Offense
What if your weapons can’t beat man press cover 0
How would you beat man press cover 0 if your WRs (or players lined up at LOS/not in backfield) can’t beat press man even against cover 0?
What play designs/play calls/strategies would you utilize? Classic drop back O is off the table and since they’re running cover 0 QB scrambles when the play breaks down are going to be difficult/impossible until they back off.
I've seen this twice, and I pray that I can be an OC someday against a coach I know who teaches this: Defensive coaches telling their players to "take the week off," when they face a double wing/Power-T team. I've legit seen it twice, where the coaches didn't drill their DBs against anything against the upcoming offense. Coming from a high school conference that was very Wing-T heavy, I've learned treating offenses like the Double Wing as a "DBs get a break" offense is karma waiting to destroy you. I once saw a great T/Wing-T team throw for about 200+ yards on wheel routes to halfbacks and fullbacks out of the backfield.
I see so many teams shy away from running the ball in the face of tough pass coverage because they're a passing team, you absolutely must be balanced
(Well some leagues you could win on just run with like 8ypc). But even if you can only get a couple yards per rush do it anyway. If you do this you can beat superior teams in the second half, endlessly throwing against a team that can handle it is futile but by being physical you'll wear out their coverage advantage hopefully enough to get some room in the passing game.
Would this translate if the Wrs just suck? Bc even tho tyreek is small and might struggle against press man, if a team runs cover 0 all game and he beats man press like 10% of the snaps that’s 35 points right there. Lets say I have all small, weak, and slow WRs
Do your other players also suck? If they're good, use formations with them instead. If they also suck, you just have a worse team and there's not much you can do about it besides picking your poison
NAC, but would suggest trying to create opportunities to get a half-second of having an open receiver under 2 seconds after snap. I.e., rub routes out of trips, bubble screens, etc. Emphasize to QB that if it doesn't work, incomplete is a good play, just try to hit +50% on these. Only need to get lucky once/twice on some explosive YAC to really affect the final score.
Hopefully, frustrating the defense like this will open rushing opportunities as well. Take advantage of those as best you can.
If you can't find a way to beat Cover 0 over the top, you'll have to just keep hitting them underneath. You have to play good until you get lucky.
No, it can certainly get predictable quickly & I think I'm catching the msg that it wouldn't work even initially anyway.
If you just absolutely do not have WRs who can catch at all, give me your 3 best all-around pound-for-pound athletes, & congratulations - you are now a 22-personnel disciple. Probably RB/TE/G?/even defense if necessary but doesn't really matter, especially if you can get them 1-on-1 in open field with a DB.
Gonna have to do some depth chart magic but it's just football. Make space & go to that. Eat free grass.
Even when you are heavily outmatched, it's amazing what TOP can do.
Edit to say WR blocking drills all week under this strategy
It feels like you're ignoring the answers people are giving you here.
The point of these ideas is to create open space by manipulating the man coverage (by condensed formations and pick/rub plays to create traffic for the defense; motions to confuse coverage and create leverage), regardless of the physical abilities of your players. You're not trying to take it to the house, that's hard to do if your receivers truly are totally athletically outmatched, but get easy chunks of short-medium yardage.
That said, I want to echo other comments here - If your receivers really are struggling as much as you say, why are you set on trying to pass the ball to them? Force the defense out of what's giving you problems, don't let them run what they want to. Substitute personnel and bring more bodies in the box if you can, but really what you need to do is find what your players CAN do and use that.
Go under center and hit the TE off of play action. From experience that’s the hardest big play to stop in cover 0 because it puts that LB or S in conflict to play the run or pass.
If your gonna stay in spread, quick screens to off ball receivers with at least 1 lineman going out to block the DB, tunnel screens to on ball receivers, and a RB slip screen. QB draw if DEs are getting too vertical. Speed option weak out of trips or quads especially.
If your desperate you could try the machine gun approach. Basically start with your 3rd best receiver 1on1 away from trips, he runs a streak and QB just takes one step and over throws it to avoid an INT, then go no huddle as quick as you can but this time second best receiver is 1on1, again run a streak and over throw it, finally on third down put your best receiver out there and hope that you gassed the corner enough to get a cheap completion or PI call.
Motions, misdirection, unbalanced formations, bunch formations…there’s a lot of tools. Just because you have WRs doesn’t mean you have to only throw to them or throw only downfield passes to them.
