Football Coaching

Blitz Extended Coverage: 3-Deep Coverage – Neema Salimi

Name: Blitz Extended Coverage: 3-Deep Coverage – Neema Salimi
Uploaded: 2023-06-27T12:00:00-05:00
Description: Neema Salimi’s insights on 3-deep coverage strategies enhance your defensive playbook with expert tips.

Jun 27, 2023

Summary

Transcript

Summary

Westminster HS offensive coordinator Neema Salimi talks 3-deep coverage with different numbers of rushers.

Speaker: Neema Salimi

Transcript

Our next speaker holds a PhD in biophysics and teaches AP stats and
calculus as his day job. They never would've let me in that class.
He's brought his analytical approach to the Gridiron at Atlanta's Westminster
High School with experience on both sides of the ball as a former defensive
coordinator and now serving as the current offensive coordinator.
He's returning to his defensive roots for this session,
sharing his teaching tips for three deep zone match coverage.
Please welcome coach NMA Simi.
Hi coaches. I'm Nma Simi, uh, assistant coach at Westminster in Atlanta,
Georgia. I'm gonna talk to you today about three deep coverage rushing,
three or four or five or even six.
It's how we play our one high zone match and how we marry it with both five and
six man pressures as well as drop eight coverage. Little bit bit more about me,
I'm starting my 11th year here at Westminster.
I was previously at Savannah Country Day in Savannah, Georgia.
Started at Westminster as the ninth grade o line coach and then moved to
offensive coordinator and quarterbacks and then, uh, varsity linebackers.
I was promoted to defensive coordinator in 2018, uh,
where I was the the first defensive coordinator under head coach Jerry Romberg,
who had been the defensive coordinator. Um, since 1992.
I, uh, moved to offensive coordinator in the O line position last year in 2022.
This year, uh, upcoming year,
I'm gonna be the offensive coordinator and quarterback's coach.
So I know offensive coordinator talking about three deep coverage. Uh,
I promise I'm not a plant. Uh, I feel like a defensive coach at heart,
so I hope you won't hold it against me. Uh, you can reach out to me on Twitter,
uh, at Coach Simi, and, uh, you can email me, um, you know, with any questions.
Happy to, to help, uh, in any way that I can. Uh,
a little bit about this clinic. Um,
gonna talk briefly about why we major in 3D coverage, uh,
then talk about some basics and some techniques. Uh,
then we'll talk about our match coverage,
which most people know is Ripple is talk about flooding the coverage versus
three by one, uh, creepers, uh, as well.
And then we'll get into the,
the five man fire zones and the six man eyes pressures.
And we'll end with some drop eight coverages. Now,
why do we major in 3D coverage? Uh, for us, we see mostly 10,
11, and 20 personnel, maybe 75% of the time at our level in Georgia. We,
and out of those we still have to stop the run. Uh,
the other things that we like, we like having the post safety, um,
and defending the middle of the field. And, uh,
the other main thing are the RPOs at our level. Um,
while we do play some one high man,
we get a lot of the benefits of playing one high against the rpo.
With zone match coverage, we get the division of labor, um,
where guys really can be, uh, pass first players or run first players.
Uh, not quite to the same extent as playing man, but, uh,
a very good approximation, um, in that respect.
I wanna talk a little bit about how we install our 3D with the players. Uh,
we started 'em off with this diagram of the field to make sure they, uh,
understand, uh, the field dimensions and, uh, all the terminology that we use.
Uh, trust me, I've learned that never, uh,
assume that your players know anything about football. Uh,
so from there we go to, uh,
the reason that we talk about all the, uh,
the field locations is so that we can talk about dividers whenever we play one
high coverage. Uh, we play with dividers.
The idea being that anything that occurs outside the divider,
you shouldn't expect help from the middle of the field. Safety,
anything that occurs deep and inside the, the divider, you should expect help.
So the dividers that we use, if the ball is on the hash, um,
the dividers are the bottom of the numbers to the near hash and splitting the
hash and the top of the numbers on the far side of the field.
If the ball's in the middle, then, uh,
the dividers are one yard from the top of the numbers. And so that affects, uh,
how we line up in our match coverage and how we, uh,
play, uh, vertical routes. So that idea is position maintenance.
So if a receiver lines up outside the divider,
we're gonna line up inside of him. If the receiver lines up inside the divider,
we're gonna line up outside.
And this would be true whether you're a corner or whether you're somebody
playing a match coverage on number two. Um, and then what will happen is,
is if the receiver, um, stays outside the divider,
we're gonna play a high shoulder technique.
We wanna play high and inside because we don't have deep help. Uh,
if the receiver, however, stays inside the divider, we wanna play low shoulder.
We wanna play low and in the trail, because we have help deepen on, uh,
on top and inside. If then if the receiver changes their,
uh, relationship with the divider, then we're gonna convert technique post snap.
All right, everybody has a, um,
a diagram like this indicating the field zones.
We talk about this with the players. Uh, one of the things that, uh,
we go through, uh,
a lot with the players and how we install our cover three is we actually start
from a two back set. Um, not something that we're gonna talk about today.
Wanna focus on, uh, one back spread sets. So,
um, just, uh, more definitions here. And we,
the way that we treat this is we treat this like, you know,
like X's here cuz these really can be anybody. You know,
obviously these guys are usually corners,
but how we play the underneath coverage in the middle of the field coverage, uh,
it can be different players, uh, how we play middle of the field,
um, middle of the field principle. Um, you know,
this isn't that different from how everyone else plays it. Uh, again,
we insult with players. Uh,
oftentimes we line up one high or um,
we align too high and then we're gonna rotate during the cadence,
um, how we play our midpoint. I'll talk a little bit more about this. Uh, again,
this is a pretty standard technique,
but it does have some carryover into the other types of coverages. So if,
um, we're playing midpoint, so we're playing a a zone concept,
the corner's gonna midpoint one and two in the seam and he's gonna be a little
bit closer to two. If two's not in the seam,
then we're gonna squeeze one man to man.
And if one goes under or runs a hitch,
we're gonna call either under or smash and we're gonna end up squeezing two in
the scene. That's our midpoint rule. Uh, now our match coverage,
which most most people know is rip Liz. Uh,
the way that we think about it versus two by two set is the almost always the
corners, they're gonna play what we call a bale third technique.
Talk a little bit about that.
Our overhangs are gonna play our match two technique,
and we're gonna have two hook players that are gonna relate to number three and
somebody playing middle of the field principle.
Our match, uh, with our bail. Third technique, uh, we're our corners,
uh, if this is the corner we're gonna play, press bail, uh,
and we're going to determine whether our guy is vertical,
which will take him based off the number of steps we're taking. Uh,
though this can vary if we're gonna play, uh, if we're not playing press bail,
we're just aligning off. Uh,
and the whole idea here is that we're gonna play this guy man to man, um,
unless we get an under or uh,
a smash or the back as fast as the flat. And then in that case,
we're gonna convert to midpoint.
Now the match part of the match coverage,
what we tell these guys is their job is to match two in the seam.
So if two is vertical, they're gonna match 'em man to man,
otherwise they're gonna play their curl flat technique.
So they're gonna align divider leverage at five yard depth.
They're with their divider foot up and they're gonna scooch back in the seam for
three scooch. And if two is still vertical, we're gonna match 'em. Uh,
we'll see some examples where we have some good scooch and some not so good
scooch, um, on that technique.
So if he's not vertical, then we're playing curl flat. So if he goes out,
we're playing curl flat. If he goes under, we're gonna yell under, under, under,
we're gonna squeeze back, stack the hook,
look for something coming back from the other side. Uh, and if we get a,
a hit uh smash call from the corner, we're gonna go hunt the upfield HIPPA one.
