Playbooks
Quick Reference
In 12 playbooks
Breakdown
Corner Strike lines up in Shotgun Doubles HB Wk with 11 personnel and attacks the boundary with a five man route concept. To the trips side, the outside receiver runs a deep corner route while the inside slot runs a quick out and the innermost receiver breaks on a short in, creating a natural high low read from deep to shallow. The backside receiver runs a deep in cut while the running back releases into a flat route out of the backfield, giving the quarterback a two way go if the trips concept is capped. This is primarily a man beater built to isolate the corner route against outside leverage, with the flat and out routes acting as zone beater outlets underneath if the deep shell rotates over the top.
Defensive Reads
Pre snap, check safety depth and leverage on the trips side, since a rotated safety over the top signals Cover 3 or Cover 4 and tells you the corner route will be defended late. Watch the flat defender and slot corner alignment, if they are sitting inside with outside leverage that is a strong indicator of man coverage and the corner route has a clean win outside. Post snap, key the deep half or deep third defender's first two steps, if he opens toward the numbers immediately he is sinking under the corner and you need to move to the underneath out or in route. Look for user controlled defenders lurking in the intermediate flat area, a spy or a linebacker sitting in the passing lane can jump the out route, so use pump fakes or eye manipulation to move them. This concept is shut down by disciplined Cover 4 quarters shells with aggressive corner reroutes and by blitz packages that get pressure before the corner route develops, so have a hot route or check down ready against five and six man rushes.
Usage Tips
Pre snap, identify whether the defense is showing two high or single high safety look, since the corner route needs a soft spot outside the numbers to sit down against zone or win vertically against man. If you see man coverage with no safety help over the top on the trips side, throw the corner route on time before the corner can undercut it. Against zone heavy shells like Cover 3 or Cover 4, work the underneath out and in combination since the corner will likely be capped by a deep defender. Use this play on second and medium to second and long or third and medium situations where the defense is more likely to sit in zone drops and give you access to the intermediate window. Pair this with quicker hitting concepts like Slants or RPO Peek Slant earlier in a drive to bait linebackers into shallow drops, then come back to Corner Strike once you see them cheating up on run action or shallow crossers.
