Playbooks
Cross Sim 2 out of the 3-3 Over Jack Nickel package is a sim pressure call that shows five or six defenders at the line but drops into a Cover 2 shell underneath a simulated rush. The design sends a simulated blitz look while actually rushing four, using a stunt or exchange up front to confuse the offensive line's blocking assignments, while two deep safeties sit over the top of a two under, two deep zone matrix. Your primary read starts with the crossing routes and shallow drags: watch the underneath zone defenders flow to the crossers first, then work to the deep half safeties to see if a seam or corner route can split them before checking down to the flat defender's leverage.
Key the quarterback's eyes immediately after the snap since sim pressure disguises rely on the QB committing to a hot read against what he thinks is a blitz Watch for the offense to attack the seams between the underneath zone defenders and the deep safeties, this is the primary vulnerability against rub routes and crossing combos run at the sticks This call struggles against RPOs and quick game since the disguised rush can leave light run support if the defensive line stunt gets picked clean, so respect play action keepers and bubble screens Against man beater concepts like slant flat or drive combos, trust the two deep safeties to erase any deep shot and let the underneath defenders squeeze the crossers instead of chasing them man to man If the user controls a linebacker, sit him in the shallow crossing lane and read the quarterback's shoulders to jump the drag route before it develops into a big gain
Call this on early downs or second and medium when the offense is likely to run quick game or crossing concepts, since the sim pressure disguise baits quick throws into zone traffic
Pre-snap, show blitz alignment with linebackers and the extra DB crowding the box, then bail into the two deep safeties at the snap to disguise the sim pressure look
If the offense audibles into empty or spreads you out, mesh this call with Nickel Sim 2 or Show SS Sim 2 from the same set so quarterbacks cannot key on personnel or splits to diagnose the disguise
Hot route the flat defender to widen aggressively against teams that live on shallow crosses and quick outs, since the base flat drop can be a step slow if you do not manually adjust
Pair this with Cover 9 Show 2 or Cover 9 Sammie on back to back snaps to keep quarterbacks guessing between true four man rush zone drops and full on cover 9 rotation looks