It’s time to learn about football pass coverages: Specifically Cover 3 Defense and Cover 1 Defense.
Why do defensive coordinators have to do so many crazy things nowadays?
Why don’t they just line up in spots and play base defense and make it simple for us play-callers to know what to do?
OK, that is definitely a dreamland I was living in for a few seconds, but every Saturday morning during the season, or during those winter months of pre-planning, I always wish the same thing would happen.
That being said, we know it will not. And as a matter of fact, it’s only going to get worse.
So what do we do about it?
We are going to write a series of articles on coverage recognition in an attempt to put both your mind and your quarterback’s mind at ease during the season.
We will begin with 1-High coverages: Cover Three Defense and then Cover One Defense.
EXPLAINING COVER 3 DEFENSE
Cover 3 is a great place to begin (Figure 1), because it is the most basic coverage played in the high school game.
Heck, there are even college and pro teams that are married to the coverage, due to the fact that in theory, it gives you an extra run defender.
It allows defenses to play more of a 4-4 look than other coverages allow, and why not?
Even in 2021, the majority of high school football teams are going to win games by running the ball.
Most teams have good running backs, but you are lucky year-to-year to have a quarterback that can win a game for you with his arm.
Defensive coaches know this, and unless you are an Air Raid team, they are going to begin their game planning each week figuring out the best way to stop the run.
The coverage is called Cover 3 because there are three defenders responsible for the deep portions of the field.
Two corners have the areas between the hashes and their respective sidelines, and the free safety is responsible for the area from hash to hash.
It is also described as a 1-High coverage because there is one safety in the deep portion of the field.
The approximate depth of their responsibility begins at 10-15 yards from the line of scrimmage, and their main rule is that nobody can get behind them.
If you played defense, this is most likely the first zone coverage you learned.
And as a coach, it is still potentially the coverage you are seeing a high percentage of the time.
Due to the fact that Cover 3 is a run coverage, it is typically also the coverage that is most difficult for defenses to stop an offense’s pass game.
As you can see from the figure, the seams are open, as it is difficult for the free safety to cover that entire space.
He must be very disciplined to stay in the middle of the field, as quarterback coaches will teach their players to attempt to move that player with their eyes, and throw in the opposite direction.
If the free safety moves toward one hash, it is difficult for him to get to the opposite seam, hence offensive coaches’ affection for concepts involving vertical seam routes.
Concerning the pass game, the difficulty with Cover 3 is not coming up with concepts to throw against it, but how to determine Cover 3 is coming in the pre-snap or post-snap when defenses are aligned in a basic pre-snap alignment (Figure 2).
Defenses line up this way in an attempt to not tip their hand as to what coverage they are running.
If I were to teach a quarterback as a young player (fortunately I have a quarterback coach much smarter than I), we would discuss looking at the safety to the side of our offenses’ strength.
If we were in a balanced set, we would look to the field.
The safety on that side is the one that is going to roll downhill to the flat on his side.
To play a sound version of Cover 3, the strong side safety is the one that is most likely to roll downhill and be the flat defender on his side.
If the safety we are eyeing rolls downhill, it is a pretty safe assumption that they are playing Cover 3.
The only other alternative I would assume would be Cover 1 (man-free), which we will discuss later.
That being said, it would be difficult for a safety to run downhill while getting himself in a position to play man coverage.
Another option would be Cover 8, but that would only be if you were a heavy run team playing mostly 21 or 22 personnel.
HOW DEFENSES HIDE THEIR 1-HIGH DEFENSE COVERAGES
The most difficult version of 1-High to identify is when teams squat one of their corners as if he is playing Cover 2, and roll one of the safeties with width and depth over the top of him to play that third of the field (Figure 3).
The other safety runs to the middle of the field, and the other corner plays his basic Cover 3 responsibility.
That being said, if you have your eye on that strong side safety, and he runs off far from the hash, you can still be fairly certain you are getting a Cover 3 look.
Like I mentioned above, the play that offensive coaches like most against Cover 3 is Four Verticals.
As you can see from the figures above, if you get an outside release with the outside receivers, the deep middle safety is forced to cover both seam routes.
Work with your receivers on not getting collisioned by the flat players, and you will have a play that has a good chance of becoming one of the explosive plays you need to win a game.
EXPLAINING COVER 1 DEFENSE
As I referenced earlier, the other most likely coverage teams can play that looks similar to Cover 3 defense, is Cover 1 defense, which is man-free coverage.
Man-free means five of the back seven defenders are playing man coverage, and the free safety is roaming the middle of the field playing the ball.
A basic Cover 1 alignment (Figure 4) is nearly identical to a basic Cover 3 alignment, as the defense will be aligned in a 4-4 or 5-3 set (eight run defenders).
DIFFERENTIATING BETWEEN COVER 3 DEFENSE & COVER 1 DEFENSE IN THE PRE-SNAP
There are two major tells you can discuss with your skill players to differentiate between Cover 3 and Cover 1.
The first is the moment within the cadence that the strong safety rolls downhill.
If they are playing a 2-high base alignment shell, the safety must get downhill much earlier when he is playing man coverage than if he is a flat defender.
If the strong safety sprints downhill early in the snap count, there is a good chance they are playing 1-high man coverage (Cover 1).
The second is the eyes of the defensive backs.
Usually, in zone coverage (Cover 3), defensive backs have their eyes toward the middle of the field, but in man coverage (Cover 1) they will not.
They will be focused solely on their defender.
CONCLUSION
There are many things teams can and will do to make coverages difficult to identify for you and your quarterback, but if you are beginning to teach your players and coaches how to identify coverages, 1-high coverages are a great place to begin.
