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Quick Reference
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Breakdown
Strong Flood is a classic three-level flood concept run to the strong side of the formation out of Shotgun Box Offset Wk. The TE runs a vertical clear-out, the outside receiver runs a deep corner route (marked in red), and the running back releases to the flat, stacking the strong side with a high-low-low read that stretches the field horizontally and vertically. On the backside, the isolated receiver runs a quick out breaking away from the numbers as a built-in man beater outlet if the strong side is jumped. This is a Cover 3 beater by design, using the flood concept to overload one deep defender and one underneath zone defender with three route levels.
Defensive Reads
Watch the strong side cornerback and flat defender pre-snap; if the cornerback is playing off with outside leverage, the corner route wins over the top. Post-snap, key the curl-flat defender's drop: if he sinks toward the vertical route, the flat route to the running back is wide open underneath. This play is vulnerable to a hard match Cover 3 or Cover 4 shell where the deep defender stays over the top of the corner route while a linebacker or nickel defender widens quickly to the flat. User-controlled defenders sitting in the flat or lurking the seam can jump the underneath routes, so be ready to climb the progression back to the corner route if that happens. Man coverage with a safety in the deep half over the top shuts down the corner route, making the backside out route to the isolated receiver the better answer against man beaters and blitz packages that leave that side singled up.
Usage Tips
Pre-snap, identify the deep safety alignment before the flood side; if you see a single high safety rotating away from the flood, you are already ahead of the defense.
Progression read starts high to low on the strong side: check the corner route first for a big shot, then work down to the vertical seam clearing space, then settle on the flat route to the running back as your checkdown against a sinking curl-flat defender.
Against Cover 3, target the flat route underneath the deep third defender since the cornerback cannot cover both the corner route and the flat at once.
Use the backside out route as a quick answer versus man coverage or when the strong side is capped by two deep defenders, since it isolates a single defender in space.
Pair this play with Curl Flat or Middle Hi Lo from the same set to keep the defense guessing between flood concepts and shorter, quicker-hitting throws, and mix in HB Angle or HB Draw on early downs to sell run action before hitting Strong Flood on second and long.
