Playbooks
Quick Reference
Breakdown
Spacing out of Pro Near with 21 personnel spreads five underneath stems across the field to attack soft zones and off man coverage. The outside receiver runs a deep in breaking route toward the middle of the field, the slot runs a quick out and up to settle at the sideline, the inline TE runs a short hitch back to the quarterback, and the backside receiver runs a shallow drag away from the concept. This is a zone beater built for Cover 3 and Cover 4, with the primary read progressing from the flat hitch to the slot sit route and finally to the deep crosser if the middle of the field opens up.
Defensive Reads
Spacing is designed to exploit Cover 3 and Cover 4 shells where underneath defenders are dropping into zones instead of matching receivers. Pre-snap, check safety depth and cornerback alignment, if the corners are playing off with two deep safeties expect a Cover 4 shell that this concept is built to beat. Post-snap, watch for a user controlled linebacker sitting in a lurk position over the shallow drag or hitch route, that defender can jump the quick throws and create a turnover. If the defense shows Cover 2 with hard flat drops, the sideline sit route from the slot receiver can get squeezed, so be ready to progress quickly to the deep in route. Man coverage with press corners and no deep help shuts this play down fast since none of the routes are designed to separate from a trailing defender.
Usage Tips
Use this on third and short to third and medium when you expect a zone shell since the underneath routes settle into throwing lanes against Cover 3 and Cover 4.
Check the middle linebacker depth pre-snap, if he is sitting shallow the deep in route from the outside receiver will have room to work over the top of him.
Hot route the backside drag into a deeper option against teams that key on the shallow crosser and jump it with a lurking linebacker or safety.
Pair this with Slants or Quick Outs from the same set to keep the defense guessing between quick game and full field spacing concepts.
Against man coverage use Texas or Texas KO instead since Spacing loses its effectiveness when defenders can trail receivers man to man rather than sitting in zone drops.
