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Breakdown
WK Flood is a three level flood concept out of Shotgun Spread 10 personnel designed to overload one side of the field vertically. The play stacks a deep route, an intermediate out or corner, and a shallow flat route into the same zone, forcing a single defender to choose between levels. It is built as a Cover 3 beater since the flood stresses the deep third defender and the flat defender simultaneously, and the primary read progression starts deep, works to the intermediate breaking route, then settles on the flat as the checkdown.
Defensive Reads
Key the deep third defender on the flood side immediately after the snap, if he opens his hips to the deep route the intermediate throw is live behind him. Watch the flat defender, in Cover 3 he is typically a linebacker or slot corner with limited range, if he sinks with the shallow route the corner or out route will be wide open. Identify user controlled safeties pre-snap, if a human is manning the deep middle third they can rob the flood, so look to throw before that defender can rotate over. Recognize Cover 4 or Cover 2 shells by safety depth and width pre-snap, these coverages bracket the deep route and force you to live in the intermediate and shallow levels instead. Beware of fire zone blitzes or nano blitzes disguised as Cover 3, if the flat defender crashes downhill instead of dropping, get the ball out on the quick underneath route before pressure arrives.
Usage Tips
Attack the flood side pre-snap by identifying single high looks since Cover 3 and other one deep shells struggle to cover all three levels with only one flat defender and one deep third defender to that side.
If you see two safeties deep pre-snap, be ready to hot route the deep route into a comeback or use the play as a checkdown heavy concept since Cover 4 and Cover 2 shells have extra deep help that clogs the top of the flood.
Use motion or a quick alert to identify man coverage before the snap, then peek the shallow flat route immediately since man defenders trailing from depth cannot close in time on the underneath option.
Pair WK Flood with Y Stick or Quick Slants on early downs to condition the defense to expect quick underneath throws, then hit the flood concept on third and medium when defenders sit on short routes.
Combine with PA Slot Slide or PA Z-under in your play calling script so the defense has to respect play action out of the same formation, opening up the deep flood route against aggressive linebacker flow.
