Curls Part 4 of 4: Putting It All Together

To recap the way we have set up the Curls play from Ace Y-Trips, here is the read:

As you are coming to the line:

1. Watch how many safeties remain up high.  Locate where they are - one in the middle of the hashes. Two high splitting the field in half?
2. If you see only one safety up high, is the defense crowding the line of scrimmage on either the weakside or strongside of the field?  A big mass of bodies creeping up to the line can indicate extra rushers are coming.
3. You should also be able to observe the cornerbacks that line up on your wide receivers.  They can be backed off seven yards or so from the line of scrimmage or rolled up directly in the face of your receivers on the line of scrimmage.
4. Finally, on the approach you should look at your slot receiver to see if he is covered or not by a man lined up directly in front of him.

Now you can read the formation:

• Single high safety in the middle of the field with a bunch crowding the line should be read as Man coverage behind a blitz.  You should be watching the high safety and looking for the coverage rotation at the snap to know which curl will be open (whichever the rotation is away from).
• Single high safety in the middle of the field with nobody showing blitz should be read as likely Cover 3. You should be watching the high safety and looking for the coverage to rotate from strong to weak, and the strongside curl ought to be open.  There is a good chance the TE arrow will be open as well if there is an unexpected dropper under the strong curl.  If this is disguised Cover 2, you are still okay because the distance for the defenders to shift to Cover 2 positions is usually far enough to take them out of position to stop the curl; also, you are already looking in the right direction to notice if the slot post is open (like a West Coast triangle read).
• Double high safeties dividing the field with corners backed off a lot should be read as likely Cover 4. The key here is to see that the strongside cornerback is actually further back from the line than the nearest linebacker. You will be looking for the defense to all backpedal with nobody covering the TE arrow, which will be your first read.  Even if the coverage is actually a disguised man scheme, you should be able to complete the pass safely for a small gain of 1-3 yards.
• Double high safeties dividing the field with corners all the way up on the line should be read as Cover 2 of some kind.  Either zone or man underneath with a two shell over the top.  No matter which type of coverage is under the two shell, the most likely option to throw is the slot post, who needs to win against man coverage or bend behind a zone defender.  If this is disguised Cover 3, you are still okay because you are already looking in the right direction to notice if the curl is open instead (like a West Coast triangle read).  If you do not have a slot advantage, check to a run or some Cover 2 beater.

At the snap:

• If you saw an uncovered slot man, check if you think he will be open for a quick vertical strike in the middle for 20 yards.
• If you had single high pre-snap, look at rotation for an 11 yard curl throw on the appropriate side.
• If you had two high pre-snap with corners back, make sure the TE arrow is not jumped and bullet it.
• If you had two high pre-snap with corners at the line, watch your slot post matchup and time the throw to get there after he has a step or two leading the nearest cover man.

Example: NCAA 14

Drive 1, Play 1: Curls vs Loop Crash 2

Pre-snap Read: Two high safeties, corners up = some kind of Cover 2 probably.
Extra keys: Bunched defenders crowding the line at left, uncovered slot on right.
Plan: Expect blitz, look at the slot post.
Result: We get the blitz and we get a two deep, four under zone that the slot post easily beats in the deep middle.

Drive 1, Play 2: Curls vs 2 Man Under

Pre-snap Read: Two high safeties, corners up = some kind of Cover 2 probably.
Extra keys: Slot covered.
Plan: Six on six in the box, Cover 2 = check to run.
Result: Cover 2 as expected, we get a decent run.

Drive 1, Play 3: Curls vs Cover 2 Sink

Pre-snap Read: Two high safeties, corners up = some kind of Cover 2 probably.
Extra keys: Slot covered.
Plan: Six on six in the box, Cover 2 = check to run.
Result: Cover 2 as expected, but we get stuffed.

Drive 1, Play 4: Curls vs Cover 3

Pre-snap Read: One high safety, cheating a bit to the left = Probably Cover 3.
Extra keys: Slot covered.
Plan: Watch high safety and expect to throw strongside curl.
Result: Cover 3, so easy first down to strongside curl.

Drive 1, Play 5: Curls vs Cover 3

Pre-snap Read: One high safety, centered on ball = Probably Cover 3, possibly Man.
Extra keys: Slot covered.
Plan: Watch high safety for rotation.  Expect to throw strongside, but be ready to go weak.
Result: Cover 3 rotation toward weak, so easy first down throwing away from it to the strongside curl.

Drive 1, Play 6: Curls vs 2 Man Under

Pre-snap Read: Two high safeties, corners up = some kind of Cover 2 probably.
Extra keys: Slot covered.
Plan: Six on six in the box, Cover 2 = check to run.
Result: Cover 2 as expected, we get it down near the goal line.

Drive 1, Play 7: HB Plunge

We punch it in.  No problem.

Drive 2, Play 1: Curls vs 3 Overload Fire

Pre-snap Read: Two high safeties, corners back = Cover 4 probably.
Extra keys: Slot will occupy the LB inside of him.  No flat defender.
Plan: Snap and fire to TE.
Result: Turns out to be a blitz from the left side with a 3 shell; this still leaves the flat undefended.

Drive 2, Play 2: Curls vs Cover 2 Blitz

Pre-snap Read: Two high safeties, corners up = Cover 2 of some kind.
Extra keys: Suspicious bunching on left side with huge open spot where the post is going.
Plan: Take the slot post matchup vs the LB in front of him and see if we can win it with all that space.
Result: Turns out to be a blitz from the left side with a 2 shell.  That leaves only three underneath defenders and the guy over the slot runs away from him to cover a middle zone.  Our slot post goes completely uncovered up the seam for a wide open completion.

Drive 2, Play 3: Curls vs Over Storm Brave 3

Pre-snap Read: Two high safeties, corners back = Cover 4 probably.
Extra keys: Slot will occupy the LB inside of him.  No flat defender.
Plan: Snap and fire to TE.
Result: Turns out to be a middle blitz with a 3 shell; this still leaves the flat undefended, but you can see the slot post was also undefended.  I could have hit that for a longer gain, but the TE is the safer throw to get the ball out fast.

Drive 2, Play 4: Curls vs Under Smoke

Pre-snap Read: One high safety, centered on ball = Probably Cover 3, possibly Man.
Extra keys: Slot covered.
Plan: Watch high safety for rotation.  Expect to throw strongside, but be ready to go weak.
Result: High safety breaks right with nobody leaking under the weakside curl, so we know it is completely isolated in man coverage.  Another easy first down throw to the weak curl.

