10 Reasons to Build Your Defense Around Press Cover 4

Transcription

1 10 Reasons to Build Your Defense Around Press Cover 4 By Kurt Twichell Copyright 2017 No Ceilings Football This e-book is not to be copied or distributed without the expressed written consent of the author. If you would like to share the contents of this e-book, please direct others to noceilingsfootball.com, where the e-book is available for free download. Disclaimer: The thoughts, information, and opinions expressed in this book are those of the author s alone. They do not reflect the official positions of any of the institutions that the author is affiliated with. Contact: kurt@noceilingsfootball.com 1

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS (clickable) About the Author. 3 Introduction... 3 What Is Cover 4?... 4 Press Cover 4 as a Base Reasons: 1) Quarters is a System Coverage.. 10 Take Home Points ) Split-Field Coverage: Simple Checks to Defend Any Formation.. 17 Take Home Points ) Quick Adjustments to Tempo & Motion.. 23 Take Home Points ) Forces Low-Percentage Throws. 26 Take Home Points ) Limits Types of RPO s. 29 Take Home Points ) Great Against Screens & Quick Game 33 Take Home Points ) Ideal Pursuit Angles Against the Run.. 35 Take Home Points ) Allows Linebackers to Play Fast.. 39 Take Home Points ) Gets Numbers vs. QB Run Take Home Points ) Forces the Offense to Play East/West 45 Take Home Points Conclusion 49 Thank You. 50 2

3 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kurt Twichell is a varsity football coach at Portage Central High School (MI) working with the defensive backs and offensive line. Since joining the program in 2014, the Mustangs have competed in the MHSAA State Playoffs and won or shared the SMAC West conference championship each season. Prior to 2014, Coach Twichell was the defensive coordinator at White Pigeon High School from , and served as an assistant coach at Haslett High School from As a student-athlete, Coach Twichell played offensive and defensive line at Hope College for Coach Dean Kreps in 2005, and at Haslett High School for Coach Charlie Otlewski. Coach Twichell is a physical education and weight training teacher at White Pigeon Junior/Senior High School, where he has also taught biology and life sciences. He is a graduate of Michigan State University with a bachelor's degree in Kinesiology, and also holds a Master of Arts in Educational Leadership from Central Michigan University. Coach Twichell resides in Portage, MI along with his wife Kate, who shares his passion for teaching and coaching as a Spanish teacher and head coach for the Portage Women's Varsity Lacrosse team. To follow Coach Twichell on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, click the buttons at the top of any page to stay on top of the latest real-world tips in coaching, leadership, motivation, program building, and student-athlete development. Or, visit his website any time at INTRODUCTION As defenses look to keep pace with the never-ending evolution of offensive trends, Cover 4 - or Quarters coverage - has exploded in popularity in the past decade. It just so happens that we live in an age where information can be exchanged rapidly - including in the football coaching ranks - through the internet, smart phones, and social media. On that basis alone you could argue that the quality of football coaching going on across the country at all levels may be better than ever. The ease of accessing books, film, and notes from the college and professional ranks bodes well for those pesky high school offensive coordinators who, today, are better than ever at creating conflicts for the defense. Fortunately, defensive coaches are provided with the same opportunities to keep up with current trends on their side of the ball. The chess match never stops. The purpose of this e-book is to give defensive coaches (and offensive coaches) a basic background in an increasingly popular type of coverage that can be adapted to any defensive structure: Press Cover 4. It is an aggressive, comprehensive, and fun coverage to both play and coach in. 3

4 In this e-book I will provide diagrams, notes, personal stories, and examples to illustrate why I think building your defense around Press Cover 4 is something to consider in the modern game. It is certainly not the be-allend-all coverage, but the basic principles of the coverage system can put your kids in position to play smart, fast, and physical defense. I want nothing more than to help you and your team reach your highest limits of success, and it is my hope that the information contained in this e-book plays a small part in helping you to accomplish that. WHAT IS COVER 4? Cover 4, or Quarters, in standard football terms would mean a coverage that splits the field up into four deep one-fourths, with one defender responsible for his own one-fourth. While that is what the coverage would eventually turn into if that is what the offensive routes dictate, the mode for getting there is much different than how spot-drop zone coverages like Cover 2 and Cover 3 operate. In modern defensive terms, you may have heard the phrase pattern reading, or also pattern matching, thrown around in the coaching circles. You can do this from any zone coverage, including Cover 2 and Cover 3, but matching the routes presented by the offense is exactly what Quarters is designed to do. Quarters is football s version of basketball s match-up zone. It has zone principles at its roots, but to the naked eye can easily appear to be simple man coverage with how quickly it transforms into man principles. The best way to describe Quarters is as a family of coverages that incorporates elements of other well-known coverages Man, Cover 2, and Cover 3 and implements their principles on a half-field, or split-field, basis. It is based out of a two-high safety defensive system, where each safety is responsible for communicating the coverage to the other pass defenders on his half of the field. The split-field coverage system allows a defense to be very multiple, but also keep things very simple. By having each safety on their half of the field make their own coverage checks slight adjustments based on offensive formation and personnel a defense can put themselves in position to match up as best as possible with what the offense presents. The checks are all a part of the Quarters family, which means that they will match up to 4 deep/vertical routes spread across the entire field. 4