Um, we don't do a particularly good job of this.
It's something that you always have to work on.
If we get a under from the corner, it's um,
which is not something we see a lot of, um,
we're gonna squeeze back and stack the hook and let the corner take two
vertical. If we get a fast three, then we're gonna flood the coverage.
So we're gonna go sail technique, which is, uh, essentially flipping your hips,
opening to the quarterback, uh, and going in angle back pedal, uh,
being able to split the zone, uh,
to take away the sail route and the flat route at the same time.
And we'll see some video of that.
Our hook players are relating to three. They're gonna drop to their hook,
they're gonna match three, uh, and versus underneath covered, uh,
basically when they get unders. All right?
The whole idea is if this guy is under,
then what this guy's gonna do is gonna call,
he's hearing under and he's gonna robot and he's gonna roll over and run and to
find the drag or dig this guy heard under from his side.
And this guy's gonna yell crosser, and he's gonna take the crosser through.
The idea being that these guys might be gone vertically.
So now he has to take them through to the flat. If we get double unders,
so it's mesh, they're both gonna robot.
If we get double unders and the back is fast,
then how it plays out is this guy will take the back in the
flat. This guy here is going across,
he's gonna end up be taken by this guy and, uh, the flat player over here.
This guy's going across and now he has to take him, uh, to the flat.
All right? When we get three by one, we flood the coverage pre-snap.
This is something how we teach it, uh, in two back. Uh, and we,
when we get a fast three in match, um,
that we think of these lesson zones as more like jobs. Um,
so somebody is gonna play the flat and that means he has the final number one,
somebody's in the curl, he has the final number two,
somebody is in the hook and he's playing three up and back.
Somebody has number four or the first crosser back to the weak side.
And we're gonna play man to man on the single.
We have somebody in the deep strong side and somebody in the deep middle. Um,
so the whole idea is we're gonna play zone over here.
We're gonna play man with anybody who's left over here. That's the idea.
So we can do this in several ways. I'm gonna go pretty quickly through this.
So the main way that we do this, um,
out of four down front is we play six skate,
which six means that we're gonna rotate weak.
So our rovers rotating down to be the four first crosser.
And our linebackers and spur are all, um, moving to the strong side.
And again, we're playing man to man over here. Six buzz.
Our rover is rotating down to play the hook zone and so he can play three up
from depth. Otherwise, you know,
it's really just these two guys exchanging jobs. Three buzz.
This is our most common, uh,
trips coverage when we're playing a three down front. Um,
so now our spurs gonna be in the flat and we're gonna rotate strong and our
safety's gonna rotate down to be the curl player.
Three Mabel is now our spur,
or we could be sending the spur off the edge and this is the will.
And then the Jackson coverage. Um,
he's gonna be the curl player and the safety is gonna rotate down and be the
flat player. He's gonna have to be down over two before they snap it, uh,
to make this work.
And then we have three cloud where now our corner is the flat player and both
safeties are playing deep. Uh,
and now which tr trips coverage, you know, how do we game plan this? Um,
so six gate, that's the main one we play. Four down,
we like it versus weak side run and versus two man combinations in the boundary
cuz we have our two better cover guys over there. Uh, six buzz. We, uh,
like for a third down creepers and defending four verticals or a deep crossing
route. Uh,
three buzz we like versus r p to three cuz the safety gets to play that,
uh, strong side outside run like jet sweep and we like it uh,
as a base check versus nub trips.
Three cloud is really good at taking away screens and quick game, um,
especially paired with a drop eight coverage. Uh,
and it's really good at taking away number one to the field, um,
because you have the corner playing him short and a safety gun in deep, uh,
three Mabel we like with playing with the true Sam and it also is gonna occur if
we bring the spur off the edge in a three down front and the will as the curl
player. All right,
now that we talked about how we play cover three versus, uh,
one back spread sets, let's talk about some of the specific calls.
So our base call is over six, so we get into, uh,
traditional over front, um, set to the tight end or to the passing strength,
uh, or to the back all in that order. Um,
so this is standard 11 personnel two by two set.
So six means that we're gonna rotate weeks.
So our rover our week safety is gonna rotate down. Um,
opposite the passing strength. Um,
some kind of housekeeping things about us.
We are in general a field boundary team, uh, because of the high school hashes.
So our spur is gonna go to the left in this side where the field is.
If the ball's in the middle of the field, we would, uh,
he would align by passing strength.
We do have ways to align to the passing strength instead of um,
just field boundary. But, uh, for most cases, field boundary works for us.
Amigos is our, um, normal personnel versus uh,
10, 11, 20.
It's our nickel personnel call amigos cuz we are technically three down
linemen, three linebackers, uh, three safeties and two corners.
That's amigos. So this is our, um,
base over six call. Um, and then I'll show, uh,
how we play some other formations as well.
So 11 personnel three by one that we're gonna play. Six skate.
Um, this is a loaded set so we would play, uh, with passback rules,
which we didn't get a chance to talk about,
but in other words we could pass back, um,
any crosser to the rover instead of having to take it back. Uh,
this is two by two four open. Um, nothing really changes from the tight end set.
Uh, and this is three by one, uh, four open.
This is also six gate. Um,
one of the difference here is now because the back is set weak,
we would take back any crossers, uh,
from this side because the back could drain out the rover. Um,
and just, uh, a couple of extra sets that, you know,
we don't always draw all these in, um, against a,
a true two by one look or we make what's called a fist check or we're gonna play
match, uh, to the twins. And we're gonna play, uh, an area call,
um, to the single receiver side, be a little bit thicker in the run game. Um,
we call this trio nub trips. Um, we,
in this case we check to our three buzz coverage. Um,
so we would rotate this way.
This would be an exception to rotating weak here.
We're still gonna set the front to the single tight end.
We're going to make sure that we can handle, um,
two receivers weak. Uh, so that's why we make a banjo alert call. Uh,
if the running back wheels out, we're gonna put the corner on him. Um,
and then this is our base empty check out of, um,
our over six, um,
where we're gonna play skate essentially and we're gonna man it up on the
backside. Uh, if they get typed together, we'll either play, uh,
a man check top hat, um, or we'll just zone it.
And then, um,
we're gonna run some stunts up front to cancel gaps cuz we don't have enough
people to cover all the gaps against quarterback run. So that's over six.
All right, here's our first clip. We're in over six. I wanted to focus on the,
the match aspects of this and playing the deep routes. Uh, we're gonna run,
they're gonna run a fade up top our corner lake's playing it, um, from off.
Um, and we have some sort of communication issue up front.
This is game one. So he is playing off,
he's staying high and on top he can make a play on the ball.
Our free safety, he is getting to the middle of the field by the time they snap,
it kinda gets a late break on this makes a better break. Uh,
we can probably be there and contribute to the play down here.
He's starting to stem inside, so he should be there ready to cut the play off,
uh, cutting him off. If he's running a dig. Um,
our rover into the boundary, he gets a bubble. So he just sits, all right,
we don't need to go get that guy. That's why we're playing zone and our spur.
This should be a squeeze back and stack the hook.
So he is should be calling under, under, under, um, and making that play.
All right, showing this clip in over six.
Wanna focus on our rover here in the boundary,
playing his match technique on number two. So this is formation in the boundary.
We're just rotating weak our spurs up top. Um,
one of the things that's important,
so we're gonna scooch out for three scooch before declaring vertical.
And it's important that those scooch is don't get too big that you don't give up
too much ground. So let's take a look right there. That's too much ground,
that's a better thrown ball. That's a six, seven yard completion on the hitch.
