2 Shell Coverage

Cover 4 Variations

First year Michigan defensive coordinator DJ Durkin currently has the Wolverines ranked as the #1 defense in the country in terms of scoring defense, averaging just 9.3 points per game allowed. In addition to the top ranked scoring defense, Michigan is also top 10 in passing defense. In this article I’m going to go through some of the Wolverines coverage adjustments to trips formations.

Breaking down the film of the Northwestern game, I noticed that Coach Durkin utilized a few different patten read variations of quarters coverage versus 3×1 formations. The first coverage that I saw him dial up versus a Northwestern trips formation is commonly known as Solo, or Poach. 

What Solo/Poach coverage does is push the coverage over to the trips to match the routes 5 over 3. In order to do this they have to leave the back side cornerback one on one, also known as a MEG concept, (Man Everywhere He Goes). If you have a cornerback that can handle being on an island on the back side of Solo, it puts the defense in a great position to defend anything the offense can draw up to the trips side. The will linebacker will match any weak side release by the running back man to man. For the corner and strong safety to the trips side, they are playing a man-clue technique. What this means is that any route that goes vertical past 5-8 yards from #1 (CB Man-Clue on #1) or #2 (SS Man-Clue on #2), then the corner or strong safety will play that receiver man to man. If the #1 or #2 receiver runs under, or a hitch etc., then they will play zone. The mike linebacker is playing a wall technique. His job is to disrupt the route of #3 and force air under the ball if #3 runs vertical. This allows the free safety time to get a run-pass read and still play #3 vertical.The free safety is reading 3/1 and will match any vertical route from #3. Here are the responsibilities of the back side safety (free safety) in Solo coverage.

There are a couple of different variations of Solo coverage. Based on the All-22 film of Durkin’s defense from Florida and what I have seen from Michigan this year, Coach Durkin will play the back side cornerback in a zone concept, rather than MEG. What this does is allow the underneath coverage some more flexibility to trade off any crossing routes underneath. Here is the Solo concept last year from the Florida versus South Carolina game with a zone cornerback on the weak side.

South Carolina runs 3 verticals to the trips side, and a shallow cross from the tight end. This route combination gives you a great look at Durkin’s matchup zone coverage. The strong side cornerback and safeties match the three vertical routes. Once #1 to the single receiver side runs under, the weak side linebacker will make an under call. This call alerts the strong side linebacker that is walling #3 to stop carrying #3 and jump the crossing route underneath. Because the weak side cornerback is playing zone (Man-Clue), rather than a MEG technique, once #1 runs under, the cornerback will bail and zone off his quarter deep, looking inside for work. In this case the cornerback helps the free safety bracket #3 running vertical.

The secondary does a nice job of communicating the crosser, allowing the strong side linebacker to come off of #3 and tackle the shallow cross for a short gain, bringing up a 3rd down situation.

Versus a two back trips formation versus Northwestern, Durkin shows another Solo coverage variation. Because Northwestern has no vertical threat to the weak side, Durkin will blitz the back side cornerback. The only coverage responsibility the cornerback would have is if the tailback tried to cross his face to the flat, then the cornerback would peel off his blitz and play the running back man to man. To the trips side Northwestern is unbalanced, so #2 isn’t eligible, which means the strong safety would bracket #1 with the cornerback (Cone Technique).

This particular play is a speed option strong, so here is a quick overview of what the run fits/responsibilities are.

Jabrill Peppers (Force Defender) does a great job of defeating the initial block from the slot receiver, then still being in position to make the tackle or at worst force the ball back inside to the pursuit.

The last Solo example shows how offenses have the best opportunity to attack Solo Coverage and why teams will use a MEG concept on #1.

With the weak side cornerback playing off, Northwestern will release their running back to the weak side flat in order to widen out the weak side linebacker, opening up the hitch to #1 for a first down. If a team was consistently wearing out the weak side of Solo coverage with this formation and route combination, that would be the time to adjust the cornerback into a MEG technique and crowd #1 at the line of scrimmage. Most likely the call in this scenario would be Solo switch. What this means is the weak side safety and cornerback would switch alignments and responsibilities to give you a better matchup versus the tight end in case the offense tries to run the ball to the weak side.