5 Press Coverage A Variation If you think of Cover 4 as a zone coverage, it may sound somewhat confusing to learn of a variation in which press-man coverage from the corners is also a main component. This is a unique way of playing Quarters, but it serves as a primary way to: 1. Establish the defense as the aggressor. 2. Reduce the playing field to 9 vs Eliminate route choices for the offense. Press coverage is very much a high-risk, high-reward form of playing the pass, but it s effects also trickle down into every other aspect of the game including defending the run. We will cover this more in depth later, but by schematically eliminating the outside receivers off the X and O board (and out of the worry of the other 9 defenders), the defense gives itself a numbers advantage by narrowing its focus to the interior portion of the field. 5

6 Safety Play Matching Interior Receivers Quarters, in terms of pure numbers, is the best run-stopping coverage in football because of the ability to get into a 9-man front. This involves incorporating the safeties into the run action, which they will do if the action of their key read dictates. In Quarters, safeties are responsible for reading and matching the release of the #2 receiver, who is the second eligible receiver on his half of the formation counting from the outside-in. The safeties in Cover 4 are flat-footed readers, meaning that they are not backpedaling on the snap with a #2 receiver as they make their read. Instead, they bounce in place for 2 hops against a tight end, or slow shuffle for 2 steps on a 45-degree angle to the sideline when the #2 receiver is in the slot. Some coaches even have them take a read step forward. This slow-read allows them to be factors in the run game, but also allows for leverage in defending the #2 receiver in man coverage. On a vertical release from #2, the safety will absorb that route with inside leverage and push it to the outside. Some coaches define a vertical release at a landmark somewhere between 5-8 yards, but we define it as anything that clears the linebackers. To assist in the soft coverage against a #2 receiver, an overhang outside linebacker/strong safety will help to wall off that receiver from entering the middle of the field and splitting the two deep safeties. 6

7 In the big picture, Quarters is a coverage in which #1 receivers are taken man-to-man by the corners, and the #2 receivers are bracketed by the safeties and linebackers. On a short release inside or outside, the responsibility for the #2 receiver falls to the linebackers, and the safety can key the quarterback s eyes to either help in the middle of the field or bracket/double #1 with the corner. An exception is a bubble release, which the safety will run directly at. On a crack/run release from his #2, the safety will add himself into the run game. By matching the action of the #2 receiver, Quarters allows the defense to quickly identify what the offense is doing and commit the necessary numbers to stopping it. In the next section, we will dive into what a base defense is and what it should entail. The coverage is only a portion of the entire defense, but it is certainly the backbone of the system because it dictates how you will defend the run. Then, we will dive deeper into 10 specific reasons why I believe you can find great success in building your entire defense around Press Cover 4 to defend the modern offenses of today. 7

8 What is a Base System? PRESS COVER 4 AS A BASE As a defensive coordinator, you must have a base defensive system that can align to and defend anything that you may see. In a perfect world, you would feel 100% comfortable calling your base defense in any game situation. Ideally, you should feel good enough about your base defense alone that you could run it every snap and it would still win you a ballgame. To know if you have a sound base system or not, you need to draw it up against any conceivable offensive formation. Are all of your gaps filled? Do you have designated spill players (who make the ball spill outside) and box players (who force the ball back in) to each side? Do you have one more defender available than the offense has to block to get your +1? If the answer to any of those questions is No, then the base system is not sound and likely needs revision. There should be no alignment issues and no formations in which an offense has a distinct numbers advantage against any base defense. Building Your Base 2 Main Components Building a base defensive system involves deciding on 2 primary categories that everything else will feed off of: structure and coverage. Structure refers to your personnel and whether you employ a 4-3, 3-4, 4-2, or 3-3, etc. to get your best 11 on the field. Not all structures are created equal, however. This is where your identity in coverage comes to play. A 3-4, for example, is a two-high safety structure that can major in traditional two-high safety coverages like Cover 2 and Cover 4, or it could major in a one-high safety coverage like a disguising Cover 3 by always spinning a safety or corner down to play a short zone, creating an 8-man front. A third bonus category that you might toss in to defining a base defense is the front, which refers to how your defensive line and linebackers align to the offense. Every defensive coordinator has a starting point, but in Cover 4 how you set the front is largely independent of how you call the coverage. In general, a base system could generally be described as a 3-4 Cover 3, or a 4-3 Cover 2, or a 3-3 Cover 1, etc. That s your bread and butter. It s what you re great at. It s what other teams know you are going to do, but it doesn t matter because you ve coached the heck out of it. But, what do you build your entire defensive package around? The structure, or the coverage? The Starting Point: Coverage 8

