Playbooks
Quick Reference
Breakdown
Flood floods one side of the field with three route levels to overload a single zone defender, stacking a corner route, a deep out, and a shallow flat route on the right side while the backside bunch runs a dig-to-flat combo away from the concept. The right side flood forces the deep third defender and the flat defender to choose between the vertical corner and the underlying out, creating natural leverage for the quarterback to work high to low. This is a Cover 3 beater built off three-level stretch principles, with the QB progression starting on the deep corner route, coming down to the intermediate out, and finishing on the flat route if the defense rolls extra help over the top.
Defensive Reads
Read the flat defender first, if he sits on the shallow route and does not widen, the out route behind him is open for a big gain. Watch the deep third or deep half safety, if he shades hard toward the flood side pre-snap, the QB should look backside to the dig route immediately. Key the outside linebacker or slot defender on the corner route, in Cover 3 he has to choose between the flat and the vertical, so any hesitation opens a throwing lane. Cover 4 or Cover 2 with a hard corner press can shut this down since the extra deep defender takes away the corner route and forces the offense into the shallow flat only. Man coverage with a lurking linebacker over the underneath crosser can jump the shallow route, so check for a user-controlled defender sitting in that throwing lane before committing to the low read.
Usage Tips
Attack Cover 3 shells first since the flood concept is built specifically to stress the deep third defender and flat defender on the same side.
Check the corner and safety alignment pre-snap, if you see a single high safety and off corners rolling to the flood side, expect the sink-and-drive technique and hit the corner route before the safety can rotate over.
Hot route the backside dig into a deeper crosser against man coverage to give yourself a second window if the flood side gets bracketed.
Use this on 2nd and medium to long, the three-level stretch needs time to develop and works best when the defense is playing off coverage instead of press man.
Pair this with Z Spot from the same set to keep the defense guessing between a quick-hitting spot concept and the deeper flood shot, forcing linebackers to hesitate on their zone drops.
