leverage in coverage

Darin,

I play cover two as a combo coverage, man under rolled up hard with inside leverage. If you got the right guy at CB he can be taught to mirror the receiver and when he takes his first down hill step, jam his fanny! I would much rather make the QB throw the fade any time verses the high % inside slant. The hardest thing you can teach any receiver is how to get off the jam, why let him have free access into the pattern by playing OFF HIM be it inside or outside? Just my thought, but it hasa worked well for me.

JC

Thanks guys, it appears there are a few ways to do it, you just better know what you are doing either way. Thanks for your input.

I like to play head up and jam at the LOS (we ran a LOT of Cover 1 last year). We use the Iowa State mirror technique and drill the slant and fade every day. If we're in Cover 3, I would like to play with inside leverage like Superchief to cause difficulties for the crack block.

Another thing you may consider, especially in Cover 2 or 3 schemes, is that the slant is not the responsibility of the cornerback. Most guys want to run their cover 2 with outside leverage to take away the fade hole by jamming the receiver 5 yards down the field and giving the safety time to get over the top of the route. Corners playing with this responsibility will be "giving up the slant". However, you have to plan for both the slant and the fade in your pass coverage package. So if you are going to have the corner responsible for the outside release, he can't be expected to play the slant as well unless he is an outright stud. Therefore, because we are scheming to defend both the slant and the fade, we have to recruit another player to deal with the slant route. Most times this is an OLB or a SS. Because these players often have run responsibilities before pass, they are often not able to get to the receiver to break up the pass because they are too far inside. What we teach these players is to be aware of the slant passing lane and to initially drop into this passing lane upon recognition of pass, then proceed to the flat or curl zone, whichever is their responsibility.

Similarly, in cover 3, the cornerback should have too much depth to break up the slant. A cover 3 corner's responsibility is deep third, and the slant is thrown against the under coverage. So once again, the slant "defender" is the OLB or SS in the passing lane of the slant as opposed to the CB.

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Originally posted by: dsqa
Okay fellas, I am on the side of the ball where I need some help. I had a D coordinator this year who preferred to play outside leverage in cover 2, that would be fine if we were in zone, but he wanted us to play man coverage in it. The reasoning he gave was that the outside position took away the easy outside fade, but gave up the slant to our 2 deep defenders. As a head coach, you have to know where to flex and where to draw the line with your staff and their concepts, I am an inside leverage guy in man, but that is a QB talking. We never were hurt real bad by being outside, but What is the rationale, pros and cons of outside, head up, etc.? Is inside always my best option in man?

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I am with you about outside leverage in zone, but in man that is crazy to me. A skinny post or post would kill you everytime. I want a QB to throw over me or across me to complete a pass. Inside leverage will do that. Outside leverage opens the throwing lane making it very easy for a QB to thow a high percentage pass. I want the QB to throw a low percentage pass like the fade vs a post or quick slant. I would also rather they throw a long pass for a short gain to the flats. Most offensive teams either can't put together that many short passes or get impatent and throw it long. I would go inside loose man or go to a bump and run tech. My Head coach is against any bump coverage in the open field so I play loose inside man and man free.

JC,

I coach WR and DB and thus have a perspective from either side of the ball in man coverage. To me, the hardest thing to teach a WR is to run his routes differently against man or zone coverage. For example, when running a slant against man coverage, the WR's break is much flatter then against a Cover 2 corner that is trying to deny the outside or fade release so that the receiver can run away from the defender. However, I have had problems making this understood to my players.

I teach martial arts parry and blocking techniques to my wideouts and we rarely have problems getting off the jam at the HS level. I am guessing you probably run into better corners than I do at your level.

Anyway, when I played QB, I liked man coverage a lot better because I never worried about robbers or players I was not looking for jumping into throwing lanes. As a CB, I loved the oppurtunity to play Cover 2 and mash a receiver on a crossing route into my flat zone. I liked playing man coverage too, but that was a different type of game, one on one.

Just goes to show, as you and I have repeatedly found, there is more than one way to scheme, and any well thought out scheme that is well coached will work if you have the players to run it.