Drive 2, Play 5: HB Stretch

All this is here for is to run wide to re-center the ball.

Drive 2, Play 6: Curls vs 2 Man Under

Pre-snap Read: Two high safeties, corners up = some kind of Cover 2 probably.
Extra keys: Slot covered.
Plan: Not sure why, but I decided to try the matchup.  Probably thought I had them fatigued from two long drives.
Result: Cover 2 as expected, and we get man coverage (you can tell because the defender turns and runs with the slot receiver instead of backpedaling into a zone).  With no bump, my best receiver in the slot is running full speed against their nickel back.  This is a one on one slot post win.

Drive 2, Play 7: Curls vs SS Snake 3 Stay

Pre-snap Read: Two high safeties, but Strong Safety walks up = some kind of weird blitz.
Extra keys: Slot uncovered with no deep help behind the slot.
Plan: We're going to have three (TE, Curl, Slot Post) on two (Nickel and Curl CB), so something is going to be open.  Read slot post to TE arrow.  One of them should be open because there's no way the cornerback will let the Curl receiver run past him into an area with nobody behind him.
Result: The nickel back goes wide to protect against the TE in the flat.  The slot is actually being accounted for by the FS on the other side of the formation assigned the middle deep zone, who has no hope in getting over.  The blitz leaves too few underneath defenders, so the nearest underneath zone guy (the linebacker in the middle) is too far to matter too.

Drive 3, Play 1: Curls vs Cover 4

Pre-snap Read: Two high safeties, corners back = Cover 4 probably.
Extra keys: Slot will occupy the LB inside of him.  No flat defender.
Plan: Snap and fire to TE.
Result: Cover 4 as expected, so we get some safe breathing room and re-center the ball.

Drive 3, Play 2: Curls vs Cover 2 Disguise

Pre-snap Read: One high safety, centered on ball = Probably Cover 3, possibly Man.
Extra keys: Slot covered with the safety stacked behind the slot cover man, so this is weird.
Plan: Watch high safety for rotation.  Expect to throw strongside, but be ready to go weak.
Result: The stacked safety is the tipoff that something is off here.  The defense still rotates weak, and the curl breaks in front of the nearest defender, but look how wide open the TE was.  Had the curl been taken away, I could have dumped the ball to the TE and probably still got the first down.  Since I was already looking to that area, it would not be a difficult switch.

Drive 3, Play 3: Curls vs 2 Man Under

Pre-snap Read: Two high safeties, corners up = some kind of Cover 2 probably.
Extra keys: Slot covered.
Plan: Six on six in the box, Cover 2 = check to run.
Result: Cover 2 as expected, we don't get much but that's okay because it's only first down.

Drive 3, Play 4: Curls vs 2 Man Under

Pre-snap Read: Two high safeties, corners up = some kind of Cover 2 probably.
Extra keys: Slot covered.
Plan: Six on six in the box, Cover 2 = check to run.
Result: Cover 2 as expected, but this time the offensive line wins and opens up a huge hole up the gut.

Drive 3, Play 5: Curls vs Cover 6

Pre-snap Read: Two high safeties, corners up = some kind of Cover 2 probably.
Extra keys: Slot covered.
Plan: Six on six in the box, Cover 2 = check to run.
Result: Turns out to be Cover 6 and we don't get much but that's okay since it's first down.

Drive 3, Play 6: Curls vs 2 Man Under

Pre-snap Read: Two high safeties, corners up = some kind of Cover 2 probably.
Extra keys: Slot covered.
Plan: Six on six in the box, Cover 2 = check to run.
Result: Cover 2 as expected and we don't get much.  Notice how much 2 Man Under is being called now.

Drive 3, Play 7 Curls vs SS Mike Blitz 3

Pre-snap Read: Two high safeties, but Free Safety walks up = some kind of weird blitz.
Extra keys: Slot covered with remaining high safety strongside over slot.
Plan: Looks like a weakside blitz with the remaining high safety far away from our isolated weakside curl.  If the "blitzers" back out and drop underneath the weakside curl, the strongside looks like what we get in Cover 4, so the TE should be open if this is a disguised full zone.
Result: With nobody nearby, the deep zone cornerback weakside may as well be in man coverage.  The curl is open so we throw it, but look at the TE.  That was open in case we needed it.

Drive 3, Play 8: HB Stretch

All this is here for is to run wide to re-center the ball.

Drive 3, Play 9: Curls vs Over Storm Brave 2

Pre-snap Read: Two high safeties, corners back = Cover 4 probably.
Extra keys: Slot will occupy the LB inside of him.  No flat defender.
Plan: Snap and fire to TE.
Result: Blitzing some of the underneath defenders leaves too few to cover everything, and the TE is open anyway.  It has the same effect as dropping extra guys into deep zones - either way you have fewer players to cover short routes.

Drive 3, Play 10: Curls vs 2 Man Under

Pre-snap Read: Two high safeties, corners up = some kind of Cover 2 probably.
Extra keys: Slot covered.
Plan: Six on six in the box, Cover 2 = check to run.
Result: Defense is probably getting tired.  We get a decent run to set up a good second down.

Drive 3, Play 11: Curls vs Cover 2 Disguise

Pre-snap Read: One high safety, cheating left a little = Probably Cover 3, possibly Man.
Extra keys: Slot covered with the safety stacked behind the slot cover man, which is the same weird thing we saw earlier when they went to Cover 2 Disguise.  The SS has to align there to be in position to drop back into his deep half zone.
Plan: Watch high safety for rotation.  Expect to throw strongside, but be ready to go weak.
Result: Sure enough, the same Cover 2 Disguise rotation happens.  The reason our strongside curl still works is that the slot receiver is coming right up the seam in front of the Strong Safety while the underneath zone defenders are rotating away from the slot man's vertical stem.  The SS has to stay inside in case the slot guy keeps going deep because nobody else is in position to pick him up.  That keeps the SS out of position for the curl, and the cornerback is forced to stay deeper than our strongside curl WR since his over the top help isn't in the right place.

Drive 3, Play 12: Curls vs 2 Man Under

Pre-snap Read: Two high safeties, corners up = some kind of Cover 2 probably.
Extra keys: Slot covered.
Plan: Six on six in the box, Cover 2 = check to run.
Result: Good run against light personnel; the defense is not only going to Cover 2 Man, but only brought three down linemen.  They are completely committing to take away the pass now.