The next two examples are also quarters pattern matching defenses versus trips. The first example is known as Stubbie. 

This coverage locks the #1 receiver in man to man coverage, also known as a MEG technique (man everywhere he goes.) By locking #1 in press man to man coverage, it allows the defense to match 3 over 2 on #3 & #2 into the trips, with the linebacker, nickel back and strong safety pattern matching those receivers. The nickel back’s responsibility is to Read 2 & 3. He must see them both, because he is responsible for playing #2 vertical, but will pass off #2 to the strong safety if #3 is out. The strong safety’s responsibility is to Read 3/2. He will play #3 man-clue, meaning if #3 runs vertical he will pay him man to man. If #3 is out, then he will move his eyes to #2 and play any vertical route from #2. The linebacker will wall the #3 receiver, funneling him to the strong safety if he runs vertical. If #3 runs under the linebacker will collision the #3 receiver and call out the crossing route.

With Stubbie the defense is pattern matching 4 over 3 to the trips, where Solo is a 5 over 3 pattern match to the trips. By only matching 4 over 3 with Stubbie and not involving the free safety like Solo, the defense has more options to the weak side were they can match 3 over 2, double cover the single receiver to the weak side, or bring a blitz. In this case Michigan decides to blitz the weak side cornerback, leaving them in the same coverage to the weak side as the previous Solo example.

Northwestern decides to work the weak side once again with the same hitch-arrow route combination. Michigan is in great position to make the tackle for a short gain, but miss the tackle.

The advantage of Stubbie coverage is that because Michigan is only using 4 defenders to match the trips, they could have dropped the cornerback in coverage that was blitzing and taken away everything to the weak side with a 3 over 2 match.

The last coverage example from Coach Durkin’s Michigan scheme is known as Stump.

The Stump coverage concept is very similar to Stubbie, both are 4 over 3 pattern matches to the trips side. The biggest difference between Stump and Stubbie is the cornerback to the Trips side. In Stubbie the cornerback to the trips side plays a MEG technique, in Stump the cornerback to the trips side plays an inside 1/3. Most of the pattern reads are the same except for how they play a smash concept.

Stubbie versus Smash

Stump versus Smash

The strong safety and nickel back (Both Read 3/2) are going to frame the #2 & #3 receivers, meaning they will play a 2 on 2 matchup zone based on the release of the receivers. This is the same type of concept as a Banjo. Northwestern runs a switch release with #2 and #3. The nickel and strong safety trade off the routes perfectly with the nickel matching the arrow release by #3 and passing off #2 to the strong safety.

Both #2 and #3 end up running out cuts at the same depth, so the nickel back is able break on #2 and put a punishing hit on him. The nickel doesn’t have to worry about #3 at that point because if #3 wheels up the field, then the strong safety would match #3.

The job DJ Durkin has done at Michigan this year has been nothing short of outstanding. How much longer he will be at Michigan is anyone’s guess. Personally I think he will be a head coaching candidate for a number of jobs in the off-season if he is interested. Despite the tough loss to Michigan State, I expect the Michigan defense to continue rolling and finish as one of the top defenses in the country, en route to a New Years Day Bowl Game.

In preparation for this week’s B1G championship game, which this year will serve as a play in game for the College Football Playoff, I decided to study the All-22 film of the last meeting between Michigan State and Iowa from 2013. The Spartans defense did a nice job of using base coverage concepts and some effective wrinkles in order to create turnover opportunities and hold Iowa to only 14 points. While the personnel has obviously changed for both of these teams, the schemes are pretty much the same, so I believe a decent amount of these tactics and strategies will still translate to the 2015 title game.

