Playing the weak side part 2: secondary coverage.

In our introductory article last month, we described the background of the La Jolla weak side reduction gap control 50 Defense with two-deep coverage and how the defensive front coordinates with the coverage. The next logical step, of course, is the delineation of the specific secondary responsibilities.

UNORTHODOX CORNER TECHNIQUE

The key to making this front and coverage work is the secondary play. From a defensive standpoint, I like to identify a player who is in the box as one that the offense has to account for because he is a primary run support player.

In our base front, our primary contain players are the corners. This is where we play an unorthodox corner technique not often associated with two-deep zone. The corners in our base front will line up with a seven-yard cushion and will play with inside leverage to the wideout whenever possible.

Since seven yards is also our cushion in three-deep, we don't tip our coverage with the corner alignment. By playing the corner with inside leverage, we are making it extremely difficult for the receivers to block our corners on run.

An outside leveraged corner who funnels the wideout is easily stalk-blocked and this will require your safeties to assume some type of primary run support. Trying to get your safeties up too soon on run support in two-deep coverage opens the door to big gains through the air.

The seven-yard cushion is also critical in the execution of the pass coverage, as on the five-step drops by the QB, the corner is required to move horizontally (much like a basketball player cutting off the baseline) and impede the vertical progress of the receiver.

Playing the corner closer than seven yards will increase his chances of being unable to execute what we call the knock up. Fortunately on the high school level, there is no NFL five-yard chuck limitation. A very common mistake by the corner at this point is failing to get his body in front of the receiver. He will simply move horizontally and shove the receiver into the reception area. This will place extreme pressure on the safety, as he is won't be given the time to get the depth needed to make a play on this route.

Our corners are also taught two additional techniques that will allow them in keep the receiver off balance. First, we teach the corner to play a press zone technique. He aligns himself in a press look that gives the impression he is playing man under. On the snap, he will lock out the receiver and then look inside to get a run-pass read.

On run, he will disengage and move to his contain responsibility. On pass, he will carry out a zone technique not unlike the one employed from the seven-yard cushion look.

The second technique we teach is a bailout and jam wherein the corner approaches the LOS in a pre-snap adjustment and then bails out in a man look. He will then abruptly pull up and jam the receiver, who will often have no time to reroute.

When offensive coordinators first see an inside-leveraged corner with a two-deep look on top, their first inclination is to pass the ball up field with a quick vertical pass on the sideline.

My experience is that this is a low percentage throw and we try to bait the QB into throwing it. We protect against this throw by playing match up zones at the corner position.

On the snap, the corner will read the triangle in order to determine whether the ball is staying on the line or is coming off the line. If the corner sees the QB take a quick set and the receiver get vertical to his outside, he will immediately go into man coverage. He will open to the inside and run up field to the reception area all the time, keying the flight of the ball. (The safety will be coming over the top to collision the receiver.) We call this stealing the fade.

The other route that will trigger man coverage is the quick slant. Once again, if the corner gets a quick set, he will move immediately and try to beat the receiver to the reception point. We call this stealing the slant. See Diag. 7.

On Drops of Five Steps or More it is extremely important to teach the comers to always press the intermediate zones on a vertical stretch. A common route combination employed by the offense is an underneath flat route with an accompanying deeper route behind the rolled corner.

In these situations the corner must get depth to the intermediate route while reading the QB. Our goal is to make the offense throw the underneath route.

I like to tell our corners that offenses are generally greedy and prefer to take more instead of less. It takes a great deal of discipline to settle for a short route underneath that might produce five yards at the most.

SAFETIES FIRST

The aggressive play of our comers in run support and against the quick-set passing game is facilitated by the alignment of our safeties. In this scheme, they are "hash players." They have no primary run support and are lined up 14 yards from the line of scrimmage.

On the snap, the safeties will backpedal regardless of what type of read they are getting up front. Attaining this type of depth, albeit conservative, creates great angles on top and makes them difficult to beat with a deep vertical passing game. The depth also presents the safeties with great hitting opportunities against wide receivers who are baited into an area that appears to be poorly defended.

