Football Cover 3 variations and concepts at the NFL and College Level

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This article takes a look at some cover 3 variations that you see at the pro and college level. We will look at some different cover 3 rotations both strong and weak from a 3, 4 and 5 man pass rush.

The big difference between the NFL and college is NFl teams will carry the seem routes vertical for 14-18 yards and give up those short flat throws at times. They will match often with #1 on the outside with the cb taking all of 1 vertically. They are more match based in the nfl and you will see some examples below.

Also, in the NFL you don't have hash marks so it's more of a 3 strong, 3 weak concept. In college you have the added hash marks so you will see some more coverages to the field. 

COVER 3 WEAK 

The Patriots run cover 3 weak vs. the Chargers. The coverage confuses Herbert as it starts as a 2 high. He takes the check down as the pressure forces him to take the easy completion on 3rd and 9. The Patriots rally and get off the field.

The game they run gets home. Excellent design and pressure combined with excellent coverage downfield.

COVER 3 PLUG WEAK.

This is a 3 read situation vs 3x1. The weak safety is playing the curl and looking for a crosser weak vs 3x1.

Here's some clips of the Bills running cover 3 vs the Chargers

The Broncos run a 3 weak variation vs the SF 49ers. They do a great job of understanding the 49ers routes and do a great job matching vertically. 

49ers motion and then post snap Kittle goes across as they full slide in protection. This allows the LCB to match #1 vertically as he has no other threat vertically.

The LCB and RCB are matching both outside wr vertically. 

Jimmy G tries to hit the comeback but is very well covered. 

The Seahawks run cover 3 weak out of their bear front. 

Haskins checks it down to the back for a  2 yard gain.

COVER 3 STRONG

One thing teams will do is try to run a stick concept vs cover 3. Texas A & M tries to run it out of 12 personnel. Your Mike lb has to be aggressive in his 3 to 2 progression. Here Florida does a nice job with their mike and ss. The SS takes the flat defender and the Mike does an excellent job pushing to #3. The will gets under the dig and their is no place to go with the football. Nice job matching it off by Florida.

3 MAN RUSH 8 MAN COVERAGES

COVER 3 STRONG

Kentucky vs Miss State

Here's cover 3 at the college level with a 3 man rush. The ball is on the defensive right hash so Kentucky runs cover 3 to the strong side of the field.

On 1st and 10, they play it again, cover 3 to the field with the safety inserting and the sam LB buzzing the flat.  Costello works the man side and could have thrown the ball to #2 on the bottom of the screen but took the check down and ends up getting 5 yards. For much of the day Kentucky took away the deeper passes with coverage.

Again, these are just 2 variations of cover 3 strong.

COVER 3 FIRE ZONE 5 MAN PRESSURES

3rd and 9

Seahawks in a load front and bring the extra defensive back.  They  bring the Sam and the Mike and the pressure causes a quick throw

.

In the 2nd example they go cover 3 fire zone and force Haskins into working the man side. Nice disguise and Adams makes an excellent play on the weak side of the fire zone. If he worked the zone beater side he had an easy first down with the spacing concepts.

Here are the 2 clips of the plays above. 

Here Florida plays the Texas A & M Aggies and they bring a fire zone pressure from the boundary. They match the route concepts nicely and force a really tough pass on the shallow cross concept. Texas A & M does a nice job sliding that way and picking up the pressure on the backside. 

These are just some of the cover 3 concepts you will see at the NFL and college level. I will be adding some more real soon.

NFL and College Cover 3 Fire Zone Pressures

 

NFL and COLLEGE FIRE ZONE CONCEPTS

NFL Fire Zones are a concept that have been around for a long time. This was prevelent back when some great coordinators like Dick Lebeau made them very popular. Sean Mcdermott, Todd Bowles, Leslie Frazier, Robert Saleh and more  have been running them for years.  This article will look at blitzes with cover 3 zone concepts. This will include running fire zones with 3 components:

1. Rolling the safety to the strong side

2. Rolling the safety to the weak side

3. Bringing the Safety to the middle of the defense to play the hook.

4. Showing cover 3 to one side and rolling the other way 

Lets start with the Jaguars in the 2022 playoffs vs the Chiefs.

