Slinging it deep against two-high
We’ve talked briefly about how to attack two-high looks by attacking away from where the quarterback flashes his eyes on RPO designs, but not every quarterback is a future Hall-of-Famer. So let’s look at other designs that are more universal.
There is one universal answer for how to attack defenses in football today, almost regardless of coverage: Just run four verticals on every play. Why? Because that route concept does have an answer for almost every coverage. There is a reason that every coaching clinic on the defense side of the football takes about five minutes before diving into how to defend verticals: Offenses run it because it works. Let’s face it, if Wesleyan University was running it back in the late 90s, it works.
But everyone’s favorite offensive play — next to Y-Throwback/Leak of course — might need a talented quarterback to execute it. Especially against these Cover 2 looks, if you are going to throw that hole shot to the outside. That’s a tough throw. The “scholarship” throw if you will, to borrow a term from new Minnesota Vikings defensive backs coach Karl Scott.
Yet four verticals will be part of both the present, and the future, of football. With good reason.
That is not the only answer in the passing game to these designs, of course, and as much as every offensive coordinator wants to call it on every down, you have to have other clubs in the bag. That leads us to the realm of the “Quarters beaters.” Because try as you might, if defenses are going to drop into Cover 4 you’ll want to have other designs to dial up.
That brings us to “Pout,” or post/out. One of my personal favorites to run against Cover 4, and something that leads us to Provo, and Zach Wilson.
Say what you want about Wilson and his draft stock, but one of the concepts that he executes at a very high level is this combination which can be deadly against Cover 4. Here is what that looks like drawn up:
The outside receiver runs the post route, while the inside receiver runs the deep out. The beauty of this design against Cover 4 is that the cornerback, playing with outside leverage, has to cover the post route while the safety, playing with inside leverage, has to cover the out route. This varies from team-to-team, but based on the defensive coverage rules once the inside receiver becomes “vertical,” the safety is responsible for that route, even if he breaks to the outside. As an offense, you get the leverage advantage on both routes.
Which leads to plays like this:
North Alabama drops into Cover-6, or Quarter-Quarter-Half, on this play, playing the Quarters or Cover – look over the post/out route combination. Both the out route and the post are open, and Wilson takes the deep shot for a huge gain.
Of course, when you think about offense today — and perhaps the future of offense — your mind might start to wander in the direction of Myrtle Beach. Why? Because of the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. This past season their offense perhaps opened some eyes to what can be done conceptually on the offensive side of the ball, and recently Ted Nguyen of The Athletic provided a comprehensive breakdown of the various elements in their offensive attack.
As Willy Korn, their co-offensive coordinator, put it to Nguyen:
It’s a 21 personnel (two running backs, one tight end, two receivers), spread-option offense,” Coastal Carolina co-offensive coordinator Willy Korn explained. “We’re going to get into a bunch of different formations and have a bunch of different motions and shifts and different presentations but run a lot of the same core concepts over and over and just try to window dress them the best we can. At the end of the day, it’s option football, option concepts but not in the traditional sense.
Perhaps anticipating some of these coverage looks we have talked about, Korn and the Chanticleers have some answers for Quarters when the ball goes in the air. Take this example against, of all teams, BYU:
You can see Coastal Carolina’s offense and this 21 personnel package at work here. But on this snap, the Chanticleers take to the air, and attack BYU with a post/curl combination. It works much the same as the post/out combination against the Cover-4 side of the field on this play. The corner route operates against the safety who is playing with inside leverage, while the curl route works against a cornerback who has no help over the top. Quarterback Grayson McCall throws the curl, but both routes are open.
Another route concept that is great to dial up against these two-high coverage shells is sometimes termed “989,” with a vertical route to each side of the field with a post route in the middle. A distant cousin of four verticals, the reason this design works against two-high looks is two-fold. You have the post route in the middle of the field with the potential to split the safeties, as well as the vertical routes on the outside. If the defense stays in Cover 2 and the safeties condense the throwing window on the post, the bold and daring quarterbacks can throw the hole shots to the outside.
Wilson and BYU opened their game against Houston this past season by running 989, as you can see drawn up here against the pre-snap two-high look:
As this play unfolds, Wilson carries out a mesh with his running back in the backfield and looks deep. Houston drops into Cover 4 and the two safeties — after one drops down initially in response to the run look — take away the post. So Wilson takes the deep shot:
It’s not exactly the “hole shot” against Cover-2, but you get the effect. Wilson takes the deep shot, his receiver makes the play at the catch point, and the offense has a big play against one of these two-high looks pre-snap.
Of course, just because the defense shows two-high before the snap does not mean they will stay in that once the play begins. So you need to be ready for that. We’ll dive into slinging it against the rotations next.