Cover 3 Beaters

With football, like every sport, for every move there is a counter move.  Cover 3 is designed to get that extra man into the box and help defeat the run, while still playing solid zone coverage behind it.  When an offense is going to be taking on a Cover 3 team, they must have the following pass patterns in place to force a Cover 3 team into conflict.

  

The best Cover 3 beater is the 4 vert route.  Coaches have a different call for the route, but whether you call your vert route a go, a race, or a streak, having four of them in your playbook is essential against a Cover 3 team. 

4 Verts vs. Cover 3 (2x2)

The key to this play is to put the one high safety into conflict.  Make him chose to cover one of the inside slots.  As the route is being run, the QB must be reading that safety.  If he chooses one of the slot receivers, throw it to the other. 

4 Verts vs. Cover 3 (3x1)

An even better formation vs. Cover 3 is a 3x1 (trips) package.  When running 4 verts vs. a 3x1, the #2 and #3 receivers must put that one high safety in conflict.  As they come off of the LOS, it is important that the #3 receiver works towards the middle of the field and occupies the one high safety.  As he is running draw him over in coverage, and this leaves #2 wide open.  Your QB read is the one high safety. 

With this concept, Mike Leach and Hal Munme have made a living off of 4-verts.  Even if there is great coverage, the quarterback can always take a shot deep on the outside shoulder of a receiver.  The example clip below is from you tube of 4 verts out of multiple formations.

Wheel Post vs. Cover 3 (2x2)

Another favorite is the wheel-post.  This is an easy read for the QB, and the key to the play is for the backside flanker to run a skinny post.  By running a skinny post, the one high safety must immediately choose which post route to cover.  If he chooses the skinny post, the deep post will be wide open.  If he chooses the deep post, the skinny post will be wide open.  Needless to say, one of the routes will be open for a huge gain. 

The theme of these pass plays is to put the one high safety into conflict.  Make that safety choose one route to cover, and no matter what, the choice he makes is always incorrect.  The best part about them is no matter what offense you run, these routes can fit into your formations.  Next week, I will continue to go into more Cover 3 beaters, good luck in your season.  

Breaking Down Cover 3

One of the most common coverages at all levels is the Cover 3. Cover 3 stands for three deep players breaking up the field into 1/3s and having four players in underneath coverage.

The reason Cover 3 is so popular is its flexibility to get an 8th man into the box. No matter if you are a 3-5, 5-2, 4-4 or 4-3 defense, you can run cover 3.

First, I would like to define the zones:

Flat-  7-10 yards off of the line of scrimmage (LOS) between the numbers and sideline of the field.

Deep 1/3-  For cover 3, the field will be broken down into 1/3, from sideline to hash to hash to sideline.  Each player is responsible for the deepest man in their 1/3.

Curl-  7-10 yards on the inside part of the hash.  This player has a very tough zone, covering between the hash and the middle of the field.

Base cover 3 out of fronts:

4-3


Most 4-3 teams run a cover 2, which I will cover at a later date, but in order to get that 8th defender in the box, teams will move to a cover 3.

3-4/5-2


Cover 3 is a base coverage for the 3-4/5-2 team.  They want to stop the run, and will get that 8th player up into the box to put the pressure on a running team.  Example of a main 3-4 Cover 3 team is Alabama, and Coach Nick Saban's team.  Brophy extensively covered some of Alabama's more advanced coverages out of 3 at the following site: Advanced Cover 3.

4-4 and 3-5


The 4-4 and 3-5 defenses use Cover 3 as a base coverage along with man.  These defenses use a variety of blitzes and slants that allow their players to exploit weaknesses in the protection and change responsibilities of backers and zones.  Below are base Cover 3 looks for the two defenses

In the 3-5-3, most d-coordinators will bring at least one LB during the play.  For this example, I have the middle linebacker blitzing.  If they were to drop 8, the MLB would drop into the middle hole of the field, roughly 7-10 yards deep.

There are a variety of variations of Cover 3, and how it changes according to the offense's formations and routes.  The key is that it helps get that 8th man into the box, while covering the field and taking away the homerun routes.  Good luck.