Let’s start with the Michigan State blitz package. Mark Dantonio and his defensive staff have a large variety of 6 man pressures that feature 3 deep/2 under coverage. While Michigan State will bring the pressure in a number of different ways, one of their favorite blitz schemes is the Mike/Will A gap Cross-Dog. They ran this blitz 6 times versus Iowa, with one leading to an interception early in the first quarter. One of the things that makes the Michigan State blitz package so tough to deal with is that their is almost no indictor that the pressure is coming. Michigan State will align exactly like the same pre-snap as they would in their base defense. Post snap they will rotate to a 3 deep-2 under zone coverage and bring 6 rushers.

The hook defenders responsibility is to wall off any crosser and protect the hashes. They are playing a “Hot” technique. Meaning they will run flat to where the QB is looking. Once the QB’s hand comes off the ball, they’ll turn their head and find an underneath route to cover.  This is a common technique in blitz coverage. Here is an example from Pete Carroll’s Defensive Playbook. 

As long as the hook defenders do not allow a seam route down the hashes and disrupt that type of route, then the Deep 1/3 cornerbacks should be able to play depth & divider Cover 3 principles and defend any vertical route between the hash and the numbers.  Depth and divider is a term for the cornerback with #1 vertical and #2 in the seam. Depth and divider in 3 deep zone is one yard on top of the numbers. The 2/1 read for the cornerback to the trips side means that the cornerback will read the release of the #2 receiver. So versus any type of smash concept, the cornerback will play the corner route by #2 and pass off the hitch route to the hook defender. The MOF 1/3 safety would be responsibility to defend any post route between the hashes.

Here is how Mark Dantonio divides the field in terms of pass defense.

Iowa uses their tight end and running back to max protect. To the field side they are running a smash concept. So the cornerback playing the depth and divider and reading 2/1 will play the corner route from #2. As the pocket collapses the Iowa quarterback tries to target #1 to the weak side on a fade, probably thinking he’s seeing some type of zero coverage, which is typically the case with 6 man blitzes. But the cornerback plays perfect three deep zone technique and makes the interception.

Versus 3×2 empty formations Michigan State’s base coverage adjustment is known as Midpoints. With midpoints Michigan State will match 4 over 3 to the strong side using pattern match Cover 3 principles and 3 over 2 to the weak side with Quarters coverage. Here are the rules for midpoints coverage: The field corner is midpointing #1 and #2, meaning he will lean on the inside shoulder of #1. If #1 runs under, then the field corner will try to work over the top of any vertical route by #2. The technique is the same for the safety midpointing #2 & #3. Lean on the inside shoulder of #2, if #2 runs under, work over the top of #3. The mike linebacker will wall #3 in order to funnel #3 to the safety midpointing #2 & #3. If #2 or #3 runs under, then the mike will play that route man to man. The curl-flat defender will reroute #2 and play any under route from #1 man to man. Here are some examples of the midpoints pattern reads versus various route combinations. Three verticals can be tough on this coverage, but here is the philosophy of former Michigan State defensive coordinator on midpoints coverage, “If they want to throw deep, let them throw deep to number one.  It’s too far of a throw to number one to the field anyway.”

Michigan State had a nice wrinkle with their coverage to the weak side of their midpoints coverage concept. To the weak side Michigan State is playing quarters coverage. A common quarters coverage beater is double slants. The quarterback will read the curl-flat defender with this concept. Typically the first slant will clear out the curl-flat defender, opening up a window to throw the slant to #1.

Michigan State will drop their weak side defensive end right into the window for the 2nd slant with an engage peel technique. What this means is the defensive end will engage the tackle, then drop out right into the window of the 2nd slant. It’s this type of subtle tweak that can make Michigan State so dangerous defensively. They will show you a base look, but add some nuance that can create a takeaway for their defense.

This was the perfect gameplan adjustment versus Iowa. The QB thinks he has a window to throw the slant to #1 after the slant from #2 clears out the curl-flat defender, but he throws it right to the defensive end on the engage-peel technique. Unfortunately for the Spartans the defensive end drops the interception, but this coverage scheme probably should have led to a pick 6.

