Understanding Football Coverage: Strategies for Success

Understanding coverages allows receivers to exploit weak spots and create open passing opportunities.

### Mastering Football Coverage: Strategies to Beat Every Defense
* 🏈 Understanding match coverage is essential, as it can get confusing, but the core principle of **cover seven** is to **play man-to-man** when a receiver targets a **weak spot in the zone**, otherwise maintain the **zone coverage**.
* 📊 In a typical cover three setup, with three defenders deep and four underneath, the weak spots are often found on the **seams**, making it crucial for offenses to **target those areas with specific routes**.
* 🎯 To effectively exploit cover three, offenses should focus on **intermediate routes**, as there are **fewer defenders covering this area**, allowing for **potential completions**.
* 📚 It's important for quarterbacks to **read the body language of defenders** rather than just the safety's positioning, as this can **reveal opportunities in the middle of the field** when defenders shift their focus.
* 🚀 The cover eight defense combines cover two on one side and cover four on the other, allowing for **varied route concepts to exploit weaknesses** depending on the alignment of the defense.
* 🏃 When facing man coverage, utilizing **crossing routes** can create confusion among defenders, increasing the chances of getting receivers **open for a pass**.
* 🔍 Ultimately, the key to success against any coverage is to have a **solid plan before the snap**, asking critical questions about the defense's alignment and preparing to **exploit their weaknesses effectively**.
* 💥 "At the end of this video, I'm going to show you guys the **route concept that can beat every coverage in football**," emphasizing the importance of **strategic planning in play-calling**.

I'm about to show you how to beat every coverage in football, and at the end of this video, I'm going to give you guys a secret play-calling technique that will guarantee you have a receiver open regardless of what coverage they play. Let's start with cover one. Cover one is called cover one because there's going to be one deep safety, then everybody else is going to have to play man-to-man. So the question is, how do we beat man coverage in general? Anything that is crossing the field is really good in man-to-man, or even if it's something deeper like an over route. This is because when you get this crossing action, there's going to be so much traffic in the middle, especially once you count these linebackers, that it's going to be difficult for these slot corners to navigate across the field. The hope is that by running these crossers, the defense is going to run into each other and hopefully it springs a receiver wide open. But back to this over concept, then said we took this slot and ran him right.

through the middle of the field to take care of this one high safety. Let him run a post, and now all of a sudden we have two routes that could destroy this man-to-man for a huge play on this post route and on this over route. Now all these concepts are great in theory, but when it actually comes down to it, you just need receivers that are going to make a play and get open versus their guy. Let's watch Odell tee up on fourth down here. We're going to see Odell at the bottom of the screen. He's lined up man-to-man with one guy across from him, and on Fourth and three, the defense is going to be sending pressure. They want to get to that quarterback fast, so we see Odell split release, get outside, get to the first down, use that throw-by technique, and that's what got him open. He's just a dog that when it comes down to it, he's going to beat his guy man-to-man. But corner, come on, on fourth down, you got to

know they're running to the sticks, bro. Have some awareness there, DB. Unlike cover one, cover two is strictly a zone defense. So in cover two, we're going to have two zones deep, and we're going to have five zones underneath. So how do we beat Cover two? It's actually pretty simple. So in cover two, let's say that both of these safeties are on the hash marks. The best place for the quarterback to try and throw the ball is either outside or in the middle of the field. These areas open up naturally on the field just because of how the defense wanted to space themselves out on this area by the sideline. We call these the hole shots, and in between the two safeties, the middle of the field is open. So we call this mofo, middle of field open. I'm an acronym guy, what can I say? So whenever we see cover two, we have to try our hardest to stress these areas of the field because the defense knows that they're liable in these spots as well. So when it comes to our receivers running

these routes. Our job is to get into this whole shot area as fast as possible so we can stay away from this safety to make a big play on us and say if we were to do this on both sides and then say we sent our slot guys in the seams just to hold these safeties a little bit longer. Now, as soon as we clear this middle level of defenders, we have four routes on top of two guys, and there's no way that if we all are spaced out properly that they should be able to guard all four guys across the board. In the best-case scenario, maybe this defender is able to midpoint and keep eyes on both of these two at the same time, but even then, this receiver would be able to take up off the middle of the field. The quarterback can deliver the ball, and I don't know about y'all, but that looks like an 85-yard touchdown to me. The most important part is how our receivers are spaced across the field. This will work in college football, 25 Madden, whatever you

