Playbooks

Four Verticals

Shotgun·Trey Open·11
Four VertsPass PlayCover 2 BeaterCover 3 Beater
Play diagram for Four Verticals from Shotgun Trey Open in Madden 27

Quick Reference

FormationShotgun

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Breakdown

Four Verticals out of Trey Open sends both outside receivers straight up the seams and the slot receiver from the trey side runs a vertical seam route as well, stretching the defense with three deep vertical stems on the right side while the tight end (or attached receiver) runs a quick out to the flat off the line of scrimmage. The running back stays in to check block off the shotgun formation, protecting the QB on a pure dropback pass with no play-action or screen elements. This is a classic Cover 2 and Cover 3 beater built to overload deep zones, with the primary read starting on the safeties to identify one high or two high shells before working the seams from inside out.

Defensive Reads

Identify single high safety pre-snap, which signals Cover 3 or Cover 1 and tells you to attack the seam that the deep third defender is leaning away from Watch for two deep safeties splitting the field evenly, which shows Cover 2 or Cover 4 and means you should target the seams between the corner and safety before the safety can rotate over Key the middle linebacker depth at the snap, since a shallow drop or blitz look opens up the inside seam route immediately for a big gap in coverage Read the corner's press or off alignment, because press man leaves him vulnerable on the vertical release while off coverage lets him sink and jump the seam Recognize when the defense brings a nano blitz or overload pressure, which forces a quick decision to the flat route or hot routed running back before the seams have time to develop

Usage Tips

Check safety alignment before the snap to confirm one high versus two high shell, since this concept is designed to punish light boxes and split safeties who cannot cover four vertical stems

Use the flat route from the tight end as your outlet and pressure valve if the defense drops eight into coverage or brings a delayed blitz

Hot route the running back into a route if you diagnose zero blitz or man coverage without a deep safety help, since he becomes a free release checkdown against overloaded pressure

Pair this call with Curls or Y Cross Wheel earlier in a series so defenses respect underneath routes first, making them slower to react to the vertical stretch on later downs

Best used on early downs or in two minute situations where you need an explosive gain over the top, especially versus defenses playing soft zone shells

Other Plays in Trey Open