Playbooks
In 11 playbooks
Breakdown
Mtn Bench is a trips-side flood concept out of Shotgun Trips TE with 11 personnel. From the diagram, the outside trips receiver runs a deep vertical cut inside toward the post area, the middle trips receiver runs a corner route breaking hard away from the formation, and the inside trips receiver benches out to the flat before turning upfield along the sideline, while the backside X runs a comeback breaking to the sideline. This is a man beater built off vertical stems that create natural separation on breaking routes, with the bench route serving as the underneath flat outlet against man leverage. The primary read progression starts at the corner route in the middle of the field, works down to the bench route in the flat, and comes back to the backside comeback if the trips side is jumped.
Defensive Reads
Watch the flat defender or nickel corner over the trips bunch since he has to choose between the bench route and the corner route, and that conflict is the key to this concept. Man coverage with no safety help over the top on the corner route gets exposed quickly, so identify single-high shells before the snap. Cover 2 or Cover 4 shells with two deep safeties can squeeze the corner route, so be ready to check down to the bench route immediately. A user-controlled defender sitting in a lurk spot on the trips side can jump the bench route, so look off the initial read if you see this alignment. Zone blitzes that bring extra pressure off the edge on the backside can disrupt the timing of the comeback route, so account for the backside rush before committing to that progression.
Usage Tips
Check pre-snap for single-high versus two-high safety alignment since the corner route works best against single-high man coverage.
If the corner sees a cornerback playing tight outside shade, hot route him to a slant to counter aggressive man technique.
Use this on second and medium or third and short since the bench route provides a quick underneath answer if the deep routes are covered.
Pair this with Mtn Z Spot or Mtn Return Levels in the same set to keep the defense guessing between flood concepts and levels concepts from the same formation look.
Motion the inside trips receiver before the snap to diagnose man versus zone based on defender movement, then confirm your bench read.
