Playbooks
Breakdown
Sim Pressure 3 is a Cover 3 simulated pressure look out of Nickel 2-4-5 that shows five rushers pre-snap but drops one defender into a shallow zone while sending a different rusher to disguise the blitz. The diagram shows three deep zone defenders running vertical routes to divide the field into thirds, two underneath defenders crossing into shallow zone drops to take away quick throws over the middle, and a five man rush executed by the front four plus one late-arriving blitzer. This is a zone based defensive concept built to bait quarterbacks into thinking they have a hot read against pressure, so the primary read for the defense starts with reading the quarterback's eyes to jump the shallow crossers before working out to the deep thirds if the ball holds.
Defensive Reads
Pre-snap, check the offensive formation for stacked or bunch receiver sets that could overload the shallow zone drop defenders and force a coverage bust. Key the running back's release out of the backfield, since sim pressure is vulnerable to check downs and screen passes if the underneath defenders bite too hard on the crossers. Post-snap, watch the quarterback's first read: if he stares down the middle shallow zone, jump that route with your user controlled defender for a potential pick six. This call is strong against man beater slot fades and deep out combos that die against sitting zone defenders, but it can be exposed by quick slants or stick concepts thrown before the pressure and rush arrive. Watch out for max protect play-action rollouts, since a five man rush can be neutralized by extra blockers, leaving the deep thirds exposed if the outside corners lose contain on scrambling quarterbacks.
Usage Tips
Disguise this call by aligning your slot defenders and safeties like a standard Cover 3 shell before the snap so the offense cannot immediately identify the sim pressure.
Delay the drop defender's zone read for a half second after the snap to sell blitz and bait the quarterback into throwing into the shallow crosser lanes.
Use this on early down and medium to long distance situations where offenses are more likely to call quick game or spot concepts that this shallow zone combo eats up.
Pair this with a straight Cover 3 or Cover 3 Match call on the following snap so quarterbacks who adjusted protection or hot routes against the pressure get caught off guard by a clean coverage look.
User the late blitzer defender manually to time the rush with the quarterback's drop, and spy any scramble lanes if the offense runs zone read or bootleg concepts against you.
