Zone D?

[Jdoug312]

I have seen some debate the issue on other sites, but there's no definite answer yet. Is Zone D broken this year? I am using the Ravens, who as a whole aren't the greatest zone defenders, but still, I am seeing offenses passing all over my zones. My men aren't covering them in their zones. I have read that other people are successfully using it however. With it being such a large part of the Raven's defensive playbook, I'd like to use it, instead of 2 man under, or blitzing all game long.

[MikeLove]

Um im not really sure, just watch your replays a lot. Im wondering what spotlighting a receiver does though, because It doesn't look like it shifts the zones at all and a lot of times the guy im trying to spotlight ends up bizarrely wide open.

[baller7345]

Its not broken but it is slightly different this year. In years past a zone defender could defend both the short and deep routes in concepts such as Y-Shallow Cross and Drive due to the reaction ability and warping of LBs and such. This led to zone coverage actually being harder to attack than it should be (aside from god view making everything easy to attack).

This year if you have 2 WR in an area with 1 DB he has to choose who to defend and will leave the other WR open. This seems to be causing a lot of problems for some reason, but as long as you understand what you are willing to give up in each type of zone coverage the still play well enough to be usable. There are holes in zone coverage no matter what you do (Unless you drop 8+ guys into coverage) so you have to realize that playing zone all day will leave openings however if you can figure out where your opponent likes to go you can make sure those openings are where the WRs are located.

[MikeLove]

baller you seem to know what the F is up. Even for a packers fan. Do you know anything about using receiver spotlighting on defense this year?

[baller7345]

Quote: Originally Posted by MikeLove

baller you seem to know what the F is up. Even for a packers fan. Do you know anything about using receiver spotlighting on defense this year?

This may be broken (or skill related) but I'd have to do more testing. I think the read and react system overrides the spot light. I know its harder to pick who you want you defender to ignore in a high low read situation this year. Something like curl flats used to be spot light to make sure the slot defender didn't get sucked down into the flats and cover the curl leaving the flats open. However, this year it seems that even if you spotlight the lesser skilled defenders don't stay with the curl if they are the only defender in the flats. I did it with Woodson and he covered it pretty well but Peprah kept choosing to cover the player right in front of him (which makes some sense for lesser skilled players) and only covered the curl about 20% of the time.

[baller7345]

Ok after a little bit of observing on how the spot lighting works in this years game I've got a little more detail. Lets use a streak by the slot and a curl by the flanker as the example.

In previous years if you spot lighted the curl route then the players lined up over the streak (who were actually close to the play) would completely ignore that player and cover the curl.

This year however they will pass off the route that comes into their zone before jumping on the route you spot lighted. I saw this first hand when the Bears ran Hitch Seams against me in a Cover 2 sink defense with the X WR spotlighted. The hook zone on the Z's side went deeper with the seam route and didn't close on the hitch to double him after he passed him off. The hook zone on the X's side passed the seam off rather quickly and broke hard towards the hitch effectively doubling him. So I'm guessing a lot of the times people get beat when they spot light is because the defender has someone preoccupying him in his area so he covers him and doesn't jump out to cover the spot lighted guy until he passes the other guy off. This makes covering curl flats a huge pain for a base cover 3 (which it should be) but it might also make you wonder if the spot light feature actually does something as well.

[MikeLove]

wow youre a beast, thanks so much.

[willIam9387]

baller I'm using the eagles in my CCM and I was wondering if you could give me a brief lesson on the cover 2 defense and cover 3, when both should be used and what are some benefits of each? Thanks

[baller7345]

Quote: Originally Posted by willIam9387

baller I'm using the eagles in my CCM and I was wondering if you could give me a brief lesson on the cover 2 defense and cover 3, when both should be used and what are some benefits of each? Thanks

Cover 3


The defense has 3 deep and normally 4 under in the coverage. When blitzed out of the coverage shell is commonly referred to Fire Zone coverage and typically has 3 deep and 3 underneath. This is my personal favorite type of zone defense due to the creativity in zone blitzes that comes from this type of coverage. It also is a solid strong side run defense thanks to the ability to have 8 players in the box while having the safety on the strong side of the formation. However it doesn't come without weaknesses. It has voids along the sidelines and since it typically only has two defenders that are responsible for covering the seams concepts that attempt to pull defenders out of position for deeper shots in the seams can be effective if your LBs are undisciplined. It is also open to vertical stretch concepts that attack the LB core as well as flood concepts on the sidelines (due to their only being 2 defenders to defend the sidelines). Four Verticals is also a bad matchup vs. Cover 3 due to simple math. Three deep defenders vs. four deep receivers does not bode well for the defense.

Cover 2




Cover 2 is typically 2 deep 5 under defense. This allows you to have possibly the best coverage for shorter underneath routes as well as allowing you to disrupt routes downfield with press coverage (Cover 2 Man and Cover 2 Zone) thanks to having safety help over the top. Again however it isn't without weaknesses. The deep middle is always a problem (which lead to the development of the tampa 2) but there is also a void inbetween the outside CB and the deep safety that is attacked with concepts such as Smash, Bench, and Corner Strike. It also has trouble stopping the run especially off tackle due to there only being 7 in the box. It does decent job at stopping sweeps and tosses though because the outside CBs are allowed to aggressively play the run where as in Cover 3 they cannot. Three Verticals (two 9 routes and a post) is another popular concept that beats cover 3.

Additional Information
Understanding Coverages and Attacking them with the Passing Game

[Knickerbocker]

Baller great info but ... I do think Deep blue zones are broken. I play only with Ravens and most of the plays have Ed Reed in deep blue and not only he doesnt break out of it once he should realize siting back is useless but also when u throw at him he will very rarely make a play.