3rd down: NFL Man to Man Coverage Concepts and Variations from a 3-2 dime look
This article looks at some odd fronts on 3rd down and man to man concepts out of that front. You will see teams often play man to man on various downs but this looks at some coverage concepts you can use in this situation.
Some teams that like to go to an odd look include Dennis Allen, Josh Boyer, Bill Belichick amongst others.
Dime Package Pressures.
5. Dime Package Pressures.
3-2 front
The Jets in dime vs the Rams on 3rd and 2.
The jets overload the left side with 2 edge rushers. The Rams slide that way but the pressure is too much for the Rams.
Nice pressure off the edge
Man free coverage downfield
The stunt and pressure gets home as they do a good job freeing up the LB
The guard is late getting off to help.
Nice scheme
Here is the Lions version(Detroit not Nassau) of the concept from a 3-2 dime look
5. Lurk/hole Concept
The lurk or hole concept starts as as 2 man look with one safety diving to the hole to take away crossing routes rather than stay over the top as a deep half player.
Bucs ran man free lurk/robber concept vs the Saints in the playoffs.
#1 passes off the wr to the safety and takes crosser to the single wr side. The cb will stop after he passes it off and stay in the curl area to look for a crosser coming back the other way.
the CB passes it to the safety.
Nice exchange and the CB passes it off and is in position for the te dragging across.
Here the Bengals do it in the AFC championship game vs Chiefs
The safety is waiting for the crossers opposite 3x1.
The safety reads it and makes a great play.
Often vs 3x1 you will see this type of defense.
They pass it off
The safety makes a great play on it.
They get the interception on the play.
6. Cover 2 man with a 3 man rush
Patriots run a 3 man rush and play cover 2 man vs Chiefs.
They disrupt the crossing routes by getting a LB underneath. Tough to run mesh as the LB makes Hill #10 reroute on the mesh concept.
Hill has to go all the way around him to avoid the contact.
Here are several different examples of the major concepts discussed above.
Dolphins vs Chiefs
Odd package. Penny front with 3 LB
Dolphins are in an odd front. They send 5 with the olb and mike blitzing. The Olb to the side of the back has peel rules. Nice design on 3rd and 6 and they get the sack.
They bring the mike right about the middle against Mahomes.
They get good pressure on the play
Good coverage down field and no place to go with the football.
2020
Texans vs Patriots
The Texans are in dime and bring both safeties off the edge on a key 3rd and 4 late in the Patriots game. Up 27-20 with a minute to go, they bring 2 edge pressures on 3rd and 4th down to seal the game.
They blitz the edge as the safety walks up late
The free rusher is in the qb grill as he throws with 2 off the edge.The RB goes left and the safety comes clean as he comes late.
Watt makes a great play below.
On the next play 4th and 4 with a minute to go, they run 2 off the edge again and get home. The safety to the 1 wr side comes clean, the rb steps into the a gap rather than picking up the blitzing safety. protection issue there. They end up sealing the game and winning 27-20
This time they get him off t he other side as the Patriots go 7 man protection. The RB doesn't see the edge rusher and they sack Newton.
Nice design and changeup from the previous play.
These are some concepts and variations you can play of man coverage. You can run 2 man, man free and straight man to man variations from this odd look.