9 Since it s your coverage that ultimately determines your alignment (pre or post-snap) and run fits, and since you can play just about any coverage from any structure I believe that your priority is finding a coverage system that is highly adaptable to what offenses you most often see. From there, you can build your coverage into whatever structure gets your best 11 kids out on the field. With Quarters, I prefer a balanced two-high safety structure, like a 4-3 or 3-4, because they naturally lend themselves to the split-field coverage system. However, Quarters can certainly be adapted to single-high structures like a 4-2 or 3-3 with simple rules for identifying passing strength and where to send the extra body. You do lose a body to the weak side and have to teach your linebackers to absorb weakside flat routes, but the advantage is that you will always have a pre-set 6-man run box against spread teams. Plus, the weak side is typically a much smaller area of the field because of how wide the hashes are in high school football (except Texas and some other states), and 3 out of every 4 plays on average are played from a hash. The point is that Quarters can be adapted to any defensive structure, which allows you to decide how to get your best 11 defenders on the field The Best Coverage?? Before we really get going, I want to make it very clear that no single type of coverage is better than another. Similarly, there is no front that is better than another, or any structure that is better than another. Therefore, there is no system that is better than another. They all have different strengths and weaknesses, and it is up to us coaches to figure out which best suits our team and what you can coach - with as much attention to detail as possible. We ve all met coaches who think their scheme is better than someone else s, or that some particular scheme would never work, and that you re stupid if you do anything that is counter to their beliefs. Those guys need to be reminded that if anything were better than another scheme, then everyone would be doing it and the other scheme would not exist. I m an idiot about a lot of things but not about Cover 4 being the only coverage out there. I am not here to tell you that Quarters coverage (and the press variation) discussed in this e-book is better than everything else. What I am here to tell you is that I believe Press Cover 4 is a great option to build your base defense around in today s game, and I will give you 10 reasons why. If it makes sense to you and you are thinking about implementing it for your program, that s phenomenal. I hope this e-book helps to kick-start your defense. 9

10 If it doesn t quite click and/or you have further questions, the links to my social media pages are at the top of each page, and my is coachtwich@gmail.com. Either way, let s get on to identifying the specific reasons why Press Quarters is something that you can build your entire defense around to combat the offenses of today. 1) QUARTERS IS A SYSTEM COVERAGE I will be the first to admit that Quarters coverage can initially be kind of intimidating to learn. Quarters does seem to initially have a lot of moving parts, but once the core concepts click, the light bulb comes on and you see how the entire system fits together. We have mentioned how the different coverages are named after how many deep zones the field is broken up into. While Cover 4 does imply that the field is broken up into ¼ s by the 4 primary defensive backs, we ve also discussed how the means of getting there are different than Cover 2 or Cover 3. Press Cover 4 is not a spot-drop coverage. It is not even a prevent the deep ball coverage. And it is certainly not a coverage that is soft against the run. Quarters is a system coverage in that it has rules, reads, and keys that are consistent regardless of the type of offense you are lining up against. When I say that Quarters is a system coverage, I am referring to how it is literally adaptable to any offensive formation, personnel, or scheme that you will see. Spread, I-Form, Wing-T, Single Wing you name it, and Quarters can align to it and be sound against it. Eligible Receivers The basic premise around the adaptability of Quarters comes in the basic rules of football and the number of eligible receivers. This is the first mental aspect of defensive football that we teach to our linebackers and defensive backs: how to identify eligible receivers for the offense. We spend as much time as we need on teaching it until it becomes absolutely automatic for our kids. Please bear with me and pardon the extremely rudimentary explanation if you already know this. There was certainly a time in my coaching career at one point that I did not know this, and I want to make sure we are all on the same page going forward. In football, there are only 5 eligible receivers in ANY formation (not counting the QB): The last guy aligned ON the line of scrimmage on either side of the formation, and Anybody who is OFF the line of scrimmage. Also, because there are only 5 eligible receivers, there can only be a single #3 receiver in any formation. If there were dual #3 s, then of course that would mean there were 6 eligible receivers, which there cannot be. 10

11 We can use these rules to identify all of the eligible receivers on any half of the formation (for split-field coverage purposes), and then number them from the outside-in so that the widest is #1, second-widest is #2, and the third is #3, etc. Since the corners are responsible for playing press-man coverage on #1 and basically erasing them from the thought of the rest of the defense, Quarters is built entirely on the location and the action of the #2 receiver who will influence the alignment of the safeties and the overhang players (outside linebackers). This is where the beauty of the Quarters system comes into play. By its most basic explanation, the safeties in a Quarters system will become 100% pass defenders on a pass release from #2, and aggressive run-fitters on any run action from #2. This is what makes the entire system sound in terms of getting a +1 against the run and the pass. Ideally, the defense will always have one more defender at the point of attack than the offense can block, and we want that guy to be as close to the ball as possible. Relating to the Alignment of the #2 Receiver 11

12 In Quarters coverage, a removed #2 receiver who is detached from the run box will cause the safety and overhang linebacker to his side to also detach themselves from the run box. The safety becomes a primary pass defender, while the overhang linebacker can remain gap responsible against the run. If that #2 receiver were an attached Tight End who was a part of the run box, then that would also cause the safety and overhang to add themselves to the run box. 12