Drive 3, Play 13: Curls vs 3 Strong Cloud

Pre-snap Read: Two high safeties, corners up = some kind of Cover 2 probably.
Extra keys: Slot covered.
Plan: Six on six in the box, Cover 2 = check to run.
Result: Okay run sets up third and short.

Drive 3, Play 14: HB Plunge vs Under Smoke

We pound the ball for the first down and more.  Pretty sure the only reason I get so much yardage here is because this is a ridiculously long drive and the defense is tired.

Drive 3, Play 15: Curls vs Cover 2

Pre-snap Read: Two high safeties, corners up = some kind of Cover 2 probably.
Extra keys: Slot covered.
Plan: Six on six in the box, Cover 2 = check to run.
Result: Cover 2 is good against outside runs because the corners stay near the line of scrimmage and can be edge defenders against the run.  We're staying strictly inside, though, so they don't really help.

Drive 3, Play 16: HB Plunge vs Blitz C

Now the defense switches to goal line defense, but i'm still able to get positive yards.  At this point I noticed I still had my depth chart set to have my backup running back on formation substitutions and was running this whole time without my best HB.

Drive 3, Play 17: HB Plunge vs Blitz A

4th and Goal, it's in for a touchdown.  21-0 to start the BCS National Championship game against a more talented team using basically two plays (Curls and HB plunge, with unproductive HB Stretch to help center the ball) and nothing else.

Example: Madden 25

Drive 1, Play 1

The defense is doing something like this:

Calvin Johnson has nobody over him in the slot, so that's where we want to go.  The issue is if the offensive line can pick up the blitz.  What is amazing about this play is that the Right Tackle pulls over and does something like a ridiculously long distance molly block on the stunting blitzer.  Stafford probably should have been sacked here since the running back did not pick up the blitz, but instead the pass goes for a long gain with a bender throw between the large underneath zones.

Drive 1, Play 2

On the second play, Minnesota comes out showing a Double A gap blitz but backs out.  The coverage is similar to this, except the defensive backs are rotated strongside so the one playing the light blue zone is over the slot receiver:

Here's what we actually see in the play:

What appears to be happening is the defender logic is more sophisticated in Madden (like the RT finding someone to block above), so the defenders stay with the nearest receivers in their zones at first and then retreat back after their zone is cleared.  That's why the guy in front of the TE initially starts to the flat with the TE but then lets him go and retreats to the right middle underneath zone.

It's also why the defensive back playing over the slot runs with Johnson at first and only breaks late to cover the outside curl receiver; he's overloaded with two routes running through his zone.  This works the same as what we are doing in NCAA with the vertical stem of the slot post: it prevents the underneath zone defender from sitting under the strongside curl so we can hit it against Cover 3.

Drive 1, Play 3

This is the familiar single high read with a blitzer coming off the edge weakside.  Man coverage behind it and no rotation to put someone under the curl makes the weakside curl an automatic throw.

Drive 1, Play 4

This is the same single high coverage rotation read.  This time the coverage rotates toward the weakside, so we throw away from the rotation to the strongside curl.

Drive 1, Play 5

The defense comes out with two high safeties and backed off corners.  The same Cover 4 throw to the TE in the flat is wide open for a short but safe gain.

Drive 1, Play 6

Single high and no rotation underneath, but the coverage is good and the weakside curl is dropped.  The coverage over the slot defender was very good, and took away the slot post vertical stem but broke to the strongside curl and took that away too.  The best open route to hit would have been the post at the end, but the disguise would have made that hard to spot.

Drive 1, Play 7

Single high with a vanilla balanced defense - another coverage rotation read.  It's Cover 3 and the strongside curl is open as expected.

Drive 1, Play 8

Curls aren't great for deliberately picking up short yardage.  Curls really needs about 15 yards to work well.  Stick is designed to get 5 yards, so it's a good call to make for this touchdown.

Drive 2

Three plays - basically the Cover 4 read to the TE (with a great block) and then two uncovered slot passes to Calvin Johnson.  The first is against a zone blitz with the Chad Greenway dropping from a three point stance; it takes away the vertical stem but he has no hope of stopping Megatron's break to the post.  The second is a corner roll that goes terribly wrong when nobody picks up either the strongside curl or the slot post.

Drive 3, Play 1

This is an excellent example of why - especially in Madden with more disguised coverages - you have to actually read the coverage rotation when throwing the curls.  The defense comes out showing blitz on the weakside so heavily that it looks like a zero blitz.  But at the snap of the ball, the guys crowding the line of scrimmage all bail and it is really some kind of Cover 3.  

Blindly assuming man coverage behind a blitz would have resulted in a picked off throw to the weakside curl.  Instead, both the strongside curl and the TE were wide open.  Since the coverage was overloaded to the weakside, the strongside curl was one on one coverage with the deep zone cornerback.

Drive 3, Play 2

Here we get two high and corners up on the wideouts as well as the slot receiver.  I'm thinking we look for the slot post, but it turns out to be a zone blitz.  Certainly the slot post vertical stem was open, but look at the TE leaking out into the flat with nobody picking him up.  Since we are looking at the slot matchup from the start, it's easy to see all of the edge defenders rushing and automatically we know the flat is undefended. Love the power at the end to get it into the end zone.

Drive 4, Play 1

This is the Cover 4 read to throw the TE route.  

Drive 4, Play 2

Again we have an uncovered slot and the nearest man blitzes.  This leaves nobody to pick up the slot vertical stem.

Drive 4, Play 3

Four across look, but the nearest man is not playing over the slot.  This screams zone and is a good opportunity to throw the bender.

Drive 4, Play 4

In reality, no team will ever leave Johnson uncovered like this, but again the slot receiver doesn't have a man directly over him.  The strongside corner is rolled up to the line of scrimmage while the weakside corner is backed off.  It looks like what we get is Quarter-Quarter-Half (Cover 6) of some kind with the weakside playing the Cover 4-like defense and the strongside playing as if it's Cover 2.  Megatron is up against Greenway in the underneath zone and the coverage just has no chance.

I don't know how much of this is the fact that Detroit has Stafford, Calvin Johnson, and a good offensive line and how much of this is the Vikings defense being awful, but this was all on All-Madden difficulty.  Anyway, you can see how the ball gets distributed to lots of receivers depending on the read.  How balanced can it get?  Here's the final stats on the game I was using to get game film:

Now, of course you don't want to just run two or three plays for an entire game... but Matthew Stafford had a pretty good game doing just that.

