Playbooks
Sft Mtn PA Dagger Crosser
Quick Reference
In 2 playbooks
Breakdown
Sft Mtn PA Dagger Crosser is a play-action pass out of Singleback Trips that uses a soft motion to shift the defense and gain a pre-snap coverage read before the ball is snapped. The route concept pairs a deep dagger route (seam or post from the trips side) with an underneath crosser working from the opposite side, creating a natural high-low stretch on linebackers and safeties. This is a man and zone beater built to attack Cover 2 and Cover 3 shells, with the primary read progression starting at the deep dagger route to see if the safety bites on the play fake, then working down to the crosser sitting in the vacated middle void, and finally checking the underneath flat or check down if both are covered.
Defensive Reads
Watch the free safety at the snap, if he steps up on the run fake the dagger route behind him is wide open. Identify linebacker depth before the snap, shallow linebackers get gashed by the crosser sitting in the soft spot of zone coverage. Check for a user controlled defender lurking in the middle of the field, this play is vulnerable to a rat in the hole sitting on the crosser. Man coverage with no safety help over the top gets beaten easily by the dagger route, especially if the corner bites on the play fake. Cover 4 and heavy blitz packages with man coverage underneath can shut this down quickly, so have a hot route ready to convert the crosser into a quicker breaking route against pressure.
Usage Tips
Use the soft motion pre-snap to bait linebackers into flowing and to confirm man versus zone before the snap.
If you see Cover 3 with a single high safety, hit the dagger route on the seam since the safety cannot cover both deep options.
Against Cover 2, work the crosser immediately since it settles in the hole between the two deep safeties and the underneath zone defenders.
Pair this play with Sft Mtn PA CoPo and Sft Mtn Inside Zone in the same series so the motion look sets up multiple answers and keeps defenders guessing on run versus pass.
Best called on second or third and medium when defenses are more willing to sit in zone shells, since the play action freezes linebackers just long enough to open the crosser window.