Look at it again. So here,
1, 2, 3, right? We should be playing that much tougher.
Um, cause you know, playing, uh, against a better throw there. Uh,
that's gonna be a completion. All right,
here we're playing over six skate. All right, it's three by one.
Here's the back. He's gonna motion, uh, he's gonna shift out to empty.
And so we'll end up playing man to man over here with these two guys.
We're playing skate, uh,
thinking I want to look at is how we played the three vertical. All right,
so what we're telling this guy that he's gonna overdr three to get to two in the
curl,
and then this guy is supposed to take three up and back and we'll see how that
plays out here. All right,
so they shift to empty the line doesn't get the check, so they don't, um,
do any gap exchanges there. All right, so we're over dropping three to two.
All right, that's what the will should be doing. He's gonna overdr three to two.
Our mic does not do a particularly good job of playing three up and back
at all. Um, but because we have a somewhat inaccurate throw,
our free safety is playing this from top down. It can make a play on the ball,
um, and do pretty well.
This is not a game where we were ultimately very successful, but we did, uh,
make some good defensive plays.
Here's another example, uh, where I wanna talk about the techniques,
especially the spur and the three up player. All right, so again,
this is three by one though. This is a split set.
So he should be executing a sail technique. He's gonna overdr three to play two,
and he's gonna play three up and back if three is up.
So the spur here,
he ends up scooching instead of getting the sail technique.
So it's a little tougher for him to get to the flat.
He gets walled off by two running vertical.
And here our mic should be playing three up. He doesn't play three up.
And so it's lucky we don't get this seam route thrown on us.
All right, three by one loaded again, we're playing six skate, um,
fitting up zone read, uh, potentially r p o here, right? With the back set.
Um, so the, one of the nice things is we do get a division of labor.
These six guys are playing run. He's playing the r p o of three.
They, you guys are playing pass. He's playing man to man. Um,
that does mean against quarterback run that somebody has two jobs.
And the way that we've set the front, our three technique is set to the field.
So this guy's gonna play quarterback to cut back at the back and we'll see how
that plays out. Squeeze it down.
It probably gets a little too deep.
Their quarterback is definitely more athletic than our quick tackle,
but now because we're playing with zone eyes instead of playing man to man,
our will can be there to end up forcing the quarterback back into everyone,
uh, for a three yard game. One last clip and over six.
Uh, this is two by one, so we'll be making our fist check here.
So now we're gonna play zone on this side. We're gonna play match on this side,
but showing this one, uh, for fitting up split zone,
they're gonna run split zone this way. Fullback's gonna be coming back across.
Watch the technique here, how he crashes everything down. Uh,
and let's both of these guys be, uh, nearly unblocked at the point of attack.
Squeeze it down, our mic's there taking it on.
And then our rovers completely unblocked and they get a one yard gain on split
zone. Watch it again,
just fit really well, uh, and good execution by our defensive end.
All right, so the, the next call we'll talk about is Mint Strong three. Um,
all we're gonna do is we're gonna line up in our mint front and we're gonna do
the traditional thing. Uh, we're gonna bring the spur off the field side edge,
and we're gonna rotate, uh, strong, um,
opposite of what we were doing in over six. Um,
and we're gonna play match over here versus twins. We can play match over here.
That's how it's drawn up, uh, on this playbook slide. Uh, but usually we, we,
uh, play an area call here, unless we really like this matchup. Um,
we like this versus zone. We really like it versus 11 personnel.
We're less enthused about it versus, uh, 10 personnel. Um,
but we do have to be able to line up, uh,
if it's 11 personnel and they line up in a four open set and we have, uh,
some adjustments built into the call that way. So verse 11, personnel.
One of the things that we gotta do is we slide the front and play a heavy
technique right here, so we're not so weak in the C gap. Um, and we also do, uh,
make a pull call. This idea that instead of the jack being over here,
we're gonna put the, the defensive end and the five technique,
and we're gonna make it look like a three three stack.
It's a much better way to fit the run off the weak side. Uh,
we don't do a pool call, uh, versus a split set here. Uh,
that way the jack is in a much better position, uh, to play the back, um,
on any sort of, uh, flare route. If we get a,
um, nub trips formation. Since we have three open here,
we're gonna bring the will instead of the spur. Um,
it's just a much easier way to do it.
And we'll play our three buzz coverage over here, um,
versus four open sets. Um,
essentially what we try and do is get to an over front, uh, post snap.
So we're gonna end up sliding the front either versus a loaded set and also make
a pull call or versus two by two versus two by two. Um,
it's a lot easier for us to just rotate weak. Um,
and we give this one more name. We just call it joker.
We'll rotate weak and we'll bring the jack off the edge. Um,
and he's already one of our best pass rushers. Uh, so this, uh, works out, uh,
for us there. Um, and again, versus split formation, we don't, um,
do the pole call, but we will bring the will off the edge here. Um,
some adjustments, you know, in things we see less often, one of the,
the main things is that if we get 11 personnel, uh, f i b,
we'll just check over six. It's just a way better, uh, lineup. Uh,
so that way we can rotate week into the boundary.
All right, so here we're running Mint Strong three. They have three open, uh,
to the field.
So we're gonna end up switching this to the will and playing our three buzz
coverage, um, showing this clip. Uh, one, um, for dealing with, uh,
sprint out and recon contain here. This kid was really mobile, but, uh,
this is our spur right here. He does a really good job of sail technique, uh,
versus, uh, essentially a sail concept. And we'll see, uh, how that works out.
So focusing on him back to the sideline,
and now he can play the deep out and the flat at the same time.
Now our wheel's gonna come off the edge. He gets messed up in the cadence,
and now we have,
we give this guy a lane or a mic does a good job putting on the
brakes, coming back and making a play. Obviously it's second and really long,
uh, so we're still in a good situation here. But again, uh,
really wanna focus on the sale technique there. Splitting the zone,
uh, cause we're getting high load. All right,
here's an example of Min Strong three once again versus three by one open. Uh,
so, so we're gonna be bringing the will. Um, they're gonna end up, you know,
making a pretty good play on this one.
But this is a really good example of how we play, uh, three up and back.
This is one of the smartest linebackers I have coached.
So he's playing three up and back on this guy. Uh,
and we're gonna be bringing this guy off the edge.
So here we're playing man to man down here on the, on the single, on the X.
So pretty good pressure. So let's go back and let's look at the mic.
So look, he rolls over and runs, takes him out. Sorry about the, uh,
not getting the full depth here. And this is man to man. And, uh,
there x is better than our corner, and that's just all there is to it. Uh,
this team won state championship three years in a row. They're pretty good. Um,
and then up here, we would've had a better pass rush.
We asked him what happened after the series. He said, I thought it was a screen.
Nobody blocked me. Um, if he comes running, then, you know,
maybe we stop the play on that one.
Here's an example of running Mint Strong three. Um, again, this is,
uh, four open. Th it's three by one split.
They're gonna be running zone read back to the strong side. Uh,
we like stemming into mint often. Uh,
this past year we did a lot of lining up in Mint and then stemming out or
staying in it. Uh, so we're gonna stem into it. He's,
our will's gonna come off the edge. Um, and you know, when we do our jobs,
we get unblock linebackers.
So now they push to the for eye. Nobody gets to the mic.
Our nose does his job soaking up a double, right?
This is a pretty easy way to stop zone read when your guys execute.
On the flip side of that, this is what happens when,
when your guys don't execute. So same team, same game, right?
We're gonna have, uh, two, uh, missteps here. So one,
now they're in a three by one loaded set. We got zooming in here just, uh,
to take a look at the run fit. So it's gonna be zone read week.