Curls Part 3 of 4: Uncovered Slot

So far we have situations where the primary target is the left or right curl, and we have situations where the TE arrow is the primary target.  Now we want to check when to throw to the slot receiver running a post route down the strongside seam.  Though it mostly serves to draw attention away from the strongside curl and occupy the shallow coverage and rub any LB coming across to cover the TE, we can hit the defense with a big gain if they ignore it.

Usually the first thing the defense gives away when it gets set for the next play is the positioning of the safeties and whether the cornerbacks are backed off or rolled up into press coverage.  The next thing to look at will be the coverage of the slot receiver: is there a man aligned directly over him?  A big benefit of the slot receiver's vertical stem before taking a break to the inside is that the defender over him must stay in coverage on him and "carry" him to the safeties.  

But what if there is nobody there or it's a hopelessly outmatched linebacker in shallow zone coverage playing the run?

The Houston Bender

The slot receiver's post route functions very similarly to the "bender" in Coach Hoover's Houston play writeup:

The number two receiver to the field runs what we call a “Bender.” He bursts up the hash (slight outside release) and reads the area in front of him. If there is no safety or he feels that he can run by the safety, he will do so. If the safety plays deep over the top of our guy, he will “bend” inside at 12 yards at a controlled speed.

The logic is the same as what is described in the Quarters section of that page:

The Bender will either run by the Safety (if Safety stays low) or bend inside if the Safety bails. Either way, the Bender is our first look. I tell the QBs that we only want this if it is obviously there because we have other routes that could be available.

Against a two high look from the safeties, if there is nobody aligned right over the slot receiver, we expect some kind of zone coverage scheme underneath.  I like the term "bender" because that's what we're waiting for here - we want to watch for the point where the slot receiver runs past the underneath zone man and bends his route behind to the inside deep middle Cover 2 hole in the center.  Since he is bending it behind the underneath linebacker, there is no way for him to anticipate where the throw is going.

Take the first example from the video above.  The defense rotates the strong safety down behind the cornerback and slides the free safety over.  The nickel back backs up into the free safety's original position to maintain the two high shell.  This is a corner blitz with the SS taking the place of the LCB in underneath coverage.  With only four defenders to cover the six underneath zones, there will be very wide gaps between them.  The natural deep middle hole in particular will be very large.

The dropper initially mirrors the TE and widens, but then has to reverse direction to try and cover the slot post.  The coverage starts with a LB on the TE, SS on the curl WR, and nobody on the slot WR.  As the TE moves out to the flat, the LB passes him to the SS and the SS passes the curl WR to the FS behind him.

The problem is we have a mismatch of a fast slot receiver going full stride against a slower linebacker trying to change directions and catch up in zone coverage.  No chance.

Covering down on the slot receivers seems like it should be a basic thing (it is), and that college/pro defenses should never have lapses like this.  It does in fact happen, though.  Here is the BCS Megacast crew - in particular Chris Spielman - losing it over Florida State's defensive breakdowns in the first half against Auburn:



If there is nobody in the area at all, this is a very easy throw because the slot man is wide open and hardly needs to bend his route behind anyone.






This will not happen often during a game, but it is something to always check for.  Like Coach Chryst said during the kickoff in the clip above, the offense has to cash in when the defense sets itself up to get hit in the middle of the field.

Winning the Coryell Matchup

In the classic Air Coryell offense, 525 F Post Swing was the staple play.  From the Daily Norseman:

The most famous (and most-often called) play in the Coryell playbook is the 525 Post Swing. In the 525 F Post Swing, both outside receivers run "5" routes (15-yard comebacks) while the tight end runs the "20" route—a shallow cross. Reading the routes" 5-20-5, or 525. The "F" runs a post to the middle and reads the deep safety. The final eligible receiver (usually a fullback) would run a swing route. 

Here, the "F" is the slot receiver, but the idea remains the same. 

The play is all over the place, used by basically everyone in the Coryell coaching tree: Norv Turner, Joe Gibbs and Ernie Zampese, Mike Martz, and so on.  Here's Tim Layden on the play:

A single play dominated the offense: F Post. There were dozens of variations, called endlessly by Gibbs and then by Zampese, who dialed up the F Post so often that it became known simply as an Ernie route. The most common call was 525 F Post Swing. Both outside receivers would run 15-yard comeback routes, carrying the corners to the outside. The Y receiver would run a 20, or a shallow cross, occupying the vision of the linebackers and safeties. The F receiver—a running back or a second tight end, depending on the formation—would then run an option post route, finding his own open path. A running back would run a short swing pattern. "It got to be the best play in the whole system," says Zampese, "and they still run it."

From later in the Layden article, there is this bit from the Greatest Show on Turf:

In St. Louis, Martz was committed to staying a step ahead of the defensive wizards. "With all the zone blitzes, offenses wanted to know where every defender was coming from," says Martz. "So offenses got real conservative again. Keeping another receiver in to block, that sort of thing. We decided to do just the opposite, and that was all about the Coryell system. We spread 'em out and said, 'Good luck finding the guy we're throwing it to.' We took the F Post and ran it with five different positions from every formation in the playbook. We ran it with Az Hakim, with Isaac Bruce—and Marshall Faulk was an unbelievable post runner. At one point I counted 137 ways we could run the F Post."

If we change the TE route in the 525 Post in either the above picture or any other version like the one analyzed by Dan Gonzalez or X's O's Football, we have the trips combo of the Curls play from Ace Y-Trips in NCAA and Madden.  The way we are treating the trips side of the Curls play is just one of many variations on the vertical stems concept; consider the second post on this forum thread about Mike Martz:

. 

If you change the outside post to a curl, that's exactly the trips side of the curls play.  Against a two high shell, the focus of the play changes from the outside to the inside.  Dan Gonzalez says the play is looking for the uncovered slot receiver we talked about at the top of this post:

While his predecessors switched personnel groupings to get the desired player in the F position, Martz added the ability to simply call 525 Z Post/ H Post/ X Post to give the play even more formation flexibility.  Whether it was Faulk, Bruce, Holt, Az-Hakeem, or Proehl, Martz's Rams could dial up anyone to run the quick post. The play is designed to isolate the Post runner (hopefully vs. no short hole player) for a quick rhythm throw and catch.

The goal is to get an isolated matchup on whoever is running the post route into the deep middle hole against a slower safety or linebacker in front of a two shell.  That's why this is supposed to be a great play against Cover 2 if you have a matchup advantage from your slot receiver.  The slot receiver must be fast enough to outrun the cover man and get separation by simply outrunning him across the field.

