Playbooks
Quick Reference
Breakdown
Shallow Cross out of Singleback Tight Doubles 11 personnel shows a true shallow drag concept designed to attack man coverage. The backside receiver runs a shallow crossing route all the way across the formation while the slot runs a dig underneath the far side vertical release, the outside receiver on that side pushes vertical then breaks to a corner or flag, and the inline TE on the strong side runs a deep post. The RB releases out of the backfield on a wheel or flat route to the flat for a check down and man beater option. The primary read starts with the shallow crosser working across the field, then progresses to the dig sitting underneath the coverage, with the RB out of the backfield as the outlet against blitz pressure.
Defensive Reads
Read the flow of the shallow crosser first, if a linebacker or nickel defender sinks and mirrors the route in man coverage you know you are facing man principles and should progress to the dig route. Check the depth of the underneath zone defenders post snap, if they sit shallow and jump the crosser immediately, that signals a Cover 2 or Cover 3 zone shell and you should look to the dig or corner route behind them. Watch for a user controlled defender lurking in the shallow zone, this is the classic counter to shallow cross concepts and it will bait quarterbacks into a pick six if you force the throw. Identify blitz packages by checking linebacker depth pre snap, if they are stacked tight to the line expect pressure and prioritize the RB check down route as your first read instead of working through the crossers. This play struggles against a hard Cover 4 or match quarters shell since the deep patterns get bracketed and underneath defenders can rob the shallow and dig routes simultaneously.
Usage Tips
Use pre snap motion or a hot route on the RB to check if the defense is in man coverage since the shallow crosser exposes trail technique and outside leverage corners.
Look for two high safety shells before the snap, if the safeties rotate down into the box expect man coverage underneath which makes the shallow crosser and dig combo extremely difficult to cover.
Hot route the far outside receiver to a slant if you see a hard flat zone defender sitting on the crosser's path, this gives you a quick man beater option against Cover 2 or Cover 3 zone drops.
Pair this play with HB Inside Zone or HB Dive from the same set to keep linebackers honest against the run, then come back with Shallow Cross on second or third and medium to exploit aggressive run fits.
Combine this play in a sequence with PA Boot or Bingo Cross to give the same route concepts different launch points and keep defenders guessing on run fit versus pass drop reads.
