Playbooks
Quick Reference
Breakdown
Flood out of Shotgun Bunch Offset stacks three routes into the same vertical third of the field to overload a single defender. From the bunch, the outside receiver runs a deep corner route up the sideline while the middle bunch receiver runs a flat route underneath, and the backside receiver runs an out breaking route to the opposite boundary. The HB stays in to help pass protect while the QB reads high to low, starting with the corner route, working down to the flat, with the backside out as a checkdown against zone leverage.
Defensive Reads
Identify the flat defender immediately after the snap, since he is the key conflict player in this concept and his positioning tells you whether the corner or flat route is open. Against Cover 3, the cornerback responsible for the deep third has to choose between staying deep on the corner route or squeezing down on the flat, so watch his hips at the snap to diagnose his leverage. Man coverage with a single high safety is vulnerable here because the flood stresses the boundary defender with no help underneath, so look for a cornerback playing tight man with no safety rotation to that side. Cover 4 or quarters shells with disciplined deep defenders can shut this down since the corner route runs into a deep quarter defender who has help, so avoid this play against teams sitting in quarters looks. Watch for a user controlled defender sitting in the flat or lurking the underneath zone, since that indicates the user is jumping the shallow route and the corner or backside out should be the answer.
Usage Tips
Call this on 2nd and medium or 3rd and short when you expect zone coverage, since the flood concept is built to stress one side of the field vertically. Pre-snap, check the safety alignment: if you see two deep safeties splitting the field evenly, the corner route should have room to work against a rotated Cover 2 shell. If the corner shows single high Cover 3, key the flat defender since he has to choose between the flat route and the corner, creating the natural conflict this play is designed to exploit. Hot route the backside out into a deeper comeback if you are facing aggressive off man coverage, since it gives you a bigger separation window against a trailing corner. Pair this play with Curl Flat or Speed Dig from the same set to keep the defense honest, since both put stress on similar underneath zones but attack different depths. Use max protect by keeping the HB in versus exotic pressure looks, since the three route concept needs time to develop the deep corner.