I first noticed this wrinkle in the play when I started playing Madden 25 and had access to better talent.  When you are playing NCAA as a team with very low talent, you will not often have a matchup advantage even if it's a receiver against a safety or linebacker; Hawaii's third receiver is typically not better than a starting safety at a Big Ten or SEC powerhouse.

But look at what the Detroit Lions do by default from this formation.  Look who is normally aligned in the slot position for Ace Y-Trips: #81 Calvin Johnson.  When you have Megatron in the slot getting coverage by any safety in the league, you win the matchup.  Period.  Against a linebacker?  Even better.  If we have a Megatron to move to the slot, that's outstanding and we can use this play even against Cover 2 Man or regular Cover 2.  If not, we must check out of the play to something else because the one on one matchup we're suppposed to use to defeat Cover 2 in the deep middle is unwinnable.



Most of the analysis available for the 525 Post call applies to our Curls play from Ace Y-Trips.  This post of suggested plays from NFL Tackle Football Operations in May 2013 has the 525 Post concept from a 3x1 formation nearly identical to what we have in Ace Y-Trips Curls.  Here are the instructions for what to do against Cover 2:

MOF Open (Cover 2)
Read: F-Y-H or F-H
- The F is the primary target. The F is trying to sell width early as if he is running a vertical route. If the SLB does not expand the F can snap the route off vertically up the field. If the SLB expands then the F can snap the post route off in front of him.
- The Y must grab the attention of the MLB on his Drag route so that the F is isolated one on one vs the SLB.
- Vs zone the Y should sit down but the read may go past him to the H unless he is wide open because the QB won’t have a lot of time after allowing the F to work.

Assuming we have a matchup winner to take advantage of, this is what we want to do, too.  Adjusting personnel to mimic what the Lions do with Megatron is pretty easy to do in NCAA.  Go to formation substitutions and change the receivers so that in Ace Y-Trips you have the best (or fastest) guy in the slot.  We definitely want at least the second best receiver on the left side of the formation since he's the isolated curl against man coverage.  The kicker is that the guy you put in the strongside curl WR position - supposedly the primary route according to the play art in NCAA and Madden - can be anyone competent and still be successful.  We're talking Shanahan System halfback level of it not mattering who is in that spot.  Ideally, a sure handed possession receiver who can take a hit, but definitely does not need to be a world beater.

The Bottom Line

1. Change your personnel in Ace Y-Trips to put your best receiver in the slot.
2. If that receiver is still not that good, do not attempt to throw the post against a two shell - if you see two high safeties and the corners rolled up to indicate either Cover 2 or Cover 2 Man, audible to something else that kills Cover 2: run the ball at the six man box or audible to Stick.
3. The only time you ignore point 2 and basically all other rules for running Curls is if your slot receiver is uncovered.  Then you go Bobby Petrino on the defense and look to the alert post: "The post and the wheel are “alert” routes, in that they aren’t part of the basic reads but the quarterback can look at them first if the defense gives it."
4. If you are going to play the matchup against a two shell, be prepared to look somewhere else, pull it down and run, or eat the sack if it's Cover 2 Man and your guy doesn't win the matchup.  Don't throw a bad interception if the slot receiver doesn't get a step.

Curls Part 2 of 4: Four Across

Now that we have a base read for a single high safety, we go to the other extreme with two high safeties plus backed off corners.  This look, with four defenders relatively high, is what you see with either Cover 4 or Quarters coverage.  

Either way, whether this is man or zone, the defense has backed off a lot of personnel and has very little up front in run support and for underneath coverage; they are trying to stop the pass.  If we are running the ball, this is great.  But what if we have Curls called against this?

Vertical stems

The defense is committing many players deep to prevent long gains, but still has at most 8 players to drop into coverage (if there is just a three man rush).  Under normal circumstances with a four man rush, there will only be three defenders to play the short passes.  Consider Cover 4 from the Nickel Normal formation:

This is a defense that eliminates the possibility of anything past 15 yards like a verticals play and can play the run because zone defenders do not have to worry about getting depth at the snap.  But when the play is a pass and the offense attacks underneath, this is a weak call.  Not only are there only three zones being covered, but two of them in most personnel packages will be linebackers.

The feature of the Curls play that helps us to attack underneath is the presence of many routes that all go straight upfield like a verticals play.  Although the receivers do not end up going vertical all the way, defenders assigned to them must honor the possibility their man will turn on the jets and try to get behind the defense.  This is the same vertical stems idea talked about here at Her Loyal Sons:

All of the receivers push vertically at the snap. Prosise’s seam route holds the safety and forces the corner covering Jones to stay over-the-top. Jones presumably has the option to break off his route based on the corner’s depth. He ultimately pushes to a depth of about 10-12 yards and turns for the ball. Rees throws the ball to Jones’ outside shoulder to minimize the threat of the linebacker undercutting the throw. The result is an easy first down. 

This play illustrates how the Irish use vertical stems against Cover 4 to open up the short outside zones. The inside vertical route prevents safety help on the outside and forces the corner to play more conservatively. Rees completed similar passes to Jones, Daniels and Chris Brown for easy 6-12 yard gains all game long.

In our play, we have the same vertical push by the wideouts split far to the right and left as well as the slot receiver.  The only receiver not running vertically at the snap is the tight end:

The slot receiver's post route has the same effect as the inside vertical - it holds the safety and forces the outside coverage to stay over the top.  Strongside, this means the safety in a four high look is sitting over the post and the outside corner must stay deep against what becomes a curl.  But look at what Fishduck says about the coverage:

Now, this isn’t man coverage, though it can quickly become very similar. Different teams run the coverage in different ways, but the main point to understand is that the corners and safeties are responsible for the guy they are aligned over if that receiver goes vertically up the field past 8-10 yards. If that happens, then they are in man coverage.

Go back to what  we're looking at in the first picture from the top.  There are corners aligned over each wideout and the defense has a guy over the slot man.  The slot post route will run right through his assigned zone, so he must stay with the slot man and carry him to the deep safety.  The vertical stem gives the man assigned underneath coverage on the strongside a terrible choice: defend the stem and take away the 8-12 yard gain or abandon it and run to the flat where the TE is leaking out to take away a possible 5-10 yard gain.  He stays home to take the hook/curl away "and must never let someone go up the seam undefended."

That means there is nobody on the TE arrow.

