Playbooks
Quick Reference
Breakdown
Y Cross Flood attacks from the Empty Base Shotgun 11 personnel look with a flood concept to the boundary and a deep crosser working the field side. The outside receiver to the flood side runs a deep out breaking away, the inside slot runs a shallow drive underneath, and the Y (TE) crosses the field from the opposite side under the deep dig running receiver, creating a three level stretch on that side while the backside outside receiver runs a vertical clear route and the RB checks for a quick swing release. This is a zone beater designed to flood one side of the field with high low leverage while the Y Cross gives you a man beating crosser against Cover 3 or Cover 1, and the primary read progression starts with the flood side out route, works down to the underneath drive route, then comes back to the Y crosser as the developing answer against zone drops.
Defensive Reads
Pre-snap, check the free safety depth and alignment, a single high safety shaded to the flood side signals Cover 3 and tells you the flood concept should hold up Watch the flood side cornerback leverage at the snap, if he sinks deep to take away the out route the underneath drive route will be wide open Track the middle linebacker or nickel defender who has to cover the Y Cross, a slow reroute or late pickup means the crosser will win versus zone drops Cover 1 or Cover 0 looks with a deep middle safety and no help over the crosser are vulnerable to the Y Cross since it stresses man defenders working across the field Watch for a user controlled linebacker sitting in a lurk spot in the shallow zone, this can jump the underneath drive route and blow up the quick answer, so be ready to move to the Y crosser or flood out route instead A hard blitz with only man coverage behind it can be beaten quickly by the flood side out route since it is a fast developing high percentage throw versus pressure
Usage Tips
Identify pre-snap whether the defense is playing zone shell or man match, since this concept punishes Cover 3 and Cover 4 rotations hard with the flood side numbers advantage
If the corner sinks with the deep out route, work down to the underneath drive route immediately for a quick easy completion
Against man coverage, prioritize the Y Cross since it creates natural rub traffic and separation off the crossing route away from the flow
Use this on second and medium to second and long where defenses are more likely to sit in zone shells expecting a conservative call
Pair this with Curl Flats or Stick from the same set to keep the defense guessing between flood concepts and quick game answers off similar formation looks
Hot route the backside vertical into a dig or curl if you are seeing consistent Cover 2 shells to give yourself an extra answer over the middle