One thing we absolutely should have done is make a pull call.
This guy missed it. He should be back here. We're over the center, right?
And now we should have a five technique over here. All right,
so we missed the pull call there.
The other thing is that we've got this guy coming off the edge and our four eye
needs to do his four eye job.
We'll see what happens when he decides not to to be a BGA player.
He hesitates, he thinks he's playing the quarterback,
and now their running back is a really good player and they make a play.
So again, right,
if the four eye just does his job, we ended up, you know,
they had seen enough of this, so it's turns into his own lock.
If the four eye just does his job, takes the running back,
then we have our mike who can go back and play the cutback of the back. Um,
and then of course he makes, uh, a great run in space.
So here's an example of a joker check. So we call Men Strong three,
they come out and two by two four open. So we check,
we're gonna rush the Jack off the edge, we're gonna rotate weak Play Six match.
Um, play a match to both sides here. Uh, believe in this game,
um, we had an injury, uh, to this guy.
And so we had to move some pieces around.
And so this guy was the guy that played that much. We wanna focus up here. Uh,
they're gonna run a slot fade. We don't make a smash call. And now this,
this is a mismatch that we can't have happen.
So not great technique. We should have made the smash call. Uh,
this is one of those situations where past interference is worse than or is not
as bad as letting the guy just catch it.
Our corner gets put in no man's land because we don't make the smash call and
our middle of the field safety, well, he can't get there.
Cause the ball's four yards outside the numbers, right?
That's the whole point of the dividers. Um, so
All right, Bens Farve three. Uh, that's another creeper that we run. Uh,
Ben's is a way that we do, uh, set our over front to the boundary.
So instead of saying something like, uh, over bench or bench over, we just, uh,
one word it, and we use car names to do that with our over fronts. Uh, farve,
we use, uh, quarterback names like a lot of people do. Um,
and all it means is we're gonna bring field pressure. Uh,
we're gonna play strong rotation. So all this is, is Mint Strong three,
except we're doing it from a four down front. Uh,
we're gonna bring the spur off the edge, we're slamming the whole line. Uh,
and the Jack is gonna be in coverage. Uh,
it plays out just like Mint Strong three, just from a four down front.
So if we get three by one, uh,
we will set the front to the tight end in that case.
So we're not so weak over here. Uh,
but it'll play out like three Mabel coverage and the jack will be the four first
crosser from the line of scrimmage. Uh, if we get two by two four open, um,
this is not a call that we normally stick with,
we'll actually check out of this, but we can, uh, run it. Um,
we make it look like we're playing quarters and then we're gonna bring the spur.
Uh, the will will walk out and he's gonna be a bang to buzz player out here and
we'll, we'll play area and the jack will be the weak hook player. Uh,
if we get thr, uh, three by one four open,
then we're gonna bring the will just like in, uh, men Strong three, uh,
and end up playing three buzz coverage. Uh, if we get nub trips,
uh, it ends up playing the same, we're gonna bring the will. Um,
I'll play it just like that. Y off doesn't really change anything.
Here's another example of Ben's far of three,
but we're gonna be playing three cloud. Um, our spur is misaligned.
He should be inside of number two because he's our curl player.
The sky's the flat player. Um,
and now we're playing man to man up top cuz it's three open.
We're gonna be bringing the will. It's, it's a pretty common theme.
This shows how much for open we get. Um,
and so let's let it run. It's a,
once again, it's a zone read r rpo,
we play it really well. The corner can take away the bubble.
Um, spurs kind of in the wrong place, but the corner, taking away the bubble.
There's a reason that,
that we wanted to run three cloud this week is cuz they were zone read.
RPO we're taking away the bubble with the corner. And now, um, it's a,
it's, it's a tough read when he pulls it. All right,
so the first fire zone that we're gonna talk about, we call Mint scissors fire.
Let me explain our terminology here. So Mint is our mint front. Um,
scissors, we use weapons for five man pressures. Um,
we just stole this name though, straight from the Saban Smart Tree.
And then fire is our strong rotation, um, fire zone coverage,
and we'll talk about some of the other ones. Um,
and so the idea here is this should look like Mint Strong three over here.
We're also just gonna bring the jack off the edge. So this is, um, you know,
we're just blitzing into bear. Um,
so now we wanna talk about all the ways that we have carryover here.
So the way that we play our fire zone coverage is that we want it to be as
much like match as it can be.
So Spurs coming off the edge, free safety is rotating down.
These guys are essentially playing match. Um,
we're gonna try and play match over here,
though the technique is a little different again, because he's inside leverage,
there are two key differences. One,
we don't ever play with a smash rule in our fire zone coverage. Uh,
there's just not enough, uh, underneath coverage, uh, to play it.
And the other is that, um, when the back is fast,
so for example, he's vertical, he's vertical,
he's fast or Will is now our hook three player. So he's gotta go with him.
If the y over here is shallow, so they get four strong to this side,
the mic has to carry him back.
So whoever the seam curl flat player is away from the back,
they have to take their crosser through to the flat. Um,
because we can get drained out cause we don't have an extra hook player. So, uh,
that's how we would play it versus two by two versus three by one. Um,
like before we're gonna shift the line to be thicker in the C gap here,
but it's the same blitz still same coverage. Um,
the one difference, uh, that I,
that I know some people do with their fire zone coverage versus three by one,
they treat it like a flooded coverage. We don't do that. We,
we treat it like it's matched. So we play this guy, uh,
in the same technique and this guy is more of a zone player.
So we don't flood the coverage in our fire zone versus three by one, uh,
versus four open. We don't like bringing the spur. Uh,
we'd rather him be in coverage.
And now we're just gonna bring the wheel off the field edge,
whether it's two by two or three by one. So here we rotate weak.
So we call this smoke. All right, six smoke. That's the idea.
If it's three by one now the free safety is gonna rotate down into,
um, the weak hook, uh, or into the hook.
And so now we call this fuzz instead of, um,
instead of fire, um, because he is the hook player. Um,
and then, you know, we'll still run this versus empty.
We'll run this in passing situations and then we'll run a attach a Ned stunt to
this, um, just to get a better pass rush. Uh, and some line movement.
Here's a clip of mint scissors fire, uh, against the two by two set.
Here's the tight end right here. So we're bringing the spur off the edge,
we're bringing the jack off the edge, and these two guys, uh, are fitting C nna.
Um, they're gonna run, uh, zone read the,
they're gonna run a fold scheme against our mint front.
So they're gonna block out here and they're gonna insert the tackle. Um,
this works really well when you can single the nose. Um, however,
they can't really single our nose. He ends up, uh, stopping the play.
And now our spur, who's coming off the edge,
he's playing quarterback to cut back in the back.
He probably gets a little bit too deep and should surf this a little bit better.
Uh, but we end up making a, a play for a two yard game.
Here's an example, playing mint scissors, uh, against a three by one bunch,
a tight bunch. Uh, earlier in the game they had the back, uh,
strong and they ran an r p o out into the flat. Uh,
this was later in the game and they ran the RPO to the boundary, uh,
with zone over here. Uh,
one of the adjustments that we made after this game is that we played some cloud
support against structures like this. Uh,
I highly suggest that I don't have a good, uh, clip of it to show. Uh,
so in this case, all right, they're gonna play R P O, right?
They're seeing this one-on-one coverage and they're gonna try and take it.
So now our corner does a really good job of bottling it up, right?
One of the things about playing one high is you have to be able to play
one-on-one on the outside. And if you can, um,
then you have enough guys in the box to go make plays.
So again, we're running scissors here, uh, and we end up,
they end up singling the nose in our nose is pretty good.