The safety's pass and run responsibility is relatively simple. His most important rule is to respect any vertical route. If a receiver gets vertical, the safety must get depth and keep him underneath.

On all QB drops of five steps or more, the safety must achieve a depth that will allow him to run forward into the reception area.

Any time a safety has to break off the hash at 90 degrees or greater, he has failed to get sufficient depth. See Diag. 8. The proper execution of the corner's knock up is what will allow the safety to get into proper position.

If the corner fails to execute this responsibility, the receiver will get vertical too soon and the coverage will run the risk of collapsing. It is for this reason that we spend a great deal of time practicing this aspect of our coverage.

The second area that offenses often try to exploit against two-deep coverage is the middle zone between the safeties. The deep alignment and movement employed by the safeties leave us in a very good position to move forward into the face of the receiver who is attemping to split this seam. The key to defending against this pass is the underneath drops by the linebackers.

The SB's drop is probably the most important one. If lined up against a tight end, he will assume a head-up alignment or, if necessary, a slightly inside eye shade. He reads the head of the tight end and will lock him out at the line of scrimmage.

This will slow the tight end's progress long enough to enable the Mac and Flip linebackers to recognize play-action pass or draw and still have enough time to move into their underneath zones.

It is important to remember that the SB is not a contain player. If the tight end tries to hook him on run, he only needs to neutralize him on the LOS and work him down the line while the corner comes up to contain (or tackle the bail-carrier).

The free-hitters will also be coming over the top as they pursue from inside to outside.

Against an Ace-Twins set or sets that employ H-Backs, the SB and the Flip (who will be walked out as explained earlier) will reroute the receivers. Our LB's do a good job of playing match-up zones and taking proper aiming points to the vertical releases.

Jamming the inside vertical routes or at least making the receivers reroute buys the time needed to let the safeties move into a secure position on top. When offenses run the traditional 999 horizontal deep stretch, the QB's are taught to read the safeties and throw to the receiver who is most open once the safeties move off the hash.

Our safeties are taught to get depth and put the burden of the decision-making process on the QB. In other words, don't make the decision for him by moving off the hash too soon. It is my experience that QB's will hold the ball a bit longer as they wait for the safety to commit.

This wili allow your pressure to become a factor. In addition, the longer the QB holds the ball, the deeper the vertical routes will get and the longer the ball will be in the air. I like to tell our safeties to get depth and play catch with the QB. Diag. 9 illustrates the base zone responsibilities discussed above.

If the safeties get a run read on the snap they will backpedal and then slide three steps to the outside. Their responsibility is to help us with secondary run support as needed or FAN (fill as needed).

As explained earlier, our defensive goal is to control gaps and get the running back moving in an east to west direction. Once the safeties have taken their slide steps, the run is usually fully developed.

The runner will then fill the running lanes inside or outside of the corner who has the primary contain responsibility.

If the corner has established position and forced the running back to cut up field, the safety must fill inside.

If the corner was late and allowed the running back to flank him to the outside, the safety will fill outside. See Diag. 10.

It may appear that this approach with the safeties is somewhat conservative. We believe that employing a nine-man front with quick corner support justifies the manner in which we utilize the safeties.

An added bonus in this regard is that we rarely have trouble defending deep routes that develop off play-action, nor do we have trouble with halfback passes, double passes, or similar plays.

Whenever we are hurt by such plays, it is usually because of an undisciplined play by a safety who tried to do too much.

Lastly, there is one set that requires us to deviate from our true hash play by the safeties. Whenever an offense employs a Wide-Slot tight end set with two backs in the backfield, we will flop our corner and reduce the safety on the tight-end side. The safety on the split side will continue to be a hash player. See Diag. 11. If we get motion back to a Pro-Set, the flopped corner will run with it and our defense will end up playing a standard double zone on top.

We play our base Over Cover 2 about 75% of the time. Our blitz package off this front in combination with our zone blitz package gives us the defensive balance needed to keep our opponents honest.

We especially like the defense because you don't need great athletes to execute these defensive responsibilities. It is a perfect fit for our players at La Jolla--who are generally very smart and always give you an honest effort.