They bring the cb and mike linebacker from a 3-2 mug look.

Chiefs vs Jags

Jags bring the cover 3 fire zone.

pressure-4 to a side weak with the cb off the edge.

Here is a great article talking about some of the foundations of the fire zone.  The Steelers made it famous under Dick Lebeau and Keith Butler used to run more when he first started but now is more a man free fire zone team. 

https://steelersdepot.com/2016/01/steelers-film-room-keith-butlers-fire-zones/

Fire zones can be run several ways.

Traditional blitzes-Sending a lb or safety and playing 3 under 3 deep or cover 2 behind it. You can also play some roll stuff depending on personnel groupings. But lets look at cover 3 variations in this article.

Creepers- These are blitzes where you send a linebacker from depth and drop a defensive end

Sim pressures- These are pressures where you will walk the lb up into the gaps and then run a variety of blitzes from there.  At times dropping a defensive end into coverage in the process. 

Coach Hoover  and Ron Roberts do a great job explaining this in the link below:

sim vs creeper pressures

But here are some examples of some of the fire zones you will see in college and the NFL and college level

Titans 2nd and 9 vs the Steelers

They bring a traditional sam off the edge and roll to cover 3. This is a common concept as teams can bring the sam or will lb and just roll the secondary the other way.

Cover 3

USC VS Washington DC Todd Orlando

1st and 10

USC on defense Runs  a 2 off the edge fire zone from their 3-4 defense. Nice rotation in the secondary.

Odd cross dog 

cover 3

USC drops the middle safety to the middle of the field

plays an aggressive cover 3 match concept.

Bills cover 3 rotation

3rd and 8

Bills vs Chargers.

Leslie Frazier against the rookie Justin Herbert. 

They show 3 strong but run the pressure and the coverage becomes 3 weak. 5 man pressure with the mike in a game with the defensive end. Nice design as the weak safety takes away the dig by #1 and can rally late to the back. The Mike does a nice job rocking back into coverage and taking away the bender by Allen. The rush gets home and disrupts Herbert enough to hit his arm as he throws. 

 

3rd and 9 Falcons Defense vs the Panthers offense. 

The Falcons go double mug and bring the safety off the edge. They roll to cover 3 opposite of where they aligned. 

Here is the video with the clip above.

Here the panthers versus The Cardinals from a 3 safety look. 

Washington University

Creeper-4 man pressure with cover 3

4-2 front

First the coverage

They run a nice stunt (considered a creeper in todays terminology) 

Mike blitzes the A gap

The DT goes b but will contain rush  and the de takes 2 steps upfield and loops tight for the sack. Nice stunt by Washington.  

Here's a few of Jimmy Lake's Washington fire zone pressures.

Panthers vs Cardinals

2nd and 1

 They bring a double a gap cross dog and drop the weak end opposite 3x1.  The weak side defensive end drops and plays the curl/flat.

Arizona Cardinals Fire Zone

On 2nd and 17 the Cardinals run America's favorite blitz 

Sam and mike lb,drop the de  and play cover 3 behind it. 

They play the weak safety as a curl read 3 defender and give up the playside flat. 

The Panthers have a screen called. 

In the Super Bowl, 3rd and 8, Bowles runs a 3 under 3 deep from a 3 safety high look. He drops the safety down to play the middle hook and brings a nice 5 man pressure with a game between the lb and de. 

The Pitt Panthers are a team in college that likes to run 3 under 3 deep fire zone principles.

In the situation below the ball is on the hash.
Pitt runs a corner fire or cowboy vs Notre Dame and it catches them off guard.

They end up getting great pressure and the qb panics and they get the sack.

Nice design by Pat Narduzzi.

Penn State defense cover 3 strong