be playing, but just make sure that the formation you pick spreads your receivers out across the field so that way they can take up as much area of the field as possible. Man, Odell been going crazy. I'm going to show you all another Odell clip. So here, we're going to see Odell lined up at the bottom of the screen again, and the two deep safeties tell us that we're probably going to see some kind of middle of field open coverage. So the ball's snapped, and Odell takes this inside release. But right after, you see him leaning heavy to the outside 'cause he knows he has to get his facing back with his other receivers. And then he comes through and makes this crazy catch with the left. Come on, bro. What Odell is I'm saying. But the thing is, the quarterback had to throw him that far outside because the quarterback was trying to protect Odell from the big hit against the safety. All right, let's talk cover three. So in cover three, there's going to be three defenders deep that

are responsible for the deep parts of the field, and then we're going to have four zones underneath that are responsible for carrying the rest. So now, in order to beat Cover three, all we got to do is find the weak spots in the defense. So if we look in between these three deep players, it's going to be a wide-open spot right here and a wide-open spot right here. These are going to be on the seams. So once again, you need routes that are going to push these areas of the field. But here's the difference in cover three: it's a lot less defenders guarding this intermediate area of the field, so we can complete some passes in here as well. Well, so what routes are going to be the best for beating this cover three? The defenders guarding these zones on the outside are also responsible for guarding run plays as well. So I drew the zone over here to the sideline because that's where his pass responsibility is going to be, but you're going to start out with a little bit of leverage on

this Defender because he has to be ready for this run play. So, one of the most surefire cover three beaters is this curl flat concept. This is because we're reading this nickel defender in terms of how he wants to play it. Is he going to expand all the way to the sideline with the Y? And if he does expand all the way this way, it should open up a huge window for the quarterback to throw the ball right in the middle. 'Cause look, he will have vacated, and this Defender is going to be in the middle of the field guarding something. But the much easier throw is if the nickel can't get leverage on the Y because he's too busy worried about his run fit. This should be an easy throw. But once again, the same four vertical concept would work as well. This is my favorite part of the whole play, I'm not going to lie. So, when the X receiver takes off the field, more than likely he's going to be clamped because the defender guarding this area of the Zone, his only responsibility is

to make sure that nothing gets deeper than him. If he gets beat on something coming back to the ball, it's up to these guys underneath to help him out a little bit. But where the Big Money Ball can be hit is right up here, right along the seams where the safety is vulnerable, especially if we can get two seams up the middle at the same time. It's going to force this field safety to have to play over the top of both, and that's just too much area for one guy to cover to be able to make a play on both balls. So what the quarterback would read on this one is, as soon as my receiver gets past this linebacker depth, I'm going to drill this ball into this linebacker area, and it should be an easy completion. Most teams will tag this x receiver with a dropout route. This goes back to one of the most basic receiver principles: if he's even, he's leaving. So the receiver is going to read his route and ask himself by 15 yards down the field, Am I

even with this corner defender, if he's even, he can leave and take off and go. But if the corner is playing on top of them, which he should be playing on top of them in cover three, then the X can change his route from a gold ball into this dropout route concept right here. There's a lot of ways to take advantage of cover three as long as you know where the weak spots on the field are. Now here we can see Odell at the bottom of the screen. The defense is a little bit tricky because they're showing a too-high coverage. The defense is trying to bait them into thinking that this is a cover two, but right when the ball is snapped, we can see these safeties rotate and get into their spots for the cover three. Odell, he has the dropout concept, so Odell is going to race up the field and ask himself, Can I beat this defender to the end? The corner is still on top, so he snaps down and is able to make a play. That's the first down. Now it's called

cover four because we're going to have four deep zones across the field, and then we're going to have three zones underneath. Now, the thing with cover four is that there's so many deep safeties that there's not really a true open spot on the field. So, the easier thing to do is to try and work the ball into the flats. If we were to send the Z on a deep route to hold this deep defender, then all the Y has to do is beat this linebacker who still has run responsibility. It's literally just too big of an ask to ask one man to be able to fit the core if it's a run play and go make a tackle on the running back, but then he also has to go guard the sideline if the slot receiver runs the out route. Let's watch Justin Jefferson do this. So, here we're going to see a cover four, and Justin Jefferson releases outside of that linebacker in his zone drop, and then as soon as he breaks it out, he has nothing but space to be able

