Is the play at 14:21 Tracy's fault:
[video=youtube;6sOThiakXKc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sOThiakXKc&feature=player_detailpage#t=861[/video]
No. Inside quarter player bit on
[URL=https://www.canesinsight.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=3][URL=https://www.canesinsight.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=3]#3 [/URL] [/URL] , who was way too shallow to follow. Underneath coverage could have taken care of that route. Inside quarter player need to at least make that throw go over him, so Tracy would have had more time to help.
We're in Cover-3 on this play. The flat defender (OLB) is expected to make
[URL=https://www.canesinsight.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=2]#2 [/URL] widen his route so that he runs closer to Tracy and he's able to play both. The middle-3rd player has to cover
[URL=https://www.canesinsight.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=3]#3 [/URL] vertical. I don't know why we do it this way, but we do. It's extremely vanilla.
When I'm in Cover-3 versus trips I have my flat defender carry
[URL=https://www.canesinsight.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=2]#2 [/URL] vertical until something takes him to the flats. If
[URL=https://www.canesinsight.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=2]#2 [/URL] or
[URL=https://www.canesinsight.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=3]#3 [/URL] don't go to the flats then he keeps "sinking" or "carrying". My flat defender to the trips side is usually a Safety instead of a Linebacker, so he's able to run with
[URL=https://www.canesinsight.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=2]#2 [/URL] vertical much easier. On top of that, my Will (weak ILB) opens to the trips side and covers
[URL=https://www.canesinsight.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=3]#3 [/URL] vertical or shallow. So if
[URL=https://www.canesinsight.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=3]#3 [/URL] runs vertical my Will is running with him, underneath the route. In the four verts concept the
[URL=https://www.canesinsight.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=3]#3 [/URL] is running a "bender" route, it's not exactly vertical, so an athletic Will LB shouldn't have trouble getting underneath it. The
[URL=https://www.canesinsight.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=3]#3 [/URL] WR is actually running towards him if anything.
Now... (picture that in your mind)
If the offense wants to throw to
[URL=https://www.canesinsight.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=2]#2 [/URL] or
[URL=https://www.canesinsight.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=3]#3 [/URL] vertical the ball has to go over the top. It has to be lofted because all the verticals are being carried by underneath defenders. This buys time for the DB's to break on the ball.
Beautiful! Here's how we've played our Cov 3 trips style trips check--a lot of similarities:
(At the risk of making other posters feel inferior--I'm going to use this diagram to help explain our rules)
For all intents and purposes, 1/4 1/4 1/2 and Cover 3 are the same thing in the trips context. Since we're a split coverage team, we have coverage calls to both the passing strength (read side) and passing weakness (away side) of formations. TCU's Cov 3 style trips check is called "Roll." We use the same terminology. The away side, the side with 1 WR, is most probably going to be played with 1/2 field deep zone principles--whether the deep zone is being played by a corner or a safety. For purposes of this post, I'll focus on the trips side. Just know that there's going to be a deep 1/2 zone defender over there.
Back to the Diagram (I'll talk base alignment and coverage rules for a couple key defenders):
$
Alignment: 5 (deep) x 1 (outside) of the
#2 receiver. Remember that we're a nickel based system (I can go in depth as to why we like to keep the $ outside of
#2 in most of our coverages).
Coverage Rules: he's our SCF player (seam/curl/flat). Simply, we want our $ to cancel each route/zone in the order. We'll only talk about the seam zone. If the $ get a vertical from
#2 , then we want him to violently collision
#2 towards the middle of the field (towards the F [the inside quarter player]). We want $ to beat up
#2 for as long as possible, but we don't him to get lost in that collision though; we don't want him to flip his hips and run with
#2 ; we want his eyes's to remain towards the line of scrimmage, and to look for work crossing his face. If
#2 retreats way inside on his vertical release, then he has essentially taken himself out of that play.
F
Alignment: 12 (deep) x Split the difference between
#2 and
#3 , then take two large horizontal steps towards
#3 .
Coverage Rules: Eyes move from QB to
#3 on snap, while instantly backpedal weaving towards
#3 . If F reads a vertical from
#3 , then he will continue on his backpedal weave while flipping his eyes to
#2 to read whether he has released vertically. If F gets verticals from
#3 and
#2 , then he will continue on this backpedal weave, but while keeping a 60/40 cheat ratio to the
#3 vertical. If the ball goes to the
#2 vertical, then the F needs to take a 90 degree break out of his backpedal weave and get under that
#2 vertical, with the Field Corner helping over-top, late. If the ball goes to
#3 , then he can break downhill from his backpedal weave and defend the route over-top, with underneath help from the Field-Side Linebacker (who is playing a wall tech on
#3 ). Really, the only time the Backside 1/2 can help on
#3 is if there's no pass rush--they're probably scoring 6 points.
In all honesty, it's probably not the best idea to run a vanilla coverage like this against a heavy vertical team. This coverage is strong against the run, and combo routes. I also don't like it more than other trips checks against sprint-out flood concepts, or screens.
