Playbooks
Breakdown
Double In Sail out of Shotgun Trips TE lines up three receivers to the closed side with the backside X running a deep clearout dig. From the trips side, the two inside receivers run stacked in routes at a shallow depth to sit underneath zone drops, while the outside trips receiver runs the sail concept, releasing vertical then breaking to the flat, with the number two receiver from that side working a corner route over the top. This is a zone beater built to attack Cover 2 and Cover 3 shells by stretching the flat defender and hook zone horizontally while the corner route occupies the deep half defender, and the primary read progression starts with the flat sail route, works to the corner route if the flat defender sinks, and comes back to the shallow in routes as the check down against a soft underneath zone.
Defensive Reads
Watch the flat defender at the snap, if he sits on the sail route the corner route behind him will be wide open for a big gain Key the middle linebacker's drop depth, if he sinks too deep the two shallow in routes will have soft grass to work with underneath Against Cover 3, the deep third defender to the trips side must respect both the corner route and the vertical clearout, creating natural conflict that favors the sail concept User the flat or curl defender manually to jump the in routes if you suspect the offense is going to check down quickly Man coverage with a single high safety is the toughest matchup for this play since the corner route lacks room to work and the in routes have no natural pick help, so blitzing off the edge while playing man underneath can shut this concept down
Usage Tips
Pre-snap, identify whether the defense is showing two deep safeties or a single high safety since this concept is built to punish Cover 2 and Cover 3 specifically
If the corner sits on the flat route, work the corner route over the top immediately before the safety can rotate over
Use the shallow in routes as your answer against zone blitz looks or when the flat defender bails deep, since they settle in soft spots underneath
This play works best on second and medium or third and short to intermediate distances where the sail flat route and in routes give you multiple completion windows
Pair this call with Deep In or China Y Post from the same set to keep the defense guessing between shallow zone beaters and deep shots off similar formation and route stems
Hot route the backside X clearout into a quick out or hitch if the defense shows man coverage with no safety help over the top