13 While single-high safety systems with a Cover 3 base remain popular at the high school level for the sake of simplicity, today s spread offenses put a tremendous amount of stress on these defenses both horizontally and vertically. While single-high systems are still popular and still very effective, they are getting more and more dangerous against increasingly popular spread and RPO (run-pass option) teams, and increasingly smarter coordinators. The most dangerous areas to protect in a single-high structure are the seams between the corners and the free safety. The overhang players responsible for re-routing receivers out of these areas are also responsible for the flats, which can be exposed by an off-coverage corner. 13

14 Throw in the popularity of Run-Pass Options (RPO s) that are specifically designed to put dual-responsibility players into conflict, and staying in a base single-high structure is getting more and more dangerous in the modern game. Creating Conflicts For the +1 Defender We identified earlier that every base defense should have a +1 in the run game. It s also mostly true in the pass game, though there are some exceptions. In general, we always want one more run defender than there are blockers, and one extra defender vs. the pass than there are receivers. Hybrid players such as the fullback/tight end (H-back) and the slot/running back combinations have allowed offenses to get extremely creative and expose holes in the standard single-high defensive structure, eliminating the +1 and gaining it for themselves. On top of that, RPO s also have a knack for eliminating the +1 when the conflicted defender commits himself to either the run or the pass, and the offense makes him wrong. Without even getting into RPO s yet, let s look at a hybrid pro/spread formation and see where a single-high based coverage like Cover 3 will find their +1. In the example below, we have a 2x2 formation with an H-back and a traditional on-the-line Tight End, with a split end and a slot to the opposite side. 14

15 The run gaps and the primary run defenders to each half of the formation are numbered in red, while the eligible receivers and primary pass defenders are numbered in blue. Without even accounting for pulling linemen or the QB run (which each create an extra gap), a primary pass defender in a Cover 3 structure is needed to fit the run. To the TE/wing side, either the pass-first corner or the free safety is going to need to fit a gap both if an extra gap gets created post-snap. If the offense has good run/pass balance, it can be a long night. I know this because it s happened to us. This is exactly the type of offense that we encountered in the playoffs that forced us into thinking about Quarters as another option. Their base play was buck sweep to the strong side, complemented by wing counter coming back and a weak B-gap iso with the QB. We were pretty talented defensively, but we always felt like we were a man short, and they were always getting 4-5 yards a pop. Our free safety had a long way to travel to get in on strong-side run, which was further problematic because they had a Division I receiver to the passing strength. Our safety was in conflict the entire night, and they took advantage. We never had a great adjustment, and we lost. We felt like we were out-coached, which is an awful feeling. Let s see now how this would look comparatively against a two-high safety, Quarters system. 15

16 In the two-high safety Quarters system, the defense is more balanced up and each side is only concerned about aligning to their half and focusing on a specific key-read. A conflicted single deep safety in the 4-4 or 5-3, after getting into his backpedal to account for the receiver strength, does not have to come from depth late to fit the strong side run game. Instead, the only conflicted player becomes whoever you two-gapper is in the 4-3 (the Mike) or the 3-4 (the Nose), who are needed to fit a gap on either side of the center. However, they have to cover a much shorter distance than a single deep free safety would have to. To the run strength side (the check to this type of formation is further explained in the next section), the corner and safety are flat foot reading the TE/Wing, respectively, and adding or removing themselves to the run fit as dictated by their key s release. To the passing strength, the corner has #1 in press-man, while the safety is flat foot reading #2. The overhang linebacker is an extra body against the pass who can wall off #2 from the middle of the field, but will also fit the run based on the action of his backfield key. This is only one example of how today s modern pro/spread hybrid offenses have used formations, alignments, and versatile personnel groupings to create conflicts for traditional single-high defenses. While of course there is always give and take whenever there is a change in any defensive structure, alignment and gap-responsibility issues in the run game are the two simplest areas in which an offensive coordinator will look to take advantage of. In this instance, the offense has created an 8-gap front that is shifted more heavily 16

17 to one side (5 gaps to 3 gaps) that will get the traditional run/pass responsibilities of a single-high safety structure into some trouble. A coverage based in a pattern reading two-high system, such as Quarters, gives you the flexibility in numbers to adjust to and defend the strengths of any offense. Quarters is a System Coverage Take Home Points The typical high school defensive coordinator will see around 4-6 different styles of offenses during their regular season. Therefore, they need a base system that will adapt to all styles of offense while keeping the rules, reads, and keys consistent for their players. In the Quarters system, the rules remain consistent week to week and give the defense the ability to align to and defend any formation in football, giving your defense the numbers advantage that it needs. In the next section, we ll look closer at how the split-field coverage system works and how this eases the week-to-week transition of defending different offensive styles. 2) Split-Field Coverage: Simple Checks to Defend Any Formation In the split-field coverage system, each safety is responsible for making a coverage call (or check ) to his side of the defense. The check being made is based entirely on what his half of the field presents to him in terms of the number and location of removed (or detached) receivers. All of these checks are part of the Quarters family, and when the checks made on each half of the field are combined, they will together match all of the vertical routes that an offense can present. This works to put the defense in the best position to defend what the offense is trying to do to them. When you break down what each side of the offensive formation is giving you in terms of the number of removed receivers, things become very simple. They can give you 0, 1, or 2 removed receivers, or some form of trips/quads. Quarters principles gives you some flexibility in how you want to play against trips, and I will show you the two primary ways to do it. When you teach them to identify formations based on the number of removed receivers (which you can install in just 1 day of camp), you will see the confidence in your players grow as they quickly get lined up and focused in on their key. 17

