Playbooks
Quick Reference
Breakdown
Corner Strike lines up from Full House with a 21 personnel backfield and sends three receivers vertical against a five man protection look. The backside runs a deep corner route stemming outside for the boundary shot, while the two remaining routes break outside on shallow crosses at the sticks to clear underneath and stretch the field horizontally. This is a man beater that isolates the corner route against outside leverage, and the primary read progression starts with the corner route breaking to the boundary before working down to the shallow out breaking routes underneath.
Defensive Reads
Watch the free safety depth and rotation before the snap, a single high shell tells you the corner route is live against man or Cover 3. If both safeties stay deep in a two high shell, the corner route is likely bracketed and the shallow outs become the answer. Key the flat defender or cornerback at the snap, if he sinks with the corner route the underneath outs will be wide open in the void. Watch for user controlled defenders sitting in the deep third or playing a lurk technique near the corner route stem, this is the biggest threat to the deep shot. Diagnose blitz packages quickly since the five man protection can be exposed by overload pressure, forcing a fast checkdown to the shallow routes.
Usage Tips
Check pre-snap for single high safety looks because the corner route wins big against Cover 3 and Cover 1 when the corner is playing inside leverage.
If you see two deep safeties rotate to the underneath outs immediately since the corner route will likely be taken away by a deep half defender.
Hot route the shallow outs into quick option routes against zone heavy defenses to give yourself a faster underneath answer versus a soft cushion.
Pair this play with Curls or PA Comebacks in the same set to keep the defense honest on levels concepts before dialing up the corner shot.
Use this on second and medium or third and long when you need a explosive gain but still have a safety valve underneath if the corner route is covered.
