Pattern-Match Coverages and the Trips Formation
With all the multiple formations used by offenses in today's game, sometimes as a defense it can be hard to keep track of who's lining up where or how the offense has you outnumbered on a particular play.
One thing that is pretty constant, though, is the use of a trips formation.
Most NFL teams will use a 3x1 formation (3 wide receivers on one side; 1 on the other) or an empty set close to 40% of the time. Almost half of the game comes from these sets, in some way or another. Sometimes it's 2 WRs and a TE, other times it's 3 WRs, but offenses generally like to use trips in almost all passing situations, late in games, and sprinkled throughout a contest.
The question is, why? Why does a team quietly use a trips formation for almost half of their offensive plays?
Well, there's two reasons, and they both work the same. One idea says that from trips, you get predictable coverages by the defense. It's usually man-to-man or Cover 3 in that situation.
The other reason is you can't run pattern-match coverages against a trips formation. This is what offenses really like.
Quarters Coverage
Despite what Madden has led you to believe, there's actually three ways to defend most passing plays: There's zone coverage, man coverage, and pattern-match coverage. The first two are self-explanatory. The last one is a little more tricky.
The idea of a pattern-match coverage is all the defensive players will read certain receivers on the offense as they take off. Depending on what they do, the defenders job will change. Some players will have multiple rules; others will have very little.
One example of a pattern-match coverage is called "quarters coverage". It looks like this:
Here you can see that players don't have zones: they have rules. Everything they do is dependent on what the offensive players do.
Let's take the safety for example. The safety's job is to read the #2 receiver, which in this case is the tight end (the second receiver in from the sideline).
If the tight end goes to the flat, the safety will rob #1 and double-team him with the corner. If the tight end goes underneath the formation right away (a drag), the safety will drop to the middle 1/3. If the tight end runs vertically up the field to about 8-10 yards, the safety will play him man-to-man. If the tight end run blocks, the safety will come up in run support.
The two flat defenders (the two outside linebackers in the previous example) are responsible for the first man to the flat. However, they're going to rob #1 initially to take away a quick slant or curl. It is important for these players to
carry #2 through the zone. This means if a player comes into their flat zone, they must stay with them if they were to go on a wheel route and abandon their flat zone.
The #3 control player will collision anybody that crosses his path, and own the mid-line. Any checkdowns in the middle will belong to him.
So how does it all work? Let's use some examples:
This is Quarters vs a Dig concept. Using each players' individual rule, you can see that we end up with everything covered and both outside players getting double teamed. The Free drops to the middle 1/3 when the TE goes underneath and doubles the post; the Rover robs #1 on the other side. Both flat defenders pick up the crossers, and the Mike gets the checkdown.
Let's try another play:
Here against a flood concept, just by following the rules we've described and matching the patterns, we can virtually take away everything the offense wants to do. The Free plays the tight end man-to-man since he ran down the field, the flat defender plays underneath the out for a moment prior to covering the flat, Mike controls the middle and chases the tight end, and the backside can double team.
How to Beat It
The Chargers love using Quarters coverage, as do a lot of teams in the NFL. It is an extremely strong coverage against most passing plays, and great against the run (because the safeties can key the run first).
However, it isn't unbeatable.
You saw in the previous flood example that even though most routes were covered, there was a one-on-one down the field to the split receiver. If you have a mis-match, you can hit it.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LENRX-24mIM"]Denarius Moore finger tip catch - YouTube[/ame]
And that's exactly what happens here. Denarius Moore simply runs right by the corner, and the safety is occupied with the tight end because he has to respect him vertically. The result is a big play down the field.
Another play that teams will use (which I expect tonight from Baltimore) is a deep post off of play action, with the tight end occupying the safety. With some speed on the edge (which the Ravens have in Torrey Smith), all the receiver has to do is get inside position on the corner and he's gone.
Don't be surprised to see Baltimore run this a few times tonight. A play-action to Ray Rice and a deep pass down the middle to their speedster is a high-percentage play against a quarters coverage and a great way to hit the score board early.