Our next fire zone, we call over bomb spin again, you know, weapons,
five man pressures. Uh, so this is out of our four down front. Um,
and so, uh, bomb is simple. We're gonna send the backer through the B gap.
Um, so the way that we do that,
we set our over front and the backer to the side of the three technique is gonna
take the B gap to that side.
And then we're gonna slant our two interior linemen away from this. Um,
it's a very simple, uh, fire zone that we can run versus almost anything.
Um,
this is one that we can run versus 10 personnel and still feel good about it.
Um, and then, you know,
both the guys on the edges are essentially playing technique.
So how does that look versus three by one? Uh, same idea.
So this is that. Now we're gonna play fuzz coverage.
So the safety is gonna come down, um, over the tight end. Uh,
the alignment can be a little awkward,
especially if the tight end wants to release, uh, you know,
inside and vertical may not be, uh, the best look, uh, versus four open.
Um, usually we wanna set this to the back,
so we'll set the front to the back and then we'll end up, you know,
bringing the backer, uh, straight through, uh, the B gap to the back side.
And again, so we're playing our smoke coverage here.
So this plays out just like six match except we're short a hook player. Uh,
if we get through by one, um,
then we'll we'll set the front of the passing strength and we'll play it that
way. Um, we could set it to the back if we, uh, chose to cause,
and now we're playing our fuzz coverage earlier,
uh, in the over six clips I showed. Um,
what happens when we play two loose on number two in our match? Uh,
this is an example of where we play, uh, tight coverage, uh,
and we see the benefit of doing it. So we're gonna look up top,
it's a two by two set. Uh, the call here is over bomb smoke.
So we're gonna be bringing, uh,
I believe this is the will through the B gap right here. Um,
so we set the front over here,
he's gonna be coming straight through there and we're essentially playing match
on both sides in, in this smoke coverage.
So let's take a look up here. Tight coverage,
we can be there and we can make a play on the out route.
Again, really good technique from our rover.
Uh, I guess I had the blitz wrong. I don't know why we said it that way. Uh,
we should have been setting in that one to the back down here.
It's again, pretty good, tight coverage, well played.
All right. Here are, the call is over bomb smoke.
So we're gonna be playing matchup here. We're gonna, um,
play this one out like area though, or we should be, uh,
we'll take a look and see what actually happens here. Um,
and then they're gonna get a short motion here so they can run mesh and then
they're gonna swing the back out this way.
This is one of the situations where we definitely like being able to run fire
zone instead of, um,
playing a man because we get in a situation where we don't match up well.
So here they short motion,
we're playing fire zone and now we can put the spur on the back and, you know,
we're there to make the play. Uh, we,
we give ourselves a chance. Now this kid's an s E C running back, um,
and our spur isn't. So he ends up making a play on us. But again,
the idea of being able to play fire zone instead of playing man free.
Um, we do have a guy there to make the play on this
here. We're running over bombs smoke. Um, once again,
we're running it to the side. It may have been game plan wise.
We wanted to run it away from the back. Uh,
and they're gonna run Dart here and he's gonna end up pulling it. Um,
so let's take a look at how this fits up. So once again,
we're going against quarterback run. We should be short a guy.
We gotta win on technique here. So we're there.
We end up cutting the play off.
Our jack ends up squeezing everything down and being able to play,
uh, both here on the pole.
And now our mic can overlap, uh,
since we fit it slowly and not just came rushing through the the gap.
So one more time,
we're there mic's unblocked and now he can go clean up the play. Uh,
and it's a zero yard game.
Our next fire zone, uh, we call taser. So once again,
it's out of our over front. Uh, you know, a lot of people have this one. Uh,
we're gonna bring, uh, a db, uh,
to the side of the tight end and slant the entire line away. Um, all this is,
is just a way to get to under, um,
or you can think of it as a way to get to bear.
It kind of works out the same way. Um,
and so we're just gonna bring the nearest db uh,
though we can check it to a linebacker.
So here two by two we're gonna bring the rover down, like he's gonna,
we're gonna play six match and then he's coming off the edge.
We're slamming the whole line away. Um, so this would be, uh,
what we call wheel smoke cover.
So now the wheel is playing seam curl flat from inside the tight end. Um,
and that's one of those situations where he might have to, um,
play more like bang to buzz instead of being able to rotate, um,
Or play, uh, match coverage, um, versus three by one.
Um, you know,
we're gonna have to rotate strong to replace the spur coming off the edge. Uh,
in this situation, if we get, um, nub trips,
we're gonna bring the corner off the edge. Uh, so now he's the blitzer. Um,
our rover is gonna play the read third on the tight end.
And so we end up again rotating week to replace, uh, the blitzer here.
Um, if we get 20 personnel, like a true 20, um, with a fullback,
um, we wanna bring it to the fullback usually, um,
though we could be in a situation where they like to run a lot of counter and we
might wanna run it away or, you know, it,
it just depends in a game plan situation, uh, we do have,
I do have more drawings of this one.
This is one that we like to run a lot versus unbalanced, um,
especially with, uh,
x over formations where now the Y's covered up and so we'll just blitz to that
side, slant the line away, and then we'll end up rotating to that side as well.
Um, and, and that's a common call for us versus unbalanced formations.
Here's an example of taser, uh, against the two back set. Uh,
so it's two by one, um, and they're gonna be running zone over here.
And now what you get with the line movement.
So we're gonna be bringing our spur off the edge and the whole line is gonna be
slamming this way. Uh, and we get some missed assignments in the zone.
All right, so our quick tackle is just unblocked at the point of attack.
So once again,
it's here and we just make the play and then our will can come in and finish it
off the last fire zone. Uh, we're gonna talk about,
um, we, you know, we have a few more, um, but uh, there's only so much time, uh,
we call Grenade. Um,
so the reason we call it grenade is that we're gonna end up, uh,
having a re blitz on the guard, um, and we're gonna be, uh,
possibly attacking the a gap. Um,
so the way that this one works is we'll set the over front, uh,
like normal to the tight end, and then we're gonna blitz off the backside,
um, and we're gonna slant the line to the tight end. Um,
so once again in this case, um,
we're playing smoke coverage and we play smoke coverage in almost, uh,
everything with this. So this, this is smoke,
so it plays out like six match except once again we only have one hook defender.
Um, really like the blitz versus the run. Um,
especially run to the tight end. We ended up slanting to the tight end.
We have a backer coming to chase the play down from the backside.
We do have an edge player versus a re game.
And then in this case it would be the will who now, um,
is fitting off of his pass coverage. His pass coverage is the back,
and so he is fitting off of him. Uh, so we like this in the run game,
um, versus, um,
three by one again back away. Uh, so we've set the front,
we're gonna blitz off the backside and so, uh,
we're slanting to the tight end and we're still gonna make, um,
our smoke coverage. So now the rover is gonna rotate down. He, um,
kind of becomes, uh, you know, a third linebacker in the box.
In this case we're playing, you know, uh, quasi match over here. Um,
and we're playing our normal bale third technique over here. Uh,
if the tight end's off the ball, nothing really changes. Um,
it may be a game plan thing whether we want to, how we wanna set the front,
but usually we still like it this way. Um, uh, you know,
cuz obviously when the tight end's off the ball,
now you can get him wiping back across,
but otherwise it's the same tight end off the ball in this case. Uh,
same idea rover's rotating down. Um, so in every case it's smoke coverage.
And so we do adjust. We don't really like this versus four open,
so four versus four open, we just check bomb. Um, and versus, uh,
our trio, the nub trips, we don't run, we don't like the blitz. Um,
and we'll just play three buzz. And so that's how, uh,
we'll play it in that case. All right,
so this game we ran, uh, the grenade, uh, fire zone, uh, a bunch.