Attacking the flat

When you see the four high look with the cornerbacks backed off the line of scrimmage further than whoever is covering the slot receiver, the read we make is to hit the TE for a decent gain.  Remember, the defense is set up to take away your deeper throws, so this is taking the free yards being offered.  This makes Curls a great first and second down call.  The main thing is: don't stand there and pat the ball hoping someone gets open against the blanket coverage downfield.  Make the read and get rid of it:

This is a safe read with an extremely easy throw to make.  You can count on this read avoiding negative or zero yards, but it will not pick up medium to long yardage.  If you see this on third and 8, you'll have to either gamble that you can make the throw in front of the cornerback - or better yet check to something else.

The timing on this throw is a 3 step drop - the QB takes the snap, and drops one step then gathers with two short steps and fires.  Instead of letting the QB go into his entire 5 step drop, we snap the ball and almost immediately fire the ball to the TE.



The relative success can be affected by the read/ability of the inside linebacker (if he gets over to the TE fast) and how well your wide receiver can pick up the block downfield on his corner.



Even if the coverage is not Cover 4, you can often pick up decent yardage from the alignment advantage alone.  In Madden, this is even more effective because the downfield blocking logic is better than it is in NCAA.

Curls Part 1 of 4: Single High

The Curls play out of Ace Y-Trips is the most important pass play in the offense, and must be run effectively for the entire system to work.  Ideally we want to face a light box with six defenders against our six blockers.  If the opponent wants to bring a safety down into run support and go seven on six to stop our rushing game, we need to be able to punish them with the pass.

Single High Coverages

Smart Football has a great post from 2009 detailing the basic families of coverages using the Ron Jenkins stuff.   The short version is that seeing only one man deep in the middle of the field means the defense has moved its strong safety up to either strengthen the front against the run or as part of a blitz package.  Real defenses disguise their coverage more than what we see in the EA video games, so simple rules of thumb will work for us almost all of the time.

Remember that a player assigned to cover a specific zone on the field or assigned to cover a certain receiver actually needs to get there to carry out his assignment.  If the player lines up too far from his assignment, there is no way to get over in time to prevent a pass he's supposed to stop.  That's why seeing where the players line up before the snap tells you a lot about what everyone is probably going to do when the play starts.

The basic coverage types that line up with a single safety in the center of the field are Cover 3 zone and Cover 1 man free:

Notice both of these defenses are pretty good against the run because there are simply more defensive players near the line of scrimmage.  The weaknesses for both of these coverage schemes include intermediate range "breaking routes" like "dig routes" or sudden stopping curls.  This is why we choose to attack a defense trying to bring down an extra man to play the run with the curls play:

This play includes both a weakside and strongside curl that attacks the perimeter of the defense.  The opponent cannot be strong everywhere; if they load up inside to stop the run, they must be vulnerable to the outside.  "The curl route is simple, yet it is essential for working vs. off-man coverage and zone based defenses."

Why do we want to call this play from the right hashmark?

The Ace Y-Trips formation we call this play from is an unbalanced three WR formation with everyone to the right side of the formation except the split end.  If this formation is run from the right hand side of the field, we have three potential receivers crammed into the short "boundary" side and that lone split end on the wide "field" side is very far away from everyone else.  This sets up a possible isolation if the defense is in man coverage.  This is a way for us to build an Art Briles wide split into the play without having to mess around with controls or pre-snap movement:

1. It makes effective disguise very difficult 

Teams that want to bring outside defensive backs on blitzes or disguise which players will be covering the slot receivers have tremendous difficulty doing so when the receivers are so far away from the offensive line.  

If you want the Baylor QB to wonder whether you are blitzing off the edge or covering the slot receiver you'll have to really book it right before or after the snap in order to reach your assignment, or the QB will have a pretty open pitch-and-catch for easy yardage.  

2. It stresses the defensive perimeter 

Thanks to Baylor's extensive screen-and-outside-throw package, you need players to be able to get out to those receivers in order to defend the screens and passes that will otherwise snatch up five to 10 yards per snap with relative ease. 

3. It isolates part of the defense 

Defenses have to make choices with their alignments against Baylor. Are you going to maintain a normal six-man box to stop the Baylor run game and give up screen passes to the outside, or will you widen out your linebackers to stop the screens and hope they can get back inside to stop Baylor's run game? 

In the image above you can see that Oklahoma has a five-man box with their outside linebackers out wide to match the Baylor splits and their safeties deep to prevent scores. Baylor ran for 252 yards in that game.

Normal defenses will always put a man over each of the three wide receivers we have in the formation.  The question is how close the nearest other defenders are who might help when a pass is thrown that way.  If the defense is in man coverage and the defense moves other guys out to help, that lightens them up inside for us to run the ball.  If the defense leaves the man defender out there by himself on an island, the throw becomes an easy and pretty much automatic first down.

Having your offense do this means you're essentially trading out-breaking route concepts for geometry. As a result, defenses have a lot more ground to cover, and that extra ground means the safeties have to take wider splits, the cornerbacks are forced to the edges, and the middle of the field becomes much more important. This is a boon not only to the passing game, but to the running game.

When to throw the Left Curl: Man Coverage 

Any defender in Cover 1 (one deep safety in the middle of the field) or Cover 0 (no deep safety at all) locked up with our wide receiver in no-man's land is forced to play very loose.  Even if this is Cover 1, "that’s a long way for the free safety to run." Since there is nobody to help this isolated cover man, he cannot afford to get burned deep: "In either case the field is left open, which means defensive backs have to lock up and not give it up."

Except for elite cover corners (and maybe not even then), the cornerback will not gamble and try to jump the route:

Man over coverage is the more conservative of the two. The defender plays "over" the receiver, that is, ahead of him or between the receiver and the end zone. This position makes it less likely that the corner will intercept the pass, but also less likely he will be beat should the receiver catch the pass. Man over is the coverage of choice when a defender lacks deep support. 

Man under coverage is decidedly more risky. The defender plays "under" the receiver, that is, behind him or between receiver and the line of scrimmage. This position allows better access to the ball, but puts the corner a step behind the receiver. One of the benefits of good deep safety play is the ability to play under without risk of being burned.

The wide Briles split means any safety who is not already aligned near the left hash at the snap is going to take too long to get over to matter.  Any Cover 1 or Cover 0 behind a blitz will almost always go to loose man coverage.  Consider the following zero blitz from Cincinnati:



This is Curls from Ace Y-Trips against Nickel 3-3-5 personnel.  The deep safety comes up to cover the TE while the defensive back on the left side drifts to the middle underneath zone, watching the running back (who stays in for our play).  This leaves the wide receiver one on one against a loose man corner with everyone on his team running away from him.