Michigan State’s base coverage versus Trips or Trey is commonly referred to as Solo. I have written about this concept in detail here. Solo is a 3×1 adjustment that pushes the coverage to the trips 5 over 3, leaving the weak side defenders matched up man to man.

While Michigan State did play plenty of Solo coverage versus Iowa, they also used their midpoints concept versus trips formations. In theory, any coverage you play to the trips side in 3×2 empty can be utilized versus a 3×1 set, as long as you’re not involving any weak side defenders into the coverage. So by playing midpoints and matching 4 over 3 versus 3×1 formations to the trips side, it allowed Michigan State to be creative versus the single receiver to the weak side. Michigan State played man-trail technique with their cornerback to the weak side with a deep 1/2 safety over the top, then used their weak side linebacker to play the running back man to man. They were able to keep Iowa off-balance and force incompletions by mixing up this look along with their Solo coverage.

As I have pointed out in this article, the Spartans will make minor adjustments throughout the game to continue to change the look for the quarterback. Here is the same midpoints/2 man under concept versus Trips Split, except this time they tag the Mike linebacker with man to man coverage on #3. Everything else within the structure of the coverage remains consistent with the last example.

One possible weakness with Solo coverage is that you leave the weak side cornerback man to man with no help. But Michigan State did use a Solo variation versus Iowa that also allowed them to bracket the single side receiver in a trips formation. In their sub-package the Spartans used a 3 man rush, matched 5 over 3 to the trips side using Solo principles, then played Cover 2 on the weak side with a squat cornerback and deep 1/2 safety.

It’s 3rd and long and Michigan State is able to eliminate any vertical threats, force a check down and get a defensive stop deep in Iowa territory.

Michigan State is primarily a zone coverage team. But I did notice against the Hawkeyes that they played a Cover 1 Rat concept a couple of times. Cover 1 Rat is a man coverage with a MOF safety and a rat in the hole. The rat plays the low hole and will read the eyes of the quarterback, looking to rob any underneath throw in the middle of the field. Because Iowa is pretty static with their formations, it allowed Michigan State to look the same on defense pre-snap but continuously change up the coverages and keep the quarterback guessing.

Most likely the Spartans were playing a funnel concept with the mike linebacker and weak side linebacker in their Cover 1 concept. What this means is that if the running back released to the strong side, then the mike linebacker would have covered him man to man and the will linebacker would become the rat in the hole. This is the best way to deal with the running back out of the backfield in Cover 1 in order to disguise the coverage and not get out leveraged no matter which way the back releases.

In terms of elite college football coaches, Mark Dantonio and his staff have to be at or near the top of the list. The job they have done this year in spite of their injury situation and loss of defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi has been remarkable. I thought the win in Columbus versus Ohio State a couple of weeks ago my was the finest coaching job of Dantonio’s career. His defense dominated the Ohio State offense on the road in a way that I did not think was possible. With a win versus Iowa on Saturday, the Spartans will take the next step as a program and have the opportunity to play for a national championship. I expect an aggressive and multiple game plan defensively from Michigan State, similar to what they showed in the 2013 meeting with the Hawkeyes,

In a lot of my articles, especially when discussing Quarters coverage I have talked about specific techniques that the defensive backs can play with. I get a lot of questions on Twitter when I post diagrams about what is the difference between a MEG technique and a MOD technique, which I commonly refer to as Man-Clue. MEG is an acronym that stands for Man Everywhere he Goes. MOD or (Man-Clue) stands for Man On Demand.

The MEG technique means that the defensive back will play the receiver in man to man coverage (Man Everywhere He Goes) no matter what route he runs. There are no zone principles, he’s locked on and has all of that receiver. Typically the MEG cornerback will play press-man coverage, but you will also see this technique from off-man coverage. Here are some examples of the MEG technique. In these coverage cutups the strong side (Trips Side in 3×1) cornerback is always playing a MEG technique. The weak side corner is playing MEG the majority of the time also, but there are some different variations to the weak side.

