4 vertz. vs cover 3

Have your corners play inside #1 and #2. Remember the ball will be in the air longer if they throw to #1, and it is a longer / lower percentage pass. The CBs have to get plenty of depth so they can stay over the top of both routes. I say take away the inside routes for sure. Of course you could play another coverage, too. Just my opinion.

How about playing man on one of the #2 receivers while having everyone else play cover 3?

PLAY QUARTERS (it DESTROYS "4 Verticals")!

CORRECT!

Thanks for all the advice. We like having our OLB playing aggressivly, so the best choice for that is to play cover 3. We mix in some combo stuff and 1, but we mainly play 3 to allow for more aggression. So are you guys saying that every time there is 4 wides we should atumatically move to cover 4 or 1?
Thanks again

we run a lot of cover 3. In practice we practice 3 plays more than any others (especially in the preseason.)

1) flat/curl
2) 4 verticals
3) 3 step hitch

hardly anyone runs those routes against us (we run them a lot) but we still practice them everyday in the preseason because they are cover 3 killers

To protect ourselves against flat curl we just preach to the outside backers to sit under the curl rather than jump the flat. Most teams never throw the flat ball. If they do we preach rallying up and making a tackle for a 2 yard gain.

Against 4 verticals we do two things.
1) We teach the concept of carrying number 2. Backers will carry #2 before passing him off when something threatens underneath.
2) Man in the middle- we do a drill called man in the middle. This is for the free safety. He sits in the middle of the field (don't cheat one way or the other as it makes it easy for the QB) and then beats the ball to the receiver once it is put in the air. Most HS QB's have trouble throwing that ball on a line. Because it is a deep ball most qb'a want to put air under the ball giving the safety time to get there if he isn't cheated.

Against hitch
We teach our OLB's to recognize 3 step action. They are taught to turn and run to #1. They literally turn to find the receiver and sprint. They aren't allowed to look for the ball until they are within reach of the receiver. It sounds ridiculous but if done properly it kills the throwing lane. We'll chuckle a few times when some of our kids are drilled in the back while doing this.

I know that these aren't cures for the holes in cover 3 but its important have a strategy for minimizing those weaknesses. If we were getting hurt with those plays consistently we would change to a different coverage.