In either of the slow motion angles, look at the separation the receiver has when the ball arrives.  Also notice when the quarterback starts his throwing motion.  By anticipating the comeback by the receiver, the quarterback can throw the ball before his man turns around to catch it.  There is just no time for the cornerback to react and close to make a play before the pass arrives.

Which is the key defender to look at?  The free safety in center field.  In a Cover 1 scheme, he will stay home in the middle because the slot receiver threatens the deep middle with a post route.  In a Cover 0 scheme, he will run up to take either the TE or slot WR in man coverage.  This makes the post-snap read very simple: if the free safety does anything other than run to the weak side, throw to the curl route on the left because that route faces man coverage with no help over the top.

This next string of clips shows the play run against four other schemes to demonstrate how it really does not matter which particular Cover 0 or Cover 1 setup is faced:

The first play is Curls versus Nickel 3-3-5 SS Mike Blitz.  The alignment is mirrored - the nickel back is over the slot receiver.  You can clearly see after the safety walks up that he and the MLB twist on the inside rush while the outside linebacker also blitzes.  As for the key, the deep safety backpedals but does not move to the weak side, so we read man at the snap.

The second play is Curls versus 4-2-5 Cover 1.  Again it gets mirrored, but you see a linebacker drop back into the robber hole in front of the deep zone.  The other linebacker plays man coverage on the TE to the flat while the last defender sits at home watching the running back.  The deep safety backpedals but does not move to the weak side, so we read man at the snap this time as well.

On the third play, we have Curls versus Nickel Normal Under Smoke.  The strong safety drops down and has man assignment on the TE, so the nickel back stays weakside.  At the snap, the deep safety takes off toward the strong side to get to his man coverage assignment so we immediately read this as man.

Finally, Curls versus 4-3 Man QB Spy.  The deep safety drifts straight back, which tells us this is man coverage, and the weak side curl is wide open as expected.

When to throw the Right Curl: Cover 3

Does that mean this play has to wait for man coverage to be effective?  No, and in fact the overwhelming majority of the throws against a single high pre-snap read will go to the flanker running the strong side curl on the right.  We have already talked about how alignment creates the opportunity to have a one on one isolation on the weak side; now let's figure out how we can get one on the crowded right side.

A normal matchup Cover 3 Sky call would have the safety down in the box staying on his side in curl-flat coverage to take away the right side curl throwing lane.  The problem for the SS is that we've overloaded the right side of the formation and now he's standing in front of not only a TE but a slot receiver as well.

Take a look at the section on this page at Smart Football:

The five-step combination is called by the coach. Typically, that passing concept should have a few elements to it: first, there needs to be a receiver controlling the middle, like a seam or middle read or something more underneath; second, the pass concept should incorporate the runningback, as he will be assigned to “check-release” to that side; and third, the pass concept must be an effective “zone stretch” or possibly a “flood route,” as against man coverage the throw will most likely go to the three-step side. 

The three-step combination, on the other hand, is called by the quarterback at the line. For this he should be given simple keys; three-step passes are not “all purpose” plays, but are instead designed to defeat specific, identifiable structural weaknesses in the defense. Moreover, each of the plays shown in the menu are good against man-to-man blitzes, which is the primary purpose of building in the quicks. Think of them as “hot routes.”

Look at the next diagram from the "Putting it together" section from that page.  Our Curls play is very similar to this setup with some of the options removed.  The slot receiver always runs a post instead of a corner, and the X receiver always runs a curl.

The slot post route is the one that controls the middle of the field.  The weakside curl is our "hot route" man blitz beater.  On the frontside we have a flood-like element built into the formation: the post route pins the deep safety in centerfield while the slot cover man lined up over the slot must carry him to the safety.  The TE arrow leaking out into the flat pulls whoever has the underneath zone assignment.  This leaves nobody to help the cornerback originally lined up on the Z and this effectively turns into man to man coverage.

This is exactly the Houston play from Coach Hoover's site.  We are basically doing his strongside rotation and weakside rotation reads.

Here we have Curls from Ace Y-Trips against Cover 3 out of 3-3-5 with the high safety cheating to the right, standard Nickel personnel with a 4 man line, 3-3-5 with the high safety cheating to the left, and 3-3-5 with the high safety lined up dead center on the right hash.  The high safety always breaks at the snap, and the entire coverage rotates counterclockwise.  This means most defenders are running away from where we are throwing the ball.

Safe throws = good for low talent teams  

Due to the time it takes for them to stop and change direction to go back to where the ball is heading, this is just as good as a wide Briles split putting them far away from the receiver.  It turns out that the CPU will refuse to do a straight matchup Cover 3 and move the nickel back over.  But even if the nearest linebacker matched up with the TE and went with him to the flat, it wouldn't matter.  Ultimately what you have is the slot post and TE working to isolate the strongside corner on our #1 receiver with a clear throwing lane to him.

Here is the view from the QB when throwing to the right against Cover 3:

Here is what it looks like throwing to the left against Cover 1 or Cover 0:

The play uses formation and the other routes in the pattern to set up these easy throws.  Due to the huge amount of separation at the top of the route, the QB is making a throw to a wide open receiver and neither he nor the WRs need to be stud players.

The Bottom Line

Step 1: Identify one high safety.

Step 2: Verify cornerbacks playing off instead of press.

Step 3: Snap the ball and watch the high safety and coverage rotation.  

• If he goes to the left side of your screen, look to the right curl.  
• If he stays put and drifts backwards, look to the left curl unless you see a LB floating back to take it away.  Immediately go to the right curl since you know there aren't enough underneath defenders to take both away.
• If he goes to the right side of your screen, look to the left curl - that tells you this is man coverage.

Step 4: Throw on time with velocity.

• Start the throw right before the receiver makes his stop at the top of the route.
• Rifle it in there with the hardest bullet you can throw to reduce the flight time of the ball.

Step 5: Wait for the referees to move the chains.

Next up: Curls Part 2 of 4: Four Across

The Passing Game Philosophy: Less (and simpler) is More

Most of the time when we watch football games, we hear about quarterbacks going through progressions; many plays are designed and taught by the coaches to have a primary receiver, a secondary receiver, a checkdown, and a hot route to throw against a blitz.  Chris Brown from Smart Football has many great breakdowns of the differences between progression reads and coverage reads:

Chris Petersen of Boise State once set forth his view of a quarterback’s development as follows:

• Strict progression. Tell him to read first receiver, second receiver, and then third receiver — and then run like hell if they aren’t open. In Petersen’s view, if they don’t know anything else they can know, by rote memory, who they are supposed to throw to. This doesn’t require them to have any advance knowledge of the defense and it is where every quarterback begins.