18 Though a complete Quarters system has multiple checks to each type of receiver set, you can literally defend any formation in football with just these 4 as a starting point: 18

19 1. Base vs. 1, 2, or 3 removed receivers Most common check. Corner plays press man on #1. Safety plays the vertical and out route of #2, eyes to QB if #2 runs shallow in. Outside arm free vs. the run if #2 is attached. Replace OLB on the crack if #2 is detached. Outside linebacker walls #2 from the middle of the field, releases late to flats. Run with any route across the face. Spill any runs if #2 is attached, box w/ outside arm free if #2 is removed. Inside linebacker(s) wall #3 to the middle of the field, knocks out any crossers. Spill vs. the run. For #3 removed, see Solo check below. 19

20 2. Cloud (Cover 2) to 0 removed, or bunch/tight sets Corner turns butt 45 degrees to the sideline, plays flats/force. Stay in backpedal as #1 keeps climbing vertical. Crack/replace if #1 inserts. Safety plays deep half reading #2 to #1. Stay with #2 vertical, eyes to #1 if #2 runs shallow in or out. Fill alley late vs. run. Outside linebacker walls #2 from the middle of the field, plays hook/curl. Spill vs. run. 3 defenders must keep all routes within their cone/triangle. Also a suitable check to bunch/tight sets because of interchanging routes and picks/rubs. As a variation, you can invert your safety and corner if a bigger safety might hold up better against run-heavy teams. 20

21 3. Solo vs. 3 removed, or 2 removed w/ #3 as an attached TE or Wing Corner, safety, and OLB play #1 and #2 like Base. Backside safety treats #3 as his #2 from the other side walked over (take ANY vertical to the middle 2 and 3 could switch). Yells I m gone to his OLB. Weakside OLB plays force to weakside w/ safety gone to #3 vertical on opposite side. Mike walls #3 and plays force vs. trips-side run. This is the only check that is not true split-field as it involves coordination between the safeties, but retains principles such as corners playing press man and safeties taking their #2 vertical. 21

22 4. Midpoints vs. 3 removed or Empty A spot-drop trips variation where the corner bails out inbetween the widest 2 receivers reading #2 to #1, and the safety backpedals between the inside 2 receivers reading #3 to #2. This is a way to keep split-field coverage against trips with help to an isolated #1, and would also be the base check to Empty (weakside plays whatever check they want vs. #1 and #2) or Quads (backside safety plays #4 as if he were his #2 from the other side walked over mix of Midpoints/Solo). I have given a few examples of full offensive formations in the next diagram below, but if you play around with this on the whiteboard or a scrap piece of paper you will see how the 4 coverage checks described above work together to achieve multiplicity by simplicity. 22

23 Split-Field Coverage: Simple Checks to Defend Any Formation Take Home Points Remembering that each safety is responsible for making their own coverage check in Quarters based on the number of removed receivers, you can put simple checks together to align to any offensive formation in football. Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi, for example, taught over 20 different Quarters checks in fall camp when he was the defensive coordinator at Michigan State. However, they carried only 4-5 into each game week, and were facing offenses much more complex than what the average high school coach sees. I have introduced you to the 4 simplest Quarters checks that you can carry into a game and be sound any offense you will see. There is a lot that goes into playing great defense, but getting the scheme installed quickly and simply allows you the time to focus on building the skills and confidence that it takes to become an elite defense. 3) Quick Adjustments to Tempo and Motion Once your players have mastered how to number receivers and make their coverage checks, you have already given them the basis for how to play against up-tempo offenses and how to adjust to motion/shifts/trades. While it takes devoted practice time on formation recognition for your players to master the coverage checks, your kids will eventually become automatic in knowing what to do based on very few visual keys. Once your 23

24 players get comfortable, you will never be caught in a bad coverage as long as your players have all communicated and acknowledged the check that is called. In terms of defending an up-tempo team, a hurry-up no huddle offense is less intimidating because the work to communicate checks and alignments is divided in half by the split-field system. In addition, setting the front is also independent of the coverage, so the primary responsibilities of getting your base defense called and aligned to any formation is split among multiple players. It can be handled quickly and efficiently. Motion is also less of an issue because of the balanced nature of a two-high safety structure. You will not be needing to run guys all over the place or flop your passing strength around if the offense is moving, especially if you are in a 4-3 or a 3-4. If you are a 4-2 or 3-3 based structure and designate a passing strength pre-snap to get a +1, motion is never an issue if they start in a balanced 2x2 formation and send a body to the strong side. You already have the numbers advantage and will maintain it by having the weak safety and linebacker play #3 to the middle of the field. If the offense is in a balanced 2x2 formation and sends a body away from your passing strength, it s rarely an issue because of how often the ball is placed on a hash. You will always call your passing strength to the field if the ball is on a hash regardless of formation. 24

