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Quick Reference
In 2 playbooks
Breakdown
Smash Corners is a classic Cover 2 beater built off the smash concept, stacking a corner route over a hitch or flat route on both sides of the field to stretch the deep half safeties horizontally and vertically. The outside receivers push vertically toward the corner while the flanker or slot underneath sits down in the hitch, forcing the Cover 2 corner to choose between the flat and the corner throw. Blocking is standard pass protection out of Shotgun 11 personnel, and the primary read progression starts with the corner route to whichever side the safety cheats away from, then works down to the underneath hitch as a checkdown if the corner is capped.
Defensive Reads
Read the cornerback depth at the snap, if he sinks hard to cover the corner route the hitch underneath will be wide open for an easy completion. Watch the safety alignment pre-snap, a safety cheating to one side signals a rotated shell and tells you which side of the field the corner route will have the most room to work. Post-snap, key the flat defender's zone drop, if he sits on the hitch and ignores the corner route you have a clean vertical window to attack the sideline. Beware of Cover 3 or Cover 4 match zones with a deep half safety sitting on the corner route, this can bait a bad throw if the QB does not recognize the shell change. Watch for user-controlled lurk defenders sitting at the intermediate level, they can jump the corner route if the quarterback holds the ball too long, so timing the throw before the route breaks is critical.
Usage Tips
Pre-snap, identify a two high safety shell before the snap because this play is designed specifically to punish Cover 2 and Cover 4 zone drops that leave the flat to corner window exposed.
If the defense shows single high or man coverage, hot route the underneath hitch into a slant or drag to create better separation against man beaters instead of forcing the corner throw.
Use this play on second and medium to second and long situations where defenses are more likely to sit back in zone shells rather than blitz.
Pair Smash Corners with Double Slants or Y Stick in the same drive to keep defenders honest underneath, then come back to Smash Corners once the defense starts jumping the shorter routes.
Look off the safety by holding your eyes to the opposite side pre-throw, this manipulates user-controlled safeties in Cover 2 shells and opens the corner route for a bigger throwing window.