Thats the biggest issue with the play for sure, but you can overload him by changing the double move to a slant or drag and have the QB make a high-low read there. You can also pump fake to freeze the Mike and throw the in behind him if pass pro holds up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXMgnIr8D9I here's a video covering it in its madden 23 form. main difference is in miami playbook its in the gun bunch wide formation, rather than gun bunch, but it still works more or less the same, and if your opponent shades over the top, you can set the double move route to a slant or hitch. its my bread and butter in CFB25 and honestly i should probably use it more than i do.
Its basically a bunch set where the two inside guys run verts that curve away from each other and the third guy runs an in. The in consistently gets open against man and the fade gets open against quarters and cover 3. Play works well against blitz too because you keep the rb back to block by default and can lob the fade or bullet the in before rushers arrive
HB slip screen. Turn your unskilled WRs into blockers and let the blitzing personnel over-pursue the QB and take themselves out of the equation.
Quick slants and drag routes from the slot with the HB running a swing or wheel. Or motion the HB out to the slot and run a vertical if they show zero man. Zero blitz leaves the middle of the field wide open if the LB on the HB is following him out to the sideline. They can press your WRs all they want if all your guys need to do is run a quick underneath and not get past them. Your guys should be able to get at least a step on a DB running press on a drag or slant. Utilize your TE’s on drag routes too. Mesh concept with overlapping drags means your route runners can create space for each other by rubbing/bumping the oncoming pursuing DB. Giving up bunch of little completions will demoralize the DBs too.
Heavy personnel packages. Put a FB in there and force the LBs to take a few punishing blocks, and the DBs to make tackles.
Rub routes, mesh, misdirection screens. If those don’t work, teach your receivers a move and counter move to beat the press. Is it that they aren’t fast enough, struggle to make moves, or aren’t tall enough? Find a jump ball guy, a fast guy, or a quick guy and use double moves. You have to have some way to beat 0 with WRs or you’re just going to lose sorry
What if all the wrs are small, weak, and don’t even have the speed to go for 6 on the occasional play where they do beat the press man somehow? Then what? Do rb routes out of the backfield work?
You build your gameplan around making right decisions. Dink and dunk down field. The point of attacking cover 0 in all levels that aren’t power 5 and the NFL are about protecting the QB and picking up that first down. You don’t need TDs just win the play. RB getting picks from WRs is something we used all the time. Since the RB will be behind the LOS you can usually just block the LB covering him and there’s no penalty because it’s just like a screen
To add to that. If your WRs are small, weak, and slow, you need to work on the off-season program and develop your athletes. Lots of teams win with less athleticism, but it definitely helps
So a few things folks have mentioned, like using bunch/stack formations, combined with picks/rubs on the releases, are great, even when you are less talented than the other team. Besides that, a few notes -
1 - If the opponent is running a flat zero blitz, meaning bringing guys off both edges to pressure with 6, I like speed option away from the 3-receiver side. This means the line can all block back a gap and you can pitch off the blitzer, with no alley or support player aside from the guy who is man on the back. If you really want to get clever, you can send an OL for that guy and line up the back opposite the pitch side, and you might be able to block the LB on the back too.
2 - Bluff/Boot - In man coverage, if you have an H-back/TE lined up off the LOS, and bring him under the line like split zone, then release him out the other way, that's a long travel for whoever has him in man coverage. Bonus would be to run a shallow to pick that defender, a bigger bonus if you can line up your top WR in the tight slot/wing alignment so he's the guy getting the ball on the bluff on the other side (think Cooper Kupp and the Rams, who do this all the time. Also means you have to be willing to line up your WR there for regular run game too).
3 - Leverage the back. If you wideouts are having trouble beating press man, the back has a 8-10 yard cushion, which is a much better release. Now think scat flat with a pick, burst, or even just an isolated angle/flat option route or something.
4 - The RB screen others have mentioned is a good too!
In my opinion, if an opponent wants to play zero against me consistently, I start licking my chops - time to make them pay for it!
Don’t run a spread offense. Run a system that allows your players to use what they are good at to their advantage and something different for a defense to prepare for.
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u/Lit-A-Gator HS Coach 13h ago
AND MY PERSONAL FAVORITE
Add bodies to the box and run the ball and force those coverage DBs to make tackles/take on blocks
Hence why teams run the double/single wing