly believe, and we talk about the ball all the time. No matter the drill we are doing, we first emphasize making the tackle. If the tackle has been made, everyone else is attempting to get the ball, whether it’s through a strip, punch, or an interception, the goal is to get the ball. Big hits are nice, sacks are even better, but takeaways are the key to any great defense.

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3. Takeaways, NOT turnovers. A key point we continue to make to our defensive guys is that the offense doesn’t turn the ball over, we take the ball away. Installing in your guys that it is their job to make it happen has created a mindset for our young men that if they don’t do it, nobody will. We do not want to wait for the offense to sit back and hopefully make a mistake. Don Brown, defensive coordinator at the University of Michigan. said it best. “Attack, attack, and attack again.” We want to go on the attack and take the ball every single time.

pic.twitter.com/PFtx2xUrXP

— Raiders Analysis (@raidersupload) December 21, 2017

Taking the ball away is certainly a mindset that your team needs to adopt. To create a takeaway culture for your defense, it needs to be an all-the-time thing. This mindset is not always instinctual. It has to be taught. If you aren’t trying to instill that mindset, then you cannot be angry about not having the ability to take the ball away.

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