Pattern Read Technique

Coach Joe,

If a team is hitting us in the flats with quick set hitch or slant, we will play our CB in a Bail technique where he lines up in press man inside shade and then bails out to cover deep on the snap. Of course this means that you will have to occasionaly play press man coverage to make your bail technique believable.

We will also make a Cheat call to tell our CB to pull off of #1 when he sees the quick set out (5 yard out) by #2 which leaves the Safety to cover #1 going vertical (in effect, it's traditional cover 2) .

We can also give a Buzz call to our invert (OLB) which tells him on the snap of the ball, once pass is read, to sprint to the #1 WR. We will use this in conjunction with the bail tech of the CB. This in effect puts the Safety man to man on the #2.

Finally, we will use a Double call which puts our CB in press tech allowing him to be overly aggressive on the #1 and have the Safety come over and cover the #1 on top. Your invert (OLB) is now man to man on the #2. This of course is our least favorite option, especially if #2 is a good player.

These are some of the answers we use to help make up for some weaknesses in the coverage in the flats.

As for Twins, great question. We have three options based on what you like to do out of your Twins set.

One, as you stated, is to bring the CB over and play him as the invert defender. We will do this if you are a strong threat to throw to the Twins side and run to the TE side. By doing this, we are leaving our SS over the TE side to defend the run. There are some issues for us if you motion the RB outside to the TE side which we will discuss below.

Second, would be to bring the SS over as the invert player. We will do this if you are a strong threat to run to the Twins side. This leaves the CB on the TE side to defend the pass and run. Not ideal if you run to the TE side but we would only bring the SS over if we felt that you liked to run to the Twins side. The RB motion outside to the TE side does not bother us as much with from this alignment which we will explain below.

A third option would be to walk your WOLB out, keep your cover 2 shell, and play the CB in a 5x2 outside alignment over the TE. We like this if we feel you are going to throw and your not much of a run threat to inside on the weakside (ie. ISO or Power). This does remove a run defender from the box and weakens your run defense, but again, we would only do this if we felt you were going to throw.

Our motion adjustments against the slot motioning back to Pro set are as follows: if the the CB is over, he will chase him back across the formation; If the SS is over, he will chase across the formation but return to his normal depth over the TE and the 5x2 CB would bump out to the slot coming across; if the WOLB was out, he would just move back into the box.

Our motion adjustment against a RB motioning out to the TE side (thus becoming a one back set) is as follows:
If the CB is over, the SS will bump out on the RB and the FS would come over on top of the TE (we are not crazy about this in that it leaves the inverted CB in a position to play as a safety); if the SS was over, he would then return over to the TE side at his normal depth (you could just back him up and have the FS slide over the TE as well) and the 5x2 CB would bump out; with the WOLB out, we would just bump the TE side CB out.

Hope this helps. Take Care and God Bless. Jason Bornn