Warrior General Games

So, we had a big game tonight with playoff implications and all that good stuff.

The team we played ran an I-Form and when they did they would run an inside run. Any ways, I set up my defense to this

4-3 formation Cover 3 shell, man to man underneath, medium coverage balanced focus

LBs shifted to weak side, 2 max blitzers ROLB 100% MLB & SS 50%

So I look over our game tonight and every I-formation, we line up in the cover three, but my LBs are all over the map. My MLB is covering WR 2, Left OLB is covering WR1 and my ROLB is the only guy in the right position.

I know it's Cover-3, but shouldn't the Safety be back still and not in the LB's Zone?

http://i430.photobucket.com/albums/qq24/glbvikings/glb-cover3-formation.jpg


Play examples:
http://goallineblitz.com/game/replay.pl?game_id=235489&pbp_id=9392454
http://goallineblitz.com/game/replay.pl?game_id=235489&pbp_id=9392388

Any ideas/explanations?

Will happen every time in cover three... what you're trying to do might be effective out of a cover one/zero.

Originally posted by sandboy529
So I look over our game tonight and every I-formation, we line up in the cover three, but my LBs are all over the map. My MLB is covering WR 2, Left OLB is covering WR1 and my ROLB is the only guy in the right position.

I know it's Cover-3, but shouldn't the Safety be back still and not in the LB's Zone?


You LBs are in Man Coverage. Meaning they are going to Cover someone man to man. Since your WRs are your highest receiving threats, they line up against them. Makes sense to me. The issue here is Cover 3.

In Cover 3, it's the two Corners who play the left and right side with the FS playing center field. Your SS probably stays in to offer support in the middle, where you're the weakest. I'm pretty sure he would've been deep had you not been in run focus. (This is just to answer your question)

Just don't run Cover 3 to try to stop the run ever, ever again.

It wasn't so much cover three to stop the run as it was to contain any passes. I would have been content if they tried any passes in front of the Cover 3 Zone (which scouting showed they wouldn't do that much out of the I formation). Had my LBs been in the proper position, the gameplan would have worked.

And it makes no sense for the LBs to cover WRs when they should cover TEs and HB/FB if they are in man to man.

*sigh*

Live and learn I guess

I don't think you understand cover 3 D

Here is my 2 cents:

In cover 3 you have 3 deep zone coverages, the depth depends on your settings, in this case you have the FS and 2 CB's in 3 deep zones. Now your underneath coverage is man and the available players are 3 LB's and the SS. The SS mans up on the TE and one LB looks to be blitzing, that leaves 2 LB's on the WR's.

If your intent is to stop the run then cover 3 is not a good choice.

Use Cover 1 to stop the run.

It allows you to bring the SS into the box, resulting in 8 men in 2 tiers. I use the 4-3 explicitly and usually do real well in cutting down the ground game.

Originally posted by mdkaden
I don't think you understand cover 3 D

Here is my 2 cents:

In cover 3 you have 3 deep zone coverages, the depth depends on your settings, in this case you have the FS and 2 CB's in 3 deep zones. Now your underneath coverage is man and the available players are 3 LB's and the SS. The SS mans up on the TE and one LB looks to be blitzing, that leaves 2 LB's on the WR's.

If your intent is to stop the run then cover 3 is not a good choice.

I know/understand what a cover three is. I just wasn't expecting the LBs to cover WRs when put in man-to-man situations. Even if the SS covered the TE, I figured the LBs would cover the backs (as I stated above). Had I known they would automatically gone out to the WRs, I wouldn't have set it up so the oppossing team could waltz right up the middle of the field 5-10 yards at a time.

The intent of the Cover 3 here was just to prevent any passes if they did throw out of it. Basic 3 deep zones, while the 8 men in front of them did their job to stop the runs. The CBs and SS job was just don't get beat deep. The team didn't pass much out of the I-formation anyways so I wasn't really worried about that.

Thanks everyone for the responses.

Originally posted by sandboy529
Originally posted by mdkaden

I don't think you understand cover 3 D

Here is my 2 cents:

In cover 3 you have 3 deep zone coverages, the depth depends on your settings, in this case you have the FS and 2 CB's in 3 deep zones. Now your underneath coverage is man and the available players are 3 LB's and the SS. The SS mans up on the TE and one LB looks to be blitzing, that leaves 2 LB's on the WR's.

If your intent is to stop the run then cover 3 is not a good choice.

I know/understand what a cover three is. I just wasn't expecting the LBs to cover WRs when put in man-to-man situations. Even if the SS covered the TE, I figured the LBs would cover the backs (as I stated above). Had I known they would automatically gone out to the WRs, I wouldn't have set it up so the oppossing team could waltz right up the middle of the field 5-10 yards at a time.

The intent of the Cover 3 here was just to prevent any passes if they did throw out of it. Basic 3 deep zones, while the 8 men in front of them did their job to stop the runs. The CBs and SS job was just don't get beat deep. The team didn't pass much out of the I-formation anyways so I wasn't really worried about that.

Thanks everyone for the responses.



"Even if the SS covered the TE, I figured the LBs would cover the backs." Then who do you think covers the WR's man to man under? Essentially what cover 3 does is it locks 6 guys in coverage 3 man on man and 3 in zone. For each man you put in cover 1,2,3 etc. you are taking a man off man to man coverage and putting him in a cover zone.

So, your 8 man front turns into a 5 man front. If you blitz the one extra LBer and you guess the wrong gap then the RB will get to the 2nd level and big gain every time.

A good cover 3 situation is 3rd and 10 plus yards to go.

Yeah, if scouting shows that a team rarely/never passes out of a certain formation - Cover 3 (or God forbid...Cover 4) should never ever be employed against that formation.

Especially against a 2 WR set. You're just essentially removing a handful of guys from the play before it ever happens.

Cover 1 against a 2 WR set leaves an FS deep to help just in case there's a pass, the CB's manned up on the WR's to take their shot at shutting down any potential pass routes -> that still leaves you 8 guys in the box to beat up the running game. *especially* any runs up the middle.

Even *if* for some reason the LB's didn't man up on the WR's and stayed in the box, any pass is a guaranteed 1st down because your CB's are loitering back in a zone. So a quick pass to either side is about a 100% movement of the chains.

Cover 3 is simply the wrong call there in almost any situation.