to catch that ball and turn up the field. But if you're trying to make a big play that'll change the game, this is what you have to do in cover four. Instead of taking advantage of the spaces in between the safeties, we have to take advantage of their eyes and where they're looking at. Say if we ran a post from this F receiver up in the middle of the field, this safety right here is expecting to have some help from his boys 'cause he's standing right there next to him. What are you guarding, bro? But if we told our Y to run a dig route that's just deep enough to make him stutter his feet, all of a sudden the F just has to beat this safety who's not even looking at him in a race to the touchdown. And on top of that, the F's going to be running forward and this safety isn't going to be looking. Worst case scenario, the safety does end up staying back. All the Y has to do is get across this backer and get into the

window 'cause this is a huge throwing L for the quarterback. Super easy throw, and then I would run the X on some kind of Stop Route just so that way this linebacker might get pulled out even more, making the space even bigger for this Y to catch it across the middle. Justin Jefferson runs this route really well. Let me show you all, bro. There he is in the slide at the bottom of the screen. Comes up, and he runs that post route. But wait, as soon as the tight end makes his break across the middle of the field, the right side safety stops his feet and gets ready to trigger on it. And then that moment of hesitation, that stops his momentum, is enough for Justin Jefferson to get over the top. Now, all of a sudden, we have a 70-yard play. Now, from this point forward, we've discussed every possible Zone a defense could play. The rest of the coverages are just combinations of zones we've already seen before, but at the end of this video, I'm going to show you guys the route concept.

that can beat every single coverage. So, if you like this video, go ahead and drop a like for me. It means a lot, man. But all cover five is, is cover two man. Now, on paper, it looks like it'd be really hard to get open against this defense because, on top of having to beat a man-to-man defender, you have two guys that are super deep that can help out on any route. So, the odds of you completing something deep over the top is going to be a little bit harder. But the biggest problem with cover five is that it's really hard to cover the quarterback. Because think about it like this: when we were in our cover two, we had these same two deep zones, and we have our five guys playing a zone underneath. What this means is that in cover two, they were able to have eyes on the quarterback and see when he would escape for a quarterback scramble. And then this guy could come up, make a play. This guy could come up, make a play if they saw it happening. But when the defenders are

playing in man coverage. They're not going to be looking at the quarterback; they're going to be looking at their man. So, how can we take advantage of this? By calling up a bunch of routes that can beat man-to-man coverage that are hard to guard. You're going to give your receivers a chance to be able to make a play and get open. All the quarterback has to do is beat these D-linemen that are still responsible for the run plays as well. And if this DN misses his contain, the quarterback's going to run for a long way up the field. The slot corner is going to be nowhere close; he's going to be chasing his man, even looking at him. The quarterback might get 10 yards up the field before somebody even realizes he's scrambling. I'm not saying force the quarterback to run; definitely give your receivers a chance first. Run mesh, run crossers, run K routes, try and get yourself open versus man-to-man. But if everything else fails, know that you can pull the ball down and run it, and you're

going to be able to run for a little bit of time now. Here we see Odell Beckham at the bottom of the screen. He releases inside, pushes back vertical, and that's just Odell being able to beat his man. But this is what I want you guys to see. If the quarterback were to escape the pocket and roll out to the right, as long as he can beat the D-end, there is nobody else on that half of the field that would even come close to touching him, especially because all the routes are going to the left. There is nothing but space on the right half of the field. Yeah, no, that release is insane. In, out, in. What'd he even do? Hold on, let me go back. What'd he do? Uh-huh. He went split left, crossover, you feel me? Split left, give me that B. No cover six. All cover six is is cover two to the short half of the field and cover four to the wide side of the field. Let me explain. So let's say the ball was on the hash and the other hash is over.