Uh, we really liked it versus the three by one y offset. Uh, so this is smoke.
So here's our rover rotated down. All right, so grenade,
we're gonna be bringing this guy here right off through the center. All right,
we're gonna be slanting these guys this way right here. Um,
so they're gonna be slanting towards the field and we're bringing him right
there into the backside. Uh, a A to B gap. Um,
so now, uh, let's talk about the, the fire zone coverage here.
So we have a corner up top and we have the spur for some reason I don't have the
wide for this clip. Um, and so they're playing, you know,
ba third and seam curl flat. He's playing ba third on this guy. Uh,
he's playing seam curl flat and now he's blitzing.
So he's the Hook three player.
So he's gonna match up with him.
And so he's got him, um, in the past game.
And so if he blocks, he's gonna fit off of his block. So if he goes back,
he's gonna go back with him. So this is,
we like this versus split zone cuz then we can fit off of him and then he's the
edge of the defense.
We also like it versus power because if he blocks then he's right there. Uh,
but when he goes out for an r p o as he does in this case,
then he's gotta match him. So let's see what happens here.
So here's the pressure. We get unblocked people at the point of attack,
and then we just don't finish the tackle. That's a really good running back. Um,
but you know,
obviously we would've liked to stop him here instead of getting a four yard
gain. Will does a good job playing the RPO of three.
All right, so grenade again, uh, its same team,
same set except the backs week now.
So they're gonna be running zone this way and they're gonna flop, read rpo. Um,
this is not too many teams at our level can do this. This was one of 'em.
So now he's gonna be, they're gonna RPO three again.
The will is responsible for the RPO three cuz he's the hook three player in this
pressure. Uh, let's see what happens,
Right? He forgets his assignment,
but quarterback sails the ball. Again,
this is tough to execute all the time. Um, and again, our free safety,
getting to play top down makes play on the ball here.
All right, now we get to the six man, uh, pressure, uh,
part of our 3D package. Uh, we call these our eyes pressures. Uh,
this is same as the, the, um, the Georgia guys. We also use,
uh, just like they do the big cats for the names. So I'm not super creative, uh,
with the naming stuff. So, uh, mint, this is mint jaguar eyes.
So this pairs up with both mint strong three and mint scissors. Um,
so now we're bringing the spur, we're bringing the jack.
The difference is we're also gonna bring, uh, a backer through the A gap.
We want the nose taking the A gap to the back one,
it plays out like lag versus zone two, uh, versus pass. Now the a gap,
if he's gonna take the backer, he has to, uh, work across the center.
Uh, we do this blitz from depth one so that we can read out two so that we, uh,
can read it out, um, get a, a better pressure versus pass.
Um, now let's talk about the, uh,
also the, the box peel, what that is for the edge rushers. So,
um, one of the weaknesses of ice coverage are, um, the,
is the flat and things like quick screens and back in the flat. So for them,
if they get back flare, they are peeling with the back. Um,
and the box part is if they get run to them, they are gonna box it and rely on,
uh, these guys to fit it inside out. Now the coverage piece,
how do we marry this up with, uh, the other parts of 3D that we teach?
So for the corners, um, they're playing a hot third technique. And so that's,
uh, very similar to the midpoint technique. There are two key differences.
One is that, uh,
versus two receivers we're gonna bail early versus one receiver. Uh,
we're gonna bail on the snap and try and take away any quick throws by
alignment. The other is how we're playing when both guys are vertical.
So since everyone here in coverage is playing off the intent of the quarterback,
the corner is looking at him. If the quarterback is looking to the corner,
the corner is going to squeeze one in, uh, vertical
with the idea that he's gonna get help on two if the corner,
if the quarterback is looking away from the corner,
so he's looking to the boundary,
then this corner is gonna work to two in the seam.
The idea being that the quarterback isn't gonna have time to look over here and
then come back to and throw to the field number one.
So that is how we play our hot third. Uh, we have two, uh,
underneath players, we call them hammers. Uh,
low hammer is somebody at linebacker depth.
High hammer is somebody coming from safety depth. Uh, we took this, uh,
terminology, uh, from Chad McGee who gave a great talk on these, uh,
eyes pressures. I think he calls 'em hots. Um,
and so the hammer players aren't,
we can't play them like our traditional seam curl flat.
The reason being is we have no hook players inside.
So the way that we do this is that we want them two yards inside alignment of
number two, uh, pre-snap.
And if they're a low hammer player,
they're gonna end up taking a slow pedal if they get a pass read.
Um, and if they're a, if they're a high hammer,
then they're gonna sink down, uh, as they're reading run pass.
And here's basically how we teach them.
If the quarterback is looking in your seam area, okay,
then you are gonna hold the seam and play underneath, uh,
that part of the seam playing off whoever is there should be number two.
If the quarterback is looking away, you're gonna race to get into his vision.
Um, and again, we're just playing off the intent of the quarterback.
We're bringing six guys. The ball has to come out. All right.
And then the third guy, um, is the delay high hole. So we,
while we call this a three deep coverage,
it plays out more that this is more like a, a Tampa player, um, in that,
uh, one,
he's not gonna be super deep on the snap and be able to play everything uh,
from top down. Sometimes he is gonna have to run and and go. Um,
but we have six man pressure, so the ball's gonna come out quickly.
We also call it delay high hole because if the quarterback is visioning the
boundary,
we're not gonna have him run to the middle of the field and then run back to the
boundary. He's gonna hold, uh,
the seam here in the boundary if the quarterback is taking them there.
If the quarterback's looking to the field,
then he's gonna work to two into the seam to the field.
So quarterback looks this way, then the corner has, uh, one in the seam,
he's playing underneath in the seam. He's working to two vertical in the seam,
the corner's working to two vertical in the seam.
And we're basically saying he can't throw it to the Z.
So that's how we play our eyes. Coverage, uh, versus three by one, we're, again,
we're gonna shift the front, make sure we're a little, uh,
stronger here in the C gap. And then we have just exchanged who's, uh,
running the blitz based off of the back. Um, if we get four open,
we don't like bringing the spur, so we'll go with the six box guys. Um,
so now he's a low hammer and he's a high hammer,
but they're playing the same techniques they would play. Um, so now this is,
ends up being a week rotation. Um, same here versus three by one.
Um, now versus three by one, the delay high hole player needs to,
um, get an initial read on three, because if three is vertical,
he's really gotta be the one that has to take him. All right,
so first eyes pressure clip. This is mint, jaguar. All right, so he's coming.
All right. Since it's four open, we're not gonna bring the spur.
We're gonna bring the wheel off the edge,
and the mic is gonna come through the a gap here. Um,
and point of this clip is just to show what kind of pressure you can get.
And the quarterback really doesn't have time to do, uh,
to check more than one option. So here again, we time this pretty well.
Our Jack gets free off the edge, makes a great play. Stripping the ball.
This is, uh, the first series of the game for them,
right? And the quarterback really doesn't have time. He doesn't like it.
And so, uh, now he has to run for his life. And, uh, we get the ball.
All right, mint, jaguar eyes, uh, versus two by two. Uh, open again, if there's,
if there's a weakness here,
it's definitely that this coverage here can be a little bit soft, but watch, uh,
the rover make a play on the ball. Uh, cuz again,
the quarterback doesn't have time to do much else. And it takes,
it goes to throw the hitch, make a play on the ball,
get the guy down a three yard gain on the hitch route. Now it's,
uh, third and four, third and five. All right,
this clip is, uh, Jaguar again. So he's coming, he's coming, he's coming.
