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.
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:
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.
- 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
