Playbooks
Quick Reference
Breakdown
Flood Switch is a five-man protection pass concept out of Bunch Wide Nasty that floods one side of the field with three distinct route levels to overload zone defenders. From the bunch, the outside receiver runs a deep corner route up the sideline, the middle receiver works a quick out to the flat, and the inside receiver crosses underneath from the backside to settle in the shallow flat area, creating a high low low read on the same third of the field. On the backside, the single receiver runs a vertical seam to hold the safety and prevent rotation help over the top, while the running back stays in to help protect. This is a classic Cover 3 beater built to attack the flat and curl to flat defenders, with the corner route stretching the deep third defender and the flat and shallow crossers giving the quarterback easy high percentage answers underneath if the corner is taken away.
Defensive Reads
Pre-snap, identify if the safety is shaded toward the bunch side, since that alignment signals help over the corner route and should push your quarterback toward the underneath flood routes. Watch the flat defender post-snap, whether it is a linebacker or nickel corner, because his depth and width determine whether the flat route or shallow crosser will come open first. Man coverage with no safety help over the top is vulnerable to the corner route beating a trailing cornerback, so look for press man alignment pre-snap as a green light to take the shot. Cover 4 or quarters shells with disciplined flat defenders and a deep half safety rotating to the trips side can take away both the corner and the flat, forcing a checkdown or a hot read to the backside vertical. User controlled lurk defenders sitting in the shallow crosser lane can jump the underneath route, so if you see a defender spying that zone, look off the flood and go to the corner route or backside seam instead.
Usage Tips
Use this against Cover 3 and Cover 4 shells where the flat defender has to choose between the flat route and the shallow crosser, since that conflict is the core of the concept.
Read the deep corner route first if you see a single high safety cheating toward the trips side, then work down to the flat and shallow crosser if the corner window closes.
Hot route the backside vertical receiver into a dig or post if you diagnose Cover 2 or Cover 4 pre-snap, since the seam alone will not hold two deep safeties.
Pair this with Cheat Flood Switch as a quick alert version when you see aggressive flat corners jumping the underneath routes, since it removes a beat from the timing.
This play works best on second and medium to long or third and medium since it takes a full three step or five step drop to develop the flood read properly.
