Playbooks
Quick Reference
Breakdown
Strong Flood out of Shotgun Trey Open floods the strong side with three route levels stacked on top of each other. The outside receiver runs a corner route to clear the top, the slot receiver runs a flat route to the sideline, and the inside TE or slot works a shallow crossing route underneath, while the backside receiver runs a dig that breaks in at intermediate depth. This is a classic Cover 3 beater since it stretches one flat defender vertically and horizontally with three targets, and the primary read progression starts with the corner route deep, works down to the flat if the corner is covered, and comes back to the deep dig on the backside if the strong side flood is taken away.
Defensive Reads
This play is built to beat Cover 3 and other single-high shells that rely on one flat defender to cover both the flat and the deep corner route. Watch the strong side cornerback pre-snap, if he is aligned deep and outside he is likely bailing into a zone drop, which opens up the flat route underneath him. Post-snap, key the flat or curl defender's initial drop, if he sits on the shallow crossing route or the flat, throw the corner route behind him before the safety can rotate over. Man coverage with a deep half safety rolled to the strong side can shut this down since the corner route and flat route both get covered with help over the top. Watch for a user-controlled defender sitting in a lurk spot at the intermediate level, since that defender can jump both the flat and the shallow cross if the quarterback stares down the strong side too long.
Usage Tips
Use this on early downs or third and medium when you expect a single-high shell since the flood concept overloads one side of the field against Cover 3 rotation.
Pre-snap, identify whether the corner is playing off or bailing into a deep third, if he sinks with the corner route the flat should be wide open underneath.
Hot route the backside dig into a deeper dig or comeback against Cover 4 to give yourself a true man beater option if the strong side gets bracketed.
Pair this with Curls or Y Sail Go from the same set so the defense sees a similar backfield action and route stems, then hit them with Strong Flood once they start jumping the shorter routes.
Against a Cover 3 shell, key the flat defender, if he widens with the flat route the corner behind him will have a natural throwing lane for the deep corner route.