Um, spurs, uh, staying in, uh, coverage over here,
I think that was a game plan decision how we decided to play it that way. Uh,
with two open to the field. Um,
what we're gonna see here is that the back's gonna flare out and we don't peel
with them. Uh, we get lucky in that the quarterback doesn't even look that way.
Also, our spur needs to be inside leverage in number two. And you'll see that,
uh, it does let this guy be open, but once again,
the tremendous pressure you can get from these, uh,
kind of just fixes all of it. So now we get great pressure,
very elusive quarterback, but he can't get away from everybody. Uh,
let's take a look at the spur. He should be inside.
And now this dig route is open. And then on this flare,
the jack should be peeling off the backside. Uh, but we do tell 'em, say,
if you're gonna make a mistake, at least make it, uh, playing fast.
And this kid did that. All right. Here's,
uh, Jaguar, uh, against a two by one set. So, um,
again, uh, I think game plan wise,
we wanted to keep him in coverage and just blitz, uh,
the box players here. Um, it's definitely a simpler way to do it.
And what we're gonna see is, uh, they're gonna be running play action. And,
um, the,
the eyes pressures are really good against play action because the quarterback
is executing all these fakes and he just needs to get the ball out. Um,
so we'll see how that works out, right?
Especially because the fullback is not part of the protection at all.
And so now they're blocking with six. And then, you know,
we just have unblocked players in the backfield, uh, making the play, uh,
and making it third and forever. So here,
let's look at the techniques so that he is bailing off. Let's look here.
And so now he's playing much tighter cuz he is only got a single receiver,
right? He's just eye and the quarterback eye and the quarterback, right? Uh,
you know, this guy slips outside into the flat,
but he is looking at the quarterback. That guy can't make the play. All right.
The second eyes pressure I wanna talk about, um, is out of our over front,
we call it Puma. Uh, I think, uh,
Georgia actually uses this for what we call Jaguar, but, uh,
I don't really remember off the top of my head. Um, and so all this is,
is a double a gap, uh, cross dog with the, the two inside backers. So,
um, our two defensive ends are our box peel players.
Our two interior guys are taking the B gaps. Uh,
and then these two guys are running a cross dog. And the way that, um,
we teach it is the guy to the back is going first,
he's gonna creep down and he's gonna go first.
He's gonna take the AAP to the back. There is no read. He is going, uh,
full bore.
And then the second backer is gonna take the AAP opposite the running back,
but he's gonna read it out. Um,
so if for some reason we got pulled back this way, then he,
there's no reason to to go backside. And again,
we're playing our eyes coverage here. So we have all three safeties.
So we have a low hammer, we have a high hammer,
the corners are playing their hot thirds. And, um,
the free safety is to delay high hole player here. Uh,
so one of the cases where this one's really nice is you are only pressuring with
the six box players. And so these five guys can do the same job, uh,
every time you run this call. Okay? So,
um, out of, uh, three by one, nothing really changes. We're just, uh,
I have to slide the coverage a little bit, uh, but we're running the blitz, uh,
four open. It's no big deal. We're running the blitz. You know,
this can look a little scary. Uh, we have some clips of, you know, if the,
if you're playing this right, the rover reads it, right? Um, you know,
maybe you're gonna get some hitches over here,
but you can still make plays on them three by one. Again,
same idea whether it's a tight end or not. Um, and then, you know,
we have this and we do a little bit of repping of how we attack different
protections or it works out the same way when it's zone. Um,
same idea is, you know, how we're teaching the path, uh,
for these guys based off of what the center does and how the back is blocking
them.
Here's an example of an eyes pressure, uh, where we got a good peel. Um,
this team ran, uh, this one play against us probably 10 times this night.
They're gonna run a three man combination here with the back getting out and,
uh, a two man, uh, curl flat combination here in the boundary. Um,
and so we're running Puma and, uh,
we're gonna get the pressure and we take away the easy throw to the back.
And now, um, you know, we'll see what happens.
It goes first we get the second backer through cleanly, right?
And they whiff on the five man protection. Let's take a look again.
Does a really good job up here of recon contain after the peel,
stepping out, taking the tackle with them. Just really good job right there.
And again, when you, when both backers end up cleanly through,
it's gonna work out.
Here's an example of running an eyes pressure in a third and a very long
situation. It's third and 20, uh, here. They're in an unbalanced set. Uh,
the tight ends over here. They've got three guys over here. Uh,
so there's nobody eligible over here.
Our corner is essentially just zoning everything off. Uh,
and so we're gonna run Puma into this. Um, and we like these,
you know, as a mix,
as a change up on third down and long because we can just play with zone eyes,
keep everything in front,
but we're still bringing pressure and we're not as susceptible as, uh,
running a zero pressure and they're just throwing it over our heads. Um,
another thing about this clip is we're in, um, what we call our peso personnel.
So we take out a defensive lineman and we replace him with, uh,
an outside linebacker. So these two guys are defensive linemen.
These two guys are outside linebackers.
So we have really great edge rush presence. Um,
and then we still have our two inside linebackers as well.
So this is one way that we like to run, uh,
the puma pressure cuz we got really good edge pressure.
And then we have two backers who are used to doing it.
And now we have our five dbs in coverage.
So here we get good pressure cuz we have good edge rushers,
right forces this throw somehow it still ends up being successful,
but again, it's third and 20.
We're keeping everything in front of us corners playing deep. We're reading,
reading right? And, uh,
but so it's still fourth and long. They gotta punt.
Our last eyes pressure that we're gonna talk about, um, is Ben's cougar eyes.
So cougar, we're bringing the corner outside. That's the idea here. Okay?
Um, so it's always gonna be from the boundary. So, uh,
the pressure is pretty simple. The corner's gonna be off the edge.
We wanna show, uh, press, um, we'll cheat it if we have to, if the,
the Z is too wide. Um, we're gonna run a pop game over here.
Um, and then we're gonna bring the,
the field inside linebacker to plug the yay gap.
And these guys are slanting to the field. Um,
so now the rover is gonna play hot third, um, to the boundary.
So he's gonna creep,
he's gonna make it look like we're rotating weak playing cover six,
something like that.
And then it's gonna end up playing the hot third from depth. Um,
so this is cougar. Um, if we get three by one,
obviously this works out a little easier, the corner can come off the edge. Um,
but otherwise nothing really changes, uh, much there.
If we get two by two, uh, with two open in the boundary,
we really don't like bringing the corner. So we switch the blitz to the wheel.
Uh, we really like this it cuz it looks just like we're playing, um, you know,
four down quarters coverage and now all of a sudden we're,
we're bringing six guys. Um, and this can be, you know, uh,
effective against the run cuz it looks like we have a light box and then we
don't, uh, versus three by one four open, you know,
then we're back to how we, uh, fit it versus the, um,
11 personnel. Uh, one place we really like this is against Trio,
again, nub trips. Um,
now the corner is aligned pretty close and he can come off the edge, uh,
or have some clips where we ran this repeatedly against the team, um,
where we just took advantage of them because the,
their tight end was not at all receiving threat, so we just kept, uh,
running this pressure till they got it out of the formation.
Here's an example of running Cougar, uh, from, uh,
against the nub Trib set.
So we're just gonna bring the corner off the edge as a much shorter edge, um,
by alignment. This tight end wasn't much of a threat in the past game.
So now we can just play coverage over here and rush six.
And now this guy is just playing off the intention of the quarterback,
um, because there's nobody over here, uh, that he has to cover. Uh,
this is a run play, you know, let's look at the, uh, tight version here.
So corner's gonna be coming off the edge. We're running a pop game.
So he's gonna step out here, he is coming in, these guys are going this way,
and we're bringing the backer, uh, through the A gap.