25 If the offense wants to bury trips into the boundary, either by initial alignment or through motion, that s fine because your extra box defender can double as the +1 defender against the pass by simple distance alone. The numbers advantage is nullified by the lack of space that the offense has. Motion only ever becomes a coverage issue in the 4-2 or 3-3 if you re stuck in the middle of the field and they motion away from your passing strength to get a numbers AND space advantage. It does not happen often, but the check system allows you options to deal with potential problems, such as coaching your weak safety to check to Cover 2 on motion to trips to deal with the flats. You can do this on a hash as well if you like. Quick Adjustments to Tempo and Motion Take Home Points After you have devoted the time to teaching the coverage checks and practiced formation recognition with your players, your defense should be able to get aligned very quickly to up-tempo offenses. Because of the split-field coverage system, and also the front being set independently of the coverage, you have less variables to worry about in getting your kids ready to play the next snap. Defending teams that present a lot of motion, shifts, and trades are also simple in Quarters because you don t need to run players all over the place to maintain your +1 leverage in the numbers game. Simply knowing the coverage checks to a new look created by motion gives your players the ability to quickly and confidently be in position to defend what the offense is trying to do. 25

26 4) Forces Low Percentage Throws When you major in press-man coverage (which many high school teams do not), the routes and releases you are going to see become very predictable. You can therefore rep these skills every single day in practice with your defensive backs. While you work press coverage skills daily, it s not likely that your opponents devote the same time to defeating it. The advantage goes to you. As a result of hanging your hat on press coverage, you will see the offense have to resort to lower percentage throws (such as deep fades) to their primary receivers. If the offense wants the shorter higher percentage throws, they will have to target secondary receivers who are bracket covered by your overhang players and safeties. Advantages of Press Coverage There is a myth out there that a pressed corner has to be a better athlete than the receiver they are defending, or that it takes an elite athlete to be a competent press corner. That is not entirely true. Of course it takes speed, fluid hips, and strong ball skills to be a good corner, whether they are pressed or not. There are many defensive coaches, including myself, who would argue that press technique is easier to coach than off-technique. A pressed corner already has the advantage over an off-corner in that he is in phase with the receiver right away. There is no catching and absorbing a talented athlete in space who can use his head and shoulders to fake a kid out of his shoes. The space and the window is tight, which is to the advantage of the defensive back in staying in phase with the receiver. By shadowing the receiver s shoulders with his own, and working his feet before his hands, an average corner can find himself more suited to play press if he is a competitor who loves a challenge. Plus, you get the added benefits of: Bubbled, indirect releases from wide receivers. Known route tendencies. Routes that take more time. Routes that finish inconsistently. An attack, competitive mentality that players love. Of course, you can play all the Quarters checks just the same as an off-corner, but the coverage is perfectly suited to take advantage of all the benefits that press technique offers. 26

27 Inside Shoulder Leverage = Outside Releases Using inside shoulder leverage to press #1 receivers means that you will see a majority of outside releases to the sideline, which your corners can use to their advantage by using their body to stay on top of the receiver and run him into the boundary. You are going to see a lot of fades, which many offensive coordinators have as an automatic option route to attack press coverage. However, statistically speaking, fades are a very low percentage throw with the completion percentage decreasing even more as the window between the receiver and the sideline gets narrower. Even if a receiver gets a step on a pressed corner on the fade, it requires an accurately thrown ball to make the added step an advantage to the offense. With the knowledge that a fade is such a popular route conversion into press coverage, our corners work fades every single day in practice. Inside Releases vs. Press Corner Inside releases require the receiver to fight through a single-hand jam and get across the body of the pressed corner, which in and of itself has already disrupted the timing of a quick-hitter like a slant. An inside release allows the corner to flip his hips and stay in phase with the receiver. 27

28 A lot of the time, you will see many of the traditional inside-breaking routes like slants and digs end up as initial outside releases against press coverage, where the receiver then tries to decelerate and break across the body of the defensive back after they have worked up the field. This creates timing issues, which even collegiate and professional QB s have difficulty throwing into. It takes a lot of practice time to get that timing down, as opposed to running those routes vs. air in the summer. High School QB s vs. Press Coverage How many high school QB s are comfortable and confident throwing into a press corner? Not many. Again, majoring in press coverage seems to be much less common across the high school landscape than in the college game. High school teams have limited practice time and limited preparation in defeating press coverage. They simply don t spend as much time practicing against it as a pressed corners team spends time perfecting it. The average high school QB will shy away from throwing into press coverage. Especially if they are unsuccessful early on. When your corners can erase #1 receivers from the gameplan, they have done their job whether they were thrown to or not. We tell our corners that if they were anonymous throughout the game, then they did exactly what we asked for. 28

