Playbooks
Dash Flood is a classic flood concept out of Shotgun Box Y Split that stacks three receivers to one side at different depths, creating a high low horizontal stretch on a single defender or zone landmark. Typically this includes a deep out or corner, an intermediate flat route, and a shallow crosser or drag underneath, all breaking to the same side of the field within a second of each other. This is primarily a zone beater designed to overload a cornerback or curl to flat defender in Cover 2 or Cover 3, though it can also work against man coverage if the flat defender gets picked off by traffic. The primary read progression starts with the deepest route to see if the corner bites on the underneath stuff, then works down through the intermediate and shallow options based on the flat defender's leverage.
Read the flat defender first since Dash Flood is designed to put him in a bind between the shallow drag and the deeper out or corner route Watch the cornerback's depth at the snap, if he sinks with the deep route the flat throw should be open immediately underneath him Identify Cover 2 versus Cover 3 pre-snap by checking safety width, Cover 2 with two deep safeties invites the deep out into the void behind the corner while Cover 3 with a single high safety means the flood side corner is on an island Key the middle linebacker's drop, if he sits on the crosser instead of blitzing that tells you man coverage is unlikely and you can trust the zone flood reads Beware of Cover 4 match or a robber shell showing late rotation, this can jump the shallow crosser and force you to climb the ladder to the deep route or check down to the backside receiver
Attack the boundary side flood versus Cover 3 since the corner has to choose between the deep out and the flat route, giving you an easy read on the flat defender's leverage
Use pre-snap motion or a hot route to check the backside if the defense shows a heavy shell to the flood side, since single high safeties will often rotate late and expose the opposite hash
Hot route the shallow crosser into a spot route if you are facing a lot of user Cover 2 lurk since underneath defenders will sit and wait for the drag to cross their face
Pair this with Curls or Quick Unders from the same set to keep the defense guessing between a vertical flood stretch and a quick game rhythm passing attack
Best used on second and medium or third and short to medium since the shallow option gives you a checkdown against a blitz while the flood stresses zone coverage on schedule downs