Playbooks

Strong Flood

Shotgun·Trey Open Offset·11

Flood Pass Play Cover 3 Beater

Play diagram for Strong Flood from Shotgun Trey Open Offset in Madden 27

Quick Reference

FormationShotgun

SetTrey Open Offset

Personnel

111 RB · 1 TE · 3 WR

In 2 playbooks

Balanced Pass OffenseOffense West Coast OffenseOffense

Breakdown

Strong Flood is a three level flood concept run to the trips side out of Shotgun Trey Open Offset. The outside receiver runs a deep vertical clear route, the slot receiver sits on a corner/out breaker that turns into a flat route, and the third receiver from the bunch releases outside to a shallow flat route, stacking three defenders vertically to horizontally on one half of the field. The backside receiver runs a shallow drag across the field as a checkdown or man beater against man coverage rotated away from the flood. This is a classic Cover 3 beater, since it overloads the deep third defender and the flat defender to the trips side, with the primary read progression going from the deep clear route to the corner route to the flat route underneath.

Defensive Reads

Key the flat defender at the snap, if he sinks with the corner route the flat route underneath will be wide open for an easy pitch and catch. Watch the deep third defender to the trips side, if he opens his hips to run with the clear route he vacates the intermediate corner window for your primary window read. Beware of a user controlled defender sitting in the flat or lurking the corner route, this play struggles when the defense has extra eyes on the flood side since it stacks three routes into one area. Cover 3 with a hard flat squeeze or a robber defender crashing down on the underneath routes can take away both the flat and corner reads simultaneously. Man coverage with inside leverage on the backside drag route shuts down the checkdown outlet, forcing the quarterback to hold the ball longer and work the flood side against tight coverage.

Usage Tips

Identify the safety alignment pre-snap, if you see a single high safety shading toward the trips side this is your green light since Strong Flood is built to punish Cover 3 rotation.

Use the flat route as your first read against zone if the corner defender squats on the underneath flat, work up to the corner breaker sitting in the vacated window.

Against man coverage, hot route the backside drag into a deeper crossing route or peek at it early since it is the natural man beater against man to man leverage away from the flood.

Call this on third and medium to long when you expect zone drops, then sequence it with Y Cross Flood or Levels Switch later in a drive to keep defenders guessing on flood concepts to either side.

Motion is not shown here but if your version allows it, shifting the flat route receiver pre-snap can help you diagnose man versus zone before the snap based on if a defender follows.