The MOD or Man-Clue technique means that the defensive back will only play the receiver he is assigned to if that receiver runs vertical. If the receiver he’s assigned to runs a shallow cross or under, then the defensive back will become a zone defender and pass off the crosser. The definition of what is considered a vertical route can vary depending on the coaching staff. I have seen the number anywhere from 5-8 yards, or I have seen it defined as any route that goes vertical past linebacker depth. Here are some MOD/Man-Clue examples. 

Here #1 runs under, so the cornerback playing the MOD technique on #1 will pass off #1 and look to bracket #2.

Here are some additional MOD/Man-Clue examples from some articles on Solo-Poach coverage, which is a quarters adjustment to trips formations.

This Solo example is from DJ Durkin’s Florida defense. Coach Durkin will play the weak side cornerback in a MOD-Man-Clue concept, rather than MEG. What this does is allow the underneath coverage some more flexibility to trade off any crossing routes underneath. Here is the Solo concept from the 2014 Florida versus South Carolina game with a zone (MOD/Man-Clue) cornerback on the weak side.

South Carolina runs 3 verticals to the trips side, and a shallow cross from the tight end. This route combination gives you a great look at Durkin’s matchup zone coverage. The strong side cornerback and safeties match the three vertical routes. Once #1 to the single receiver side runs under, the weak side linebacker will make an under call. This call alerts the strong side linebacker that is walling #3 to stop carrying #3 and jump the crossing route underneath. Because the weak side cornerback is playing zone (MOD/Man-Clue), rather than a MEG technique, once #1 runs under, the cornerback will bail and zone off his quarter deep, looking inside for work. In this case the cornerback helps the free safety bracket #3 running vertical.

The last MOD-Man Clue example is from Michigan State versus Oregon. With this example you get a great look at how the man clue coverage works to the trips side versus a smash concept.

Once the #1 receiver breaks inside on the pivot route, the cornerback playing MOD/Man-Clue will pass that route off to the curl-flat defender and then work underneath the corner route from #2. With the #3 receiver’s vertical route taken away by the free safety, Michigan State has everything covered to the trips side.

The examples in this article should give the reader an excellent idea of the difference between MEG and MOD/Man-Clue technique in the defensive secondary. I put this post together as a reference guide to help anyone who visits my website decode the terminology in my articles when discussing coverages.

In my last article breaking down the Dallas Cowboys Dogs C Blitz, I detailed how a  4-2-5 defense could use a BOSS call in order to put them in a better position to defend trips formations in zero coverage. In this article I’m going to show how to adjust a Smoke Blitz versus a Trips formation.

Now let’s say you had a Tite Smoke blitz called versus a double slot formation. The assignments are pretty straight forward and the defense is in a good position in terms of being able to matchup and disguise the blitz. The smoke blitz would come from the strong safety on the read side. The cornerback’s would cover the #1 receivers man to man. The weak safety and free safety would cover the #2 receivers man to man. The linebackers would play a fiddle on the running back, which is a 2 on 1 combo coverage. Whichever way the running back releases that linebacker would match him man to man. The other linebacker would then become a rat in the hole or play a Green Dog technique. 

Versus a trips set you run into some issues defensively if you line up using the base smoke alignment/assignment rules like these.

If you blitz the strong safety like the double slot example then you have two options and neither of them are very good. You can match the linebacker to the read side up on #3, which could put a linebacker in zero coverage versus a slot receiver like Tyler Lockett.

The other option would be to have the Sam and Mike linebackers cover the running back in a fiddle concept and the weak safety play #3 strong. But that is not a good option either. It forces you to move the weak safety from his typical alignment, tipping off the blitz to the offense. Or you run the risk of the weak safety being out leveraged by #3, if #3 releases strong and the weak safety doesn’t alter his regular alignment.

