Playbooks
Salem X Kitty
Likely unavailable in the playbook builder
Quick Reference
In 1 playbook
Breakdown
Salem X Kitty is a passing concept out of Singleback Doubles 11 personnel that combines a deep in-breaking route with underneath crossers to attack both man and zone coverage. The X receiver runs a deep dig or kitty corner route toward the middle of the field while the slot and TE work short crossing patterns to occupy linebackers and clear the underneath zones. The primary read progression starts with the X on the deep in-breaker, then works down to the crossing routes underneath if the deep window is closed by a safety or zone defender.
Defensive Reads
Identify pre-snap whether the defense shows Cover 3 or Cover 4, since a deep third defender sitting on the X route's landmark signals a jump and pick opportunity for a user controlled defensive back. Watch linebacker depth at the snap, shallow drops from the mike or will linebacker indicate they are keying the crossing routes underneath, which opens a passing lane for the deep in-breaker. Man coverage with a corner in press alignment on the X receiver is vulnerable to this concept if there is no safety help over the top, so sell out on the deep route once the corner is beaten off the line. Blitz packages that send extra rushers up the middle can disrupt the timing of the deep dig, so quick recognition of a nano blitz pre-snap should push the quarterback progression to the faster developing crossers. Cover 2 shells with safeties sitting at intermediate depth tend to shut down the deep X route, so look to check down to the underneath crosser rather than force the throw into a crowded middle zone.
Usage Tips
Check the safety alignment before the snap, a single high safety opens up the X route working across the middle while two deep safeties should push you to the underneath crossers immediately.
Use a hot route to adjust the TE into a shallow drag if you see man coverage with no help over the top, this creates an easy layup throw against blitz-heavy defenses.
This play works best on second and medium to third and long situations where the defense expects a quick underneath throw and gets caught out of position against the deep in-breaker.
Pair this with Flanker Drag or Y Shallow Cross earlier in a series to condition the defense to jump underneath routes, then hit the deep X route for a bigger gain once linebackers start cheating up.
Against zone heavy opponents, look to hitch the X route timing slightly and let it settle into the soft spot between the underneath zone and deep zone defenders for a high percentage completion.
