Playbooks
Breakdown
SS Sim Pressure 3 is a simulated pressure call out of Dime personnel that shows a five-man look at the line but drops into a Cover 3 zone shell behind it. Up front, the diagram shows a twist stunt with the two interior rushers crossing paths (the yellow arrows looping into each other) while the four X marked defenders spin out into underneath zone drops, and the three deep defenders (blue) run to their deep thirds. This is a zone beater disguise designed to bait the quarterback into thinking he is getting extra rushers, so the primary read for the defense is jumping the shallow crossing routes and hook zones while the deep thirds erase anything over the top.
Defensive Reads
Presnap, check safety depth: if both safeties are deep and cornerbacks are off, you are likely getting single high Cover 3 rotation behind the sim look. Key the interior stunt at the snap: if the offensive line slides to pick it up, the extra rusher will bail into a zone drop, so do not overcommit user pressure control until you confirm the drop. Watch for the quarterback attacking the vacated flat or seam immediately after the snap, since sim pressure zone drops can be slow to reach their landmarks against fast-developing route combos. This beats hot route quick game and shallow crossers because underneath defenders sit in zone rather than chasing man assignments, but it is vulnerable to deep shots if the offensive line picks up the twist cleanly and gives the quarterback extra time. Post snap, user the deepest defender to the boundary side if you diagnose a go route or deep out, since the single high safety can be stressed by two-deep-route concepts to one side.
Usage Tips
Show this look on early downs when you want to disguise pressure without committing extra bodies past the sim front, since it only rushes four despite showing five presnap.
Bait the quarterback by showing all-out blitz presnap, then bail the extra rusher into a shallow zone, this works best against offenses that hot route into quick game against perceived blitz.
Pair this with Mug Sim Pressure and FS Middle Blitz 3 in the same drive so the offense cannot key on presnap disguise, since all three show pressure but rotate coverage differently.
Use user control on the interior twist defender to spy the quarterback on rollout or RPO reads, since the stunt can be manually redirected if you diagnose a designed run or bootleg.
Call this on third and medium to third and long when you expect the offense to attack hook or curl zones, since the underneath defenders sit in those windows and can jump routes.