• Progression with coverage keys. The same progression concept as above except that the progression and sequence of receivers is determined by what the defense is doing. How many safeties are there? What kind of leverage are you getting from the cornerbacks? Is it a blitz? Is it man or zone? Once you’ve determined that, it’s one-two-three.

• Coverage reads. This is the advanced NFL stuff: Tom Brady sees the defense doing X, so he looks one way and then rifles it back to the receiver he always knew he was going to because he understood the coverage, he understood the technique the defense was playing, and he understood the theory of the play he was running. There are few, if any, college quarterbacks who ever do this kind of thing.

There are tradeoffs between using the various systems; an older post on Smart Football provides Bill Mountjoy's summary of the advantages and disadvantages of progression reads and coverage reads:

Advantages of coverage reads:

• Eliminates the struggle of the progression read trying to determine who was more wide open.
• Eliminates the QB from making up his mind before the snap (we shouldn’t do this regardless of if we Progression Read OR Read the Coverage). Read the defenders to get you to the right receiver in Coverage Reads.
• Keeps quarterback on the same page as the Coach because they both know the read and the goal of the play called.
• Quarterbacks don’t need to to stare at your receivers to determine who to throw to because they will be looking at defenders (giving more natural look offs).

Brown actually likes the middle one the best:

Despite listing limitations of progressions and advantages of coverage reads, I much prefer progression reads to coverage reads. Coverage reads are great in theory (and maybe are great for long-term, established NFL quarterbacks) but they are not easy to teach and — because while one defender might react as expected you might not be able to predict where the others are, thus causing problems — they can even be misleading.

One nice part about console football video games is that there are not as many exotic looks that the defense will get by using pre-snap motion and alignment shifts, and the player can see the whole field via the overhead view (moreso with the coordinator camera angle in NCAA 14).  This makes life a lot easier when trying to make coverage reads like the pros:

Given the byzantine schemes defenses have used in recent years, simple coverage keys aren’t always enough to identify an open receiver. Aside from the usual veteran quarterback tricks — look-offs, dummy signals, and so on — Brady and Manning are better than other quarterbacks because they can process more information. They see not only the number of deep safeties, but the depth and leverage of the cornerbacks and the alignment of the linebackers. They see the entire defensive structure. 

This is not to say they always (or even usually) know the exact coverage, but their years of study and practice allow them to make an instant judgment about the basic tactics of a defense — and where it’s weakest.

Instead of trying to do progression reads or even coverage based progression reads, what we will be using is closer to straight progression reads in this offense.  In reality, we'd probably be doing the coverage based progression Brown recommends, but the limitations of the video games makes it all easier and we can concentrate on getting the pre-snap and coverage reads right.  In general, if the player can read the defense adequately well, there are not enough subtle, sophisticated twists built into the code to trip up the "correct" coverage read decision like a real life defensive coordinator might cook up.

Playing smarter is playing faster

Following the lead of the running game, we want to keep the passing game very simple as well.  The idea is to define what we want to do - establish an identity - and drill the plays over and over until everything is instinct.  The more comfortable a player is with the plays they run, the less they have to stop and think about what is going on.  Instead, they just know where each element is supposed to be and adjusting to what is on screen takes less effort and speeds up.  It prevents missed opportunities and taking losses due to the paralysis of inaction:

TarHeelBlue: You talked about playing fast. Which of your guys plays the fastest? 

Coach Huxtable: "Quincy plays fast, which he should, he's got the most experience. He's played that position for a long time. He plays with good eyes, he reads well, he recognizes well, and he reacts quickly. 

"Robert Harris plays fast, sometimes too fast. Sometimes he's going, but he's not going where he's supposed to be going. Once he gets more reps under his belt, he's going to be a really fast player. 

"David Thornton plays fast. Clarence Gaddy plays real fast, but again, he's not always going where he's supposed to go, but he's always going fast. We've got to get him a little more disciplined, making sure that he's recognizing better what he's seeing.

"You play faster through experience and repetition. It's a repetition thing. The more times they see the picture, the faster they can react to what they see."

This is what players and coaches are talking about when they say a guy has "pretty good instincts on where a play is going. . . (and is) able to play faster than (their) 40 time": a physically fast player who has to hesitate and think about what to do can get beat by a slower guy who doesn't need to pause.  Practice and repetition of a small number of plays and concepts lead to smoother and cleaner execution of those plays.



We don't need a ton of plays.  Instead, we need to run signature plays well and be ready to recognize and take advantage of opportunities when they appear.  Consider this bit on Florida State Head Coach Jimbo Fisher from Grantland:

Earlier in Fisher’s career, he asked both his receivers and the quarterback to adjust routes based on the defense, but in recent years he’s simplified things — for everyone but the quarterback. “There are so many schemes and we all want to be gurus in football and think we created something,” Fisher said at the clinic. “I am just as guilty as everyone else, I promise.” Over the last few seasons Fisher reduced the number of plays while building options for his quarterbacks within each play. “Against Clemson [in 2012] we ran the same pass play nine times,” said Fisher. “We completed all nine of the passes, to five different receivers. I did not need a new play.” 

This only works if the quarterback makes the right reads; Winston had few issues in this department. “If we can teach the quarterback to read the defense it will work,” Fisher explained. “I let the quarterback make the decision.”

In the EA NCAA and Madden video games, that decision maker is you, the player.

Maximizing value from fewer plays

If we want to be able to make a coverage read that will beat what the defense presents us with, the called play must have a component well-suited for it, whatever it is.  Packaging coverage beaters into a single play allows us to come to the line and have the ability to pretty much always throw to a route that gives us the advantage because it is specifically designed for the matchup it faces.

Good passing teams package different pass concepts together to give their quarterbacks answers versus a variety of defenses. The coverage read on a given play is tied to these pass concepts. For example, if the route combination to one side is better against single-safety defenses like Cover Three, and the concept to the other side is better against two-deep, split-safety coverages, then the quarterback’s read will be based on the number of safeties.

Plays that are designed to exploit certain defenses can be arranged in the audible system to create a fast tempo toolbox for anyone who feels like adding a no-huddle element.  Suppose the defense is showing Cover 2 and the called pass play does not have good answers for Cover 2, but you know you have another play with particularly effective options against Cover 2 set to one of your audibles.  With enough repetition and practice with each play in the system, it becomes second nature to know not only what play to audible to, but what part of the audible play to attack with.  As this gets faster and faster, it becomes possible to run the base offense at high tempo as the two minute offense as well (I do this often).