Playbooks
Quick Reference
Breakdown
Slot 2 Buc is a play-action flood concept out of Shotgun Y Trips Wk with 11 personnel that overloads one side of the field with three vertical stems. From the trips side, the outside receiver runs a deep go route up the sideline, the middle receiver breaks off a corner route, and the inner slot runs a short out to the flat, while the backside X runs an in-breaking route toward the ball and the RB releases up the seam after selling the run fake. This is a classic Cover 3 beater built to flood one third of the field with three defenders, and the primary read progression starts with the flat route to hold underneath defenders, then works to the deep corner route in the vacated zone before finally checking the backside go route on the outside.
Defensive Reads
Pre-snap, identify if the safety is aligned deep middle in a one-high look, which signals Cover 3 or Cover 1 and tells you the flood side will be open. Watch the flat defender post-snap, if he sinks with the corner route or gets pulled inside, the underneath flat route to the trips side will be wide open for an easy pitch and catch. Key on the deep third defender to the trips side, if he stays flat-footed reading the quarterback instead of gaining depth, the corner route behind him will be an explosive gain. Beware of Cover 2 or Cover 4 shells with two deep safeties, since the corner route runs directly into the deep half or deep quarter defender and gets contested. User-controlled lurk defenders sitting in the shallow middle can jump the backside in-cut route, so avoid throwing this route late over the middle against an active user linebacker.
Usage Tips
Look for single-high safety shells pre-snap since this play is designed to attack Cover 3 and other zone drops with the three-level flood on the trips side.
If the defense shows man coverage with the corner pressed on the outside go route, work your first read to the flat route immediately since the underneath defender will have a tough time covering the flood angle.
Use this on early downs like first or second and medium when defenses are more likely to sit in base zone shells, since the play-action fake needs run respect to hold linebackers.
Pair this with HB Base or Inside Zone earlier in a series to sell the run fake and get linebackers to bite on the play-action, then hit them with Slot 2 Buc once they start cheating up.
If the corner route gets jumped by a robber safety, come back to the backside in-cut for a quick underneath completion instead of forcing the deep ball.