The way you can combat trips formations and still run the smoke pressure scheme is by using a Switch call. What the switch call does is alert the linebacker to the trips side that he is going to blitz and replace the strong safety on the smoke blitz. What this allows the defense to do is match their read side cornerback, strong safety and free safety to the trips side in man coverage. This puts the defense in a better position coverage wise, with all defensive backs in man coverage versus the trips, rather than a linebacker. Plus it allows the defense to maintain it’s split-safety structure and normal alignment.

What I really like about the switch call is it allows you to play 0 Free Coverage with the weak safety as your extra coverage guy. This allows you to use the weak safety in a variety of different ways based on situations, tendencies and personnel. Let’s say you played a team like Stanford that just beats teams to death with Christian McCaffrey running option routes to the weak side out of 3×1 formations.

With 0 Free coverage behind the Smoke Switch Blitz, you could still rush 5 and double McCaffrey with a Fiddle concept using the away side linebacker and weak safety.

Another example would be if you played a team that liked to put their stud receiver at split end on the weak side in 3×1 formations. You could have the cornerback play press man trail coverage on him, with the weak safety playing a deep 1/2 over the top.

If a team really likes to throw the ball vertical into the middle of the field to #3, you could play the weak safety in Solo Technique and bracket #3.

Here are some Solo coaching points for the weak safety

The switch concept is a great wrinkle/addition to the 4-2-5 Smoke Blitz. It allows the defense to create the best possible matchups to the trips side, and gives the defense the flexibility to tag the weak safety with different assignments to take away the offense’s top receiver or passing concept.

This was something Gary Patterson talked about at the 2015 Nike Coach of the Year Clinic: “I needed to come up with something to tweak our defense without changing something for everyone. What does the offense do if they want an individual pattern run in a certain route progression? They simply add a word to the progression and the route changes to an individual route for the called receiver. If you want a defender to do something different than your base scheme, tag a call onto the coverage just like the offense does. We can call 3 chase, 3 drop or 3 vertical and change something in our coverage for one individual and no one else.”

The Denver Broncos Defense and Coordinator Wade Phillips made a statement in Super Bowl 50 with a seven sack demolition of the #1 offense in the NFL. The Broncos finished #1 in the NFL in overall defense in the regular season and went through three MVP caliber quarterbacks in the playoffs in Cam Newton, Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger. These accomplishments put the Broncos stamp on the NFL as one of the greatest defenses in league history.

The first two articles in this series will give the reader a general overview of Wade Phillips’ base coverage and blitz concepts. In future articles I plan on going through the Broncos All-22 film from their playoff run and finding specific example of these defensive concepts.

Wade Phillips scheme features 10 base coverages. This is from Wade Phillips 2003′ Atlanta Falcons defensive playbook. In part 1 I will detail Cover 1 Dog, Cover 2, Cover 3, Cover 4 & Cover 8. 

Cover 1 Dog base alignments, assignments and formation adjustments: Man to man coverage with a free safety playing a deep 1/3. 5 man rush

Cover 2 base alignments, assignments and formations adjustments: 5 short, 2 deep matchup zone.

Here are a couple of Wade Phillips different Cover 2 adjustments. The first is Cover 2 Buster.

Here are some additional 2 Buster examples and video from a previous article.

With all of Wade Phillips split safety coverages he has a Fax check that he can use versus 3×1 formations.

This is the same as the Clip concept, which is a trips Cover 2 check I wrote about previously.

Cover 3 base alignments, assignments and formations adjustments. 4 short, 3 deep rotation zone.

Here is Wade Phillips Cover 3 Dropkick check. 

This is the same as the Cover 3 Cone concept I wrote about previously.

Cover 4: Combination zone, Quarters coverage strong and Cover 2 weak:

Wade Phillips Cover 4 Fax check is the same Cover 4 Solo/Poach

Cover 8: base alignments, assignments and formations adjustments: Quarters coverage:

Wade Phillips Cover 8 Fax check is the same as Solo/Poach

That will conclude part 1 of Wade Phillips blitz package and coverage concepts. In part 2 I will show the base examples of Blitz coverage, 1 Rover, 2 Man Under, Cover 5 (Red Area and Zorro.