here all this means that we're going to have a cover two to the boundary or the short half of the field. This means that we can still hit our whole shot area of the field if we release outside into this spot, but to the field, we're going to get two deep safeties playing a cover four. So now, when it comes to our play calling, we can use the same play calling tactics that we already used before earlier in the video. Let's say we ran the Z up the field so he can stress this whole shot area. Then we let the Y tempo up the field and break into this area where this corner was forcing him out. 'Cause what you got to remember is that it's the corner's job to push this guy as lateral as possible. He does this so he can protect the whole shot. He's doing this so the Z doesn't get a straight run into the weakest spot of the defense. But when he expands, all this does is give the Y opportunity to catch this ball in an uncontested fashion. And then when it

comes to the routes from the field. If we know that this linebacker is going to be in a bind chasing this route, then it's probably a good idea for us to send more routes to threaten and let the X come down as well. Also, now when the running back escapes to the flat, it's going to add so much pressure across the defense horizontally, and it's just literally not enough defenders to be able to guard this many spots on the field. Right now, we're playing in five spots across the field horizontally with a chance of a huge play in the whole shot. On top of that, we're sitting in between these zones, forcing the defense to expand. And if we read the defense and throw it to where the linebackers aren't, we should be an easy throw and catch. Cover seven might be the strongest defense in football. When Nick Saban was on the Cleveland Browns, he invented this defense, and it changed the way that defenses have been able to operate in the modern era. What Nick Saban invented was called match coverage. So what does

match coverage mean now there's a million different ways to run match coverage, and it can get really confusing really quick. But the basis of cover seven is this: if a receiver runs into the area of the field that would be a weak spot, we're going to play man-to-man. But if he avoids a weak spot, we're just going to stay in our Zone and chill. Let's say the defense is in a three Deep Cover three looking Vibe, and if they have three deep, that means they're going to have four Defenders underneath. If this was just cover three, the weak spots would be right here on the seams because it'd be hard for this free safety to be able to guard both at the same time. The defense is going to play man if the receivers target this area of the field. If the Wy release up this field and look like he's trying to hit this spot, this linebacker will be responsible for carrying this guy up man-to-man in setting a wall so the quarterback can't deliver this ball. The linebacker is

going to play underneath of this route all the way until he sees another route, and he's going to come off and get back to his zone rules guarding this guy. So, what does this mean for us in the passing game? What it means is that instead of just reading the safety, seeing too deep, and assuming cover two, we have to read the individual body language of every single player on the field. So, if the F releases up the field and this linebacker has to guard a man, at some point he's going to have to either flip his body or his eyes to look at the guy. And when that happens, we're going to want to try our hardest to take advantage of the middle of the field. Now, all of a sudden, this one high safety is still going to have to choose which side he's going to guard, except for he has to cover more field horizontally because this nickel defender had to expand with the go ball. Now, as you can see, match coverage does get a little bit more complicated in terms of our read.

progression, but at the end of the day, it still shapes out to just the cover three Zone. Our rules on our cover three Dropout conversion still hold true. If he's even, he can leave up the field. If not, he can fall out the Y, can stretch horizontally, telling the safety that he has to expand with, and then that could open the window for the quarterback to deliver the ball. But Matt coverage is a little bit trickier because all it's trying to do is find ways to eliminate the explosive plays from happening in the weak spots of our defense. When it comes to cover eight, it's just the opposite of cover six. It's still cover two on one half of the field and cover four on the other half, but the only difference is the cover two side is going to go to where the best receiver is on the field. So, let's say our ex-receiver is like Justin Jefferson or somebody. Bro, what the defense is trying to do here is to get hands onto the best receiver so that way they can disrupt

the timing and take them out of the play entirely. But over here, we still have our same cover four rules from earlier in the video. So when we split the field in half, cover eight literally just boils down to cover two and cover four. And then all of your same route concepts are still going to work. You could run a dig and draw the attention of this deep safety and then run the PO go from this side. Or you can send your F on a deep route up the middle and see if your X can get outside into this whole shot area of the field. Or if it's like third and short and you just need a first down, you could run your guys onto spacing into different levels of the field, try and get in between these backers, and then see if you can space the field horizontally. So a lot of the same principles keep carrying over, but this is the most important part. I'm about to teach you the method that will get you open versus any coverage in football. Now as a quarterback, you don't need to know

