Understanding coverages allows you to know what the defense is trying to do. If you can understand where the defenders are going to be and what their responsibilities are then you can figure out ways to exploit and beat the defense. Mastering the mental side of the game is the separator from good to great and great to elite. Once you start playing at high levels, everyone is big, fast, athletic, and talented so the separation comes from preparation and understanding the mental side of the game better than anyone else on the field.
Cover 3 is a type of defense that has “3” defenders playing deep zones. There are different variations of cover 3 like “cloud”, “buzz”, and “sky”, and in this post we are going to focus on a 4-3 cover 3 sky defense. Alright, let’s break it down…
4-3 is referring to how many defensive linemen and how many linebackers there are. You always start with the defensive linemen. One easy way to remember this is to start with the position group that is closest to the ball (Defensive linemen are closer than linebackers). The first 4 in 4-3 means there are 4 defensive linemen. The second number corresponds to how many linebackers there are so 4-3 means there are 3 linebackers.
Cover 3 means there are three defenders in deep zones. A good way to think about this is that the defense is dividing up the field into 3 deep zones.
“Sky” is a terminology that is used to describe that a safety is playing in the flat. Because one safety will be up in the flat the other safety will rotate towards the middle. More on this later…
The corners are responsible for the outside deep ⅓ of the field. They want to try and keep everything in front of them and not get beat deep. Often corners will line up around 5-8 yards pre-snap, but this can vary. Corners can also “disguise” the coverage and line up pressed and then bail at the snap of the ball. Two common techniques for corners in cover 3 are backpedaling or facing the quarterback and shuffling.
The safety away from the sky side is responsible for the middle deep ⅓ of the field. He will rotate at the snap of the ball or just prior to the snap so that he can get to the deep middle ⅓ zone. He wants to try and keep everything in front of him and not get beat deep. Typically, he will line up around 12 yards pre-snap but this can vary team to team and can range from 10-20 yards. The safety will often read the quarterback’s eyes to try and make a play on the ball. This can be used to your advantage on offense because you can often look the safety off and throw opposite of where you are looking.
The safety towards the sky side is responsible for the flat. He will rotate at the snap of the ball or just prior to the snap so that he can get to the flat. He may be lined up slightly closer than the other safety so that he is able to get down to the flat.
The outside linebacker away from the sky side is responsible for getting to the flat. The flat is the area underneath the corner (5-10 yards over by the sideline). The outside linebacker towards the sky side is responsible for the curl/hook zone. A good way to remember who goes where is to think if there is already someone in the flat on their side. On the sky side, there is already a safety in the flat so there is no need for the backer to go there so he has curl/hook.
The number one thing outside backers must do in cover 3 is “jam” or reroute the inside WR from releasing vertical up the field. If the WR in front of them releases vertical they will try to get their hands on them and shove them off of their route before dropping to their zone. The reason this is vitally important is because if they let that WR release clean up the hash then it will put too much stress on the safety to cover both WRs running down the seams. Often, outside backers will line up in the 4-6 yard range pre-snap.
The middle linebacker is responsible for dropping to the curl/hook zone away from the sky side. Before dropping to his zone, he will step up for run action. This means that if you give a good play fake on play action then he will step up before getting to his zone. Typically, he will line up anywhere from 3-6 yards pre-snap.
A good way to remember which side he will drop to is to think which side already has someone in the curl/hook zone. The sky side will already have an outside backer in the curl zone so he will drop away from the sky side.
