strong safty

Coach: A seven-man front playing Cover 3 traditionally assigns the SS to do one of two things:

1) Cover the strong flat (C3 Sky)
2) Cover the deep playside 1/3, while the strong corner levels to cover the flat (C3 Cloud).

These days, however, all bets are off. All manner of deception takes place, from the minor (SS switches assignments with the Sam LB) to the major (pattern reading match-up C3, various Robber permutations from both C3 and C2 shells, etc.)

For me, the bottom line remains threatening the deep seams while concentrating your attack on the strong flat. If you can bracket that flat defender inside/out, you have a good ball-control passing game plan. If you can throw the four-verticals and other deep route packages every so often, you will keep the underneath defenders isolated and easy to pick apart.

Against C3 in general I like the following route packages:

1) Four verticals -- the classic C3 attack. If they can't prevent the deep ball, they lose.
2) Run and Shoot Go, Slide, Read, and Levels packages. Mouse Davis made his living in the early days by isolating the strong flat defender and making him wrong no matter what he did. As defenses grew more sophisticated, the Read package became an excellent way to probe zone holes. Finally, June Jones's Levels package outnumbers the underneath defenders in C3 and picks them clean.
3) Coverdale/Robinson Bunch Mesh route package -- the Flat and Whip/Read routes bracket the flat defender while the Smash route keeps the deep defenders occupied.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Ted Seay
Suva, Fiji Islands
Wild Bunch/2LD Football Forum