So we end up getting the backer on a clean run through
and just bottle everything up, end up making,
you know, really good play, really good loss. Uh, and this,
this one blitz really, uh,
killed a lot of what they were trying to do out of that set.
Now here is where we were less successful running Cougar, um,
against the Nub Tripp set. They're gonna fast motion the back and, uh,
essentially throw the screen to four. Um,
and we gotta peel with this and we don't peel. Uh, so that's gonna be a problem,
uh,
because now we're just gonna be short on the perimeter and if our spur doesn't
make a play, well, he doesn't make a play.
And so now they're gonna get a big gain off, uh,
just the easy screen to the back. So what's gotta happen is he's gotta go now,
right? We can even read out
with the, uh, inside backer here. Yeah,
he decided he gets hesitant, can't figure out what he wants to do. And, um,
that was a good play by them.
There's another example playing, uh, Cougar, um,
where we have two open into the boundary. We're gonna, again,
switch to the wheel, should look like quarters, uh,
have better coverage this time. So we're gonna come off the edge. We loop.
This guy doesn't do a really good job selling it,
but you see how the pressure gets home here, uh, from our field,
uh, defensive tackle wins one-on-one versus his guard, right?
And then, uh,
our spur can go make the play in the flat and we do a better job covering this
guy. All right?
Now I want to talk about a couple drop eight variations. This first one,
which we call, uh, scorpion 63, uh,
is the one that we've run the most recently. So, uh,
the reason we call it 63 is because we're gonna rotate weak versus two by two.
We're gonna rotate strong versus three by three. Uh, here's how, um,
some of the adjustments that we make. So, um, to the twin side over here,
we're essentially playing match,
except we're not gonna play with a fast three rule because we have an extra, uh,
dropper. And so what it does is it changes this guy that he's now gonna push,
uh, with the fast three so we can stay on these guys, uh,
ma in a man to man situation versus verticals.
And because he has leverage on the back, we should be in a good situation.
So when we go two by two, we're gonna, um,
we're gonna play buzz coverage. And so the rover's gonna drop down,
he's gonna be the we cook and he's gonna wall two in the seam. Um,
and the reason we like, um, playing the buzz coverage here, um, is, uh,
change up and just to, to be able to play, uh, zone into the boundary.
It also keeps our jack, uh, there as a, um, playing backer force,
uh, versus three by one. Um, so here are some open formations.
What we do is we rotate strong and we play cloud. Uh,
that's the scorpion idea. So, um,
you'll see with our other call that we use these, uh, bug type things,
um, to indicate our drop eight coverages.
So we're gonna play three cloud over here. So, uh, we're rotating strong,
both safeties are playing deep. Um, and now because we're dropping eight,
we don't have to man this guy up.
We tell him he's playing the same technique as before.
He is playing his ba third and we can get the jack underneath him. Um,
and you know, we call the technique slice. He's basically, uh,
the flat player here. Um, and he can expand underneath, uh, slants,
curls, digs, things like that, uh, versus two by two open.
We're still gonna play, uh, a zone technique over here. Um,
again, to give a, a different read for the quarterback, um,
versus three by one with a tight end. Um,
this isn't our favorite thing to do again, because of the the surface over here.
But again, we like playing cloud, uh, to deal with all these screens we can.
Uh, it's good versus, um, you know, outside zone to the field,
those kinds of things. All right,
here's a look at, uh, mint Scorpion 63. All right?
They're in a three by one loaded set. So we're gonna be playing three cloud,
okay? Um, and so, uh, where we really like this takes away quick game.
So they're gonna run hitches across the board. And so he covers this hitch,
he's got that hitch, he's got that hitch, he, he's got that hitch. And, uh,
at the end of the day, uh, they may throw and catch it,
but it's gonna be a short game. So we're there,
we've got all the deep stuff covered, and then we still have, uh,
five guys underneath to take away quick game. So three yard game,
all right, here's an example where we're playing, playing Scorpion.
They line up three by one open, and, uh,
we'll see where they're gonna motion to two by two.
And this is something that they had showed, um,
that he was gonna motion and then motion back. Um,
I maybe they were trying to get us to spin,
and this game we actually paired up that we were gonna play quarters versus two
by two out of this look. Uh, but we were gonna play, uh,
the Scorpion three cloud, uh, at a three by one. So we're sitting there,
it's like, okay, let's go play quarters. All right? He's going back, Nope, nope,
we're going back to playing, uh, scorpion. Okay,
so that happens, right? So now, again, so he's our flat player,
he's the curl player, he's the hook player. He's deep, he's deep.
And we can double cover this guy, right?
So we're here, right? We end up getting, um, a snag concept,
right? So, um, probably get away with one there,
but now we have this guy in the curl and he can take it away. Uh,
ball was tipped. I guess it doesn't matter.
All right, here we're running, uh, scorpion again. Uh, three by one loaded set.
Uh, again, the nice thing here is that, uh,
we're pretty good in the screen game, and then we still have a deep player, uh,
so they're gonna run a screen and go on us. So we can take, really take it away,
and then this guy can go play the deep ball and mix a heck of a play there, um,
with the interception. So once again, we can take it away,
we can get enough guys to the screen and still have a deep guy.
All right, here's another clip of us playing Scorpion. Uh,
up top they're gonna run, uh, hitch and go. Uh, nice thing about, uh,
running a drop eight package like this is that we get to double cover the X and
we're not, uh, playing too high.
Obviously it means you only get three in the rush. Uh, but it's,
if you're a one high team, it's a good way to get a double cover on the x, uh,
for somebody who can really play.
And so now our corner doesn't have to worry about any of the short stuff.
You can just play deep and play the fade ball.
All right.
It felt like the last clip we had to end on the highest note possible.
Once again, we're playing Scorpion. Uh, again,
the whole idea is we get to take away, uh,
quick game and still have everything covered deep.
So just all hitches quarterback's looking for something to do,
and now we can just sit with eyes on the Quarterback. Kid makes a play,
uh, a kid. He was a senior. Uh, finished the year, the last two games with, uh,
two pick sixes. Uh, great way to go out.
Hope you've gotten something out of this talk, uh, playing 3D brushing 3, 4, 5,
or six. I want to, uh, give some thank yous. First, uh, coach Jerry Romberg,
the head coach at Westminster, uh,
for all the opportunities and mentoring that he has given me.
I wanna thank Adam Poland,
who's the current defensive coordinator at Westminster.
He was the safeties coach, uh, for my tenure as the defensive coordinator,
the entire Westminster football staff. It's a great set of guys to work with,
uh, knowledgeable and really excited about working with the kids.
I wanna thank Dennis Coyle,
who was the former head coach at Savannah Country Days.
He is now the athletic director at Cincinnati Country Day, uh,
for giving me my first opportunity in football coaching.
I wanna thank Kyle Cogan, Dante Partee, Slade Calhoun, and Terrence Gantt.
Uh, guys that I've learned a lot of three deep coverage from, uh, you know,
some of it,
learning it directly from them and others l learning it together and bouncing
ideas off each other. I wanna thank Chris Vassar, coach VAs,
uh, for the community that he has built, um, in football coaching.
And, uh, I,
I really can't thank him enough for all the people that he's brought together
and the opportunities that he's given me. I wanna thank Coach Deontay Lee, who,
um, you know, was part of the reason that I'm doing this clinic today.
So I really want to thank him, uh, for believing in me.
I wanna thank Huddle for making this happen. Uh,
I never thought that Huddle would reach out to me and, you know,
want me to give a clinic and I wanna thank all of you, uh, because, you know,
without your interest then, uh, we wouldn't be doing this. Thank you very much.