29 Your defense can now play 9 vs. 9 without schematically relying on your safeties to provide help in the passing game. Forces Low Percentage Throws Take Home Points Press coverage is perfectly suited to the aggressive nature of Quarters coverage. It forces predictable releases from receivers, forces routes to take more time, receivers to finish at inconsistent landmarks, and it puts doubt in the mind of the average high school quarterback. Putting such confidence in your corners allows the rest of your defense to thrive in other areas of the game, such as defending the run. Like any aggressive scheme, the risks of majoring in press coverage can seem daunting, but the percentages are in the defense s favor for the type of route you will see the most: the fade. By knowing what the perceived weaknesses are against press coverage, you can rep those enough to turn them into strengths. 5) Limits Types of RPO s Run/Pass Options (RPO s) are the latest offensive craze sweeping the country that teams are going to in order to manipulate defenses. They are certainly effective and can have a place in almost any offense, but Press Quarters can instantly eliminate a lot of the favorites for an offense to go to, and limit the amount of areas in your defense that they can take advantage of. There are two basic categories of RPO s that we will look at: those of the pre-snap variety that look at defensive alignment and leverage, and post-snap RPO s where the QB makes a decision based off of a defender s action. Pre-snap RPO s attempt to manipulate numbers/leverage in the offense s favor by counting defenders in a certain area that an offense wants to exploit. For example, the offensive coordinator might have tagged a run play with a bubble screen that the QB has permission to throw, but only if he counts that the defense doesn t have enough defenders out there to leverage it. If they have enough defenders out there, that means the box count might be in their favor and they can hand it off on the inside zone, power, or whatever run play is called. Another example of a pre-snap RPO is where they might have lined up in 3x1 and tagged a quick game route like a hitch or a slant to throw if the corner is playing off-technique and the overhang (outside linebacker) is tied into the box. If he s not in the box, then the run play is favorable. Against these types of pre-snap RPO s, the press technique of the corners plus the aggressive play of the safeties can make a favorable-looking matchup end up actually being very poor. In the first example of the bubble, it may look appetizing with an inside-leverage overhang and a deep safety, but Quarters has the safeties matching the release of #2: including a bubble release. He will run right at it. 29

30 By alignment, the safeties are only 10 yards off the receiver (not 10 yards off the line of scrimmage) and are locked on quick by the time that ball is thrown. This past season, we had only 2 bubbles thrown against us. One was returned for a touchdown because the safety jumped it that quickly, and the other was dropped for a 4 yard loss. In another example of a pre-snap RPO, Quarters can also make it look like the offense has a very favorable box count, especially in a 2x2 spread look that naturally pulls out two overhang players. 30

31 This creates the illusion of a 5-man box, which the offense will love with 5 linemen available to block, but we teach our two overhang guys that they are still gap-responsible. They will fold back into the box on any run action, and the safeties will handle action of the slot receivers. 31

32 Of course, if you re an offensive guy and you run RPO s, you re salivating right now because those overhangs are put into a textbook run/pass conflict. Yes, the offense can run a stick route or a speed out right behind the collapsing overhang and put the safety in a tough position to make a tackle in space. That is absolutely correct. However, if you can force teams to be one-dimensional (especially if it s throwing the ball), then you have a chance to get stops. Especially at the high school level. Making a team one-dimensional forces the offense to execute very consistently at a very high level. RPO s Who Can The Offense Manipulate? Putting a player into a run-pass conflict would be an example of a post-snap RPO where the QB is making a decision off the action of the overhang player, which brings me to my next point: there are fewer guys that post-snap RPO s can take advantage of in Press Quarters. It s essentially just the outside linebackers. If you look at popular RPO s built against Quarters, you will find some that also try to take advantage of the corners and the safeties. If the corner is in press technique, things become pretty limited as far as the RPO s go. There is no pre-snap throw an auto hitch vs. a soft corner. None of the quick game stuff should be much of an issue, other than throw an auto fade vs. a pressed corner, which is fine with us. When it comes to the safeties, offensive coordinators aren t stupid. They know what the safeties responsibilities are in Quarters. They know that if they come out in 2x2 with an attached Tight End and run an RPO that keeps the TE in blocking on the run action, they are going to get the safety to come up in run support. They then know that they are going to have 1 on 1 coverage with the receiver on a deep post or some other route. You know who else knows that they are going to have 1 on 1 coverage? You, your corner, and every person in your program. It s what you do in Press Quarters. It s what you rep every single day. You already know what you are going to get. You re also aware that being aggressive can come with a price, but you re going to live with it. It s yet another example of how an aggressive scheme like Press Quarters can get you dictating to the offense, not the other way around. Limits Types of RPO s Take Home Points Run-pass options have taken football by storm and have defensive coordinators scrambling like crazy. For good reason, too. 32