what the entire defense is doing in order to complete a pass. At the end of the day, there's only two things they can do: they can play Man or they can play zone. What we want to do as play callers is we want to split the field down the middle of the ball on half the field. We want to call routes that would be good against man, and on the other half, we would want to call a Zone-beating concept. So now when the quarterback has his hands under Center, is in the shotgun, whatever he's looking for, does the defense look like they're playing man or zone? Now, of course, you still have to be ready for those rotations, and they might be trying to trick you, but it boils down pretty simply: if it's man, I'm going to play the right half of the field, and if it's zone, I'm going to play the left. So let's start on the man-to-man side. If they are playing man, we can run that same Circus route that we saw Odell run in cover five. So on the right half of

the field. If this is man coverage, this route is going to have a really good chance of getting open. Remember earlier in the video, we saw Odell get open versus Josh Norman. So, if we think the defense is going to play man-to-man, we can look at this half of the field and find somebody to get the ball to. But if it's zone, we could run like a deep dig behind all these linebackers and then give the quarterback an opportunity to deliver the ball in between one of these windows to him. So, at the end of the day, you got to have a plan before you snap the ball. You got to ask yourself questions like if the defense plays man-to-man, who is my best bet at getting open? Is my best receiver running a route that can beat man? Or maybe you ask yourself if they play zone, where are the weakest spots on the field? But by calling half the routes to beat man coverage and half the routes to beat zone coverage, as long as you stay calm and follow the plan, you should have a

receiver open every time. But hey man, if you like this video, give me a like, give me a subscribe. Shout out to Jesus Christ, shout out to the king. I love y'all, y'all are so cool for watching. If you like this video, check out this one right here where I broke down every single route concept in football.

How To Beat Every Coverage In Football (explained by a D1 WR)

Caleb Merritt

Beating Cover Two and Cover Four Defenses

Cover two defense features two deep zones and five underneath, with the middle of the field and outside areas being the key spots to attack.

Cover four defense has four deep zones and three underneath, making it challenging to find open spots, so the strategy is to work the ball into the flats.

Proper spacing of receivers and clearing the middle level of defenders is crucial for creating mismatches and opportunities for big plays.

Exploiting Cover Three and Man Coverage in Football

Cover three defense can be countered by changing routes and exploiting weak spots on the field.

Odell's dropout concept and quick route changes can create opportunities for first downs.

Man coverage can be challenged with a variety of routes, allowing the quarterback to either pass or scramble for yardage, while sending multiple routes to threaten the defense horizontally.

To exploit Cover Four, focus on the safeties' eyes and their positioning.

Running a dig route from the Y receiver can create a stutter for the safety, allowing the F receiver to race for the touchdown.

Simultaneously, running two seams up the middle can overload the field safety, creating opportunities for a big play.

Understanding Cover Five Defense in Football

Cover five is essentially a combination of cover two and man-to-man defense, making it challenging for receivers to get open.

The biggest issue with cover five is its difficulty in covering the quarterback, as the defenders are often taken out of the play.

The key to beating any coverage is to split the field and call routes that target both man and zone defenses, allowing the quarterback to make quick decisions based on the defense's alignment.

Covering the Field: Defensive Strategies and Play Calling

The defense is using a cover two to the boundary and a cover four with two deep safeties, allowing for a whole shot area to be targeted.

The play calling involves stressing the whole shot area with the Z receiver and creating an opportunity for the Y receiver to catch the ball uncontested.

The curl flat concept is a suirfire cover three beater, and the quarterback has a clear escape route to the right if he rolls out, especially with the routes going to the left.

Understanding Defensive Coverage in Football

Defensive players' movements and body language are crucial for reading coverage, making it important to analyze each player's actions.

The one high safety's role becomes more complex, needing to cover more ground horizontally.

In cover three, with three defenders deep, the offense can exploit man coverage or run a deep dig route to take advantage of zone coverage.

Understanding Defensive Coverages in Football

Defensive coverages in football aim to eliminate explosive plays and disrupt the quarterback's rhythm.

Cover eight combines cover two and cover four, targeting the best receiver to disrupt their route.

Cover one relies on man-to-man coverage with one deep safety, and crossing routes are effective in beating man coverage by creating traffic and confusion.

Match coverage in football involves playing man-to-man defense when a receiver enters a weak spot in the field, while staying in zone coverage otherwise.

In a three-deep cover three defense, the weak spots are on the seams, and the defense plays man-to-man to guard those areas.

To beat cover three, teams should target the open spots between the deep players and utilize routes that push into those areas.