33 The matchup principles of Press Quarters, however, all but eliminate your defensive backs from being put into a run-pass conflict, and make pre-snap counts look more favorable to the QB than they actually are. Your corners are locked in press man, and your safeties are already going to relate to what their #2 receiver is doing. The rest of your defense is built to defend the remainder of whatever the QB decides to do, either hand it off or throw it, without relying on the safety. When RPO-heavy teams can only truly schematically attack your overhang linebackers, you have reduced their options and forced them into a situation where they must execute at a consistently high level in order to move the ball. 6) Great Against Screens and Quick Game The advantages of Press Quarters in defending screens and an offense s quick game builds nicely off of the previous section on defending RPO s. With press coverage limiting the release options for split #1 receivers, the ability to run slants and hitches requires a level of execution that even the average college QB and receiver have trouble achieving. You will simply not see these routes being ran very often into press coverage, much less actually thrown particularly at the high school level. Already, you have limited the offense s ability to run simple route concepts that they rely on for easy completions from an average QB. In defending the screen game, again, press coverage makes it very difficult to run any type of tunnel/rocket screen to #1 receivers. The angles make it difficult for the slot to block the corner, and the apexed overhang (aligned between the tackle and the slot) has an easy jump on any inside breaking action before an offensive lineman can get a body on him. 33

34 Instead, short throws in the quick game and screen game are largely limited to the running backs and secondary receivers, who are bracketed by multiple defenders. In defending screens out of the backfield, Quarters allows 3-4 sets of eyes (3 in an even front, 4 in an odd front) to be keying the running back in a one-back offense. This is afforded through the match-up principles of corners erasing #1 receivers and safeties matching #2 receivers. Depending on the game plan, we will have our inside linebackers and our 2 overhangs all eyeing the running back pre-snap, which allows us to have maximum attention on what the back is doing. 34

35 Of course, a creative offensive coordinator can find holes in any coverage, but reducing their playbook and forcing the offense to execute at a very high level is something that every defensive coordinator strives to do. Great Against Screens and Quick Game Take Home Points Press technique makes routes and releases very predictable, all but eliminating many of the quick game options that an offense may have at their disposal. By limiting their options in the passing game and forcing the offense to take downfield shots if they want to target #1 receivers, the long-term percentages are in the defense s favor. In the screen game, the matchup principles of Quarters allow for maximum sets of eyes on the action of the running back. By enabling those defenders to stay close to the run box, the defense has ideal numbers to defend any screens out of the backfield. 7) Ideal Pursuit Angles in the Run Game So far, much of our discussion on Quarters has related to defending the pass. This is to be expected when we are talking coverage, but much of Quarters merits come in defending the run. The big buzzworthy term when it comes to being a run-stopping defense is being able to create an 8-man front to defend the standard 8 gaps that are presented by a pro-style offense that uses a fullback and tight end. 35

36 The 8-man front is a primary feature of Cover 3 defenses, with the 3 pass-first defenders dropping to their deep coverage responsibilities, while the remaining 8 defenders can crowd the line of scrimmage. By applying that same logic to Cover 4, the math would tell you that Quarters is only a 7-man front. However, that is only if you run it as a simple spot-drop coverage, which is what Quarters is often mischaracterized as by coaches who are not familiar with it. As we covered earlier, the true beauty of Cover 4 comes in its match-up principles. The alignment and assignment of the safeties in Cover 4 is directly related to the alignment and action of the #2 receivers of the offense. A true Cover 4 adds and subtracts defenders to the run box as the offensive formation dictates, allowing for not just an 8-man front, but up to a 9-man front depending on the action of the #2 receivers. For that reason, Quarters is an incredibly strong run-stopping coverage. In a Cover 3 system, the free safety is often coached to be very aggressive against the run as an alley player fitting in the space between the designated spill players and box players where the ball will be funneled. The addition of the free safety can transform Cover 3 into a 9-man front, but make no mistake, the free safety has to be a pass-first player. Even accounting for the free safety as a run player, we must look at the location of these 9 players and the angles in which it allows them to pursue the ball. Not all 9-man fronts are created equal. 36

37 A middle-of-the-field (MOF) closed coverage like Cover 3 requires overhang players (outside linebackers - $$ s in the diagram above) on each side to be outside the run box on the edge of the defense. Their job is to keep receivers out of the seams of the defense, force the ball back inside, and also check for any cutback/boot/reverse to the backside. With the necessary overhangs on each side, the primary run defenders are more horizontally stretched than a two-high safety structure, in which the run box is more compact. The trade-off is that the 8 th and 9 th men are more vertically displaced from the line of scrimmage, but in a later section we will see how the compact run box plays a role in forcing the ball to go where it is most ideal for a defense. Another benefit to the two-high structure is that the angles for making that 9 th man a factor in the run game are much better in a two-high safety structure than in a single-high safety structure. Coming from depth works in the backside safety s favor, as he is in position to play the cutback much more effectively in the run box than a horizontally displaced overhang player is. The overhang player may be closer to the line of scrimmage, but the quick-hitting nature of an inside run doesn t allow him to square up and stay in front of the ball on a cutback that occurs past the line of scrimmage. A deep safety, however, can maintain square shoulders and have the opportunity to stick his nose in there for a solid form tackle. 37