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No Pipes and No Posts - Protecting the Middle

by: Mike Kuchar
Senior Writer, American Football Monthly
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Every coverage has its strengths and its weaknesses. The key to any productive defense lies in when to mix and match coverages based on personnel, down and distance and run/pass tendencies. The strength of the quarters coverage, or cover four scheme, has been synonymous with stopping the run because of the availability of tying in both safeties at the point of attack, giving the defense nine defenders in the box. Many even-front teams have been using the coverage against pro and slot formations in order to get more hats than the offense can block. But the weakness of the coverage continues to be defending the pass game, particularly the play-action schemes, and leveraging flat routes. Many quarters disciples teach their safeties to commit hard to the run once they recognize it, but many offenses have found that a companion play-action scheme can freeze up the safeties and allow for big plays down the field.


Shannon Wilson, the defensive coordinator for the Southlake Carroll Dragons (TX), has been running the quarters scheme since he was an assistant working with Phil Bennett’s crew at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. A 4-3 coach by nature, Wilson was looking for a coverage that is adjustable to any formation and is sound against any offensive concept. He studied under the late Charlie Stalcup, who held the post at Southlake before him and who taught him the ins and outs of the quarters scheme. What he found is by keeping the 4-3 structure intact and by tweaking how they cover certain routes, playing quarters can be a tremendously effective scheme.

The Dragons Quarters Scheme

The quickest way to gut a defense is by attacking the middle of the field, which is why Wilson has developed the “no pipes, no posts” mantra while orchestrating his defense (See Diagram 1).


Pipes are referred to as any vertical threat down the pipe, or middle of the field. Because of the safeties’ responsibility in the run game, this could be vulnerability in quarters coverage. Posts are mainly post patterns off a run-action fake. According to Wilson, the “no pipes, no posts” philosophy applies to the run game as well. “We build our defense around one principle – protect the middle both in the run game and pass game,” says Wilson. “In pass coverage, to accomplish this we have to stop those two routes.”


In order to do so, Wilson aligns his corners inside with their backs to the sideline, already opened up and anticipating the post route. Pre-snap, corners in quarters will align seven yards off the number-one receiver with inside leverage while the safeties will stack ten yards deep and two yards outside the EMLOS (End man on line of scrimmage), reading that player’s helmet for a run or pass. Both outside linebackers, the Sam and Will in Wilson’s 4-3 scheme, will widen with any displaced number-two receiver into what he calls his “apex” technique. Apex simply means the outside backer will split the distance between the number-two receiver and the EMLOS. Wilson breaks down the corner, safeties and outside linebacker’s responsibility against frequent cover four beaters such as the flat route, the vertical route and the drag route (See Chart).


In traditional cover four, the corners will lock on the number-one receiver with inside leverage, playing him man-to-man, while the safeties will look to take either the number-two WR if he releases vertically or help out the corner on number-one. The deficiencies of the defense lie in the flat area, where bigger outside linebackers are asked to run with anyone that threatens the flat. In common spread schemes, these can be quicker, more elusive slot WRs. One of the more common quarters coverage-beaters is a post/flat combination route.

Defending the Post - Flat Combination

According to Wilson, the success handling the post/flat combination relies on two things: the athleticism of your outside linebackers and how well they can handle any run in the box. Modern football tells us that offenses spread the field in order to get positive numbers in the box, and when teams displace two wide receivers to one side of the formation, it puts those outside linebackers in a bind. Do they handle the run first or should they be more cognizant of the pass game? “We have used a variety of changeups over the years when defending combo routes by two wide receivers,” said Wilson. “But we make sure we always have three types of players in coverage- a curl player, a flat player and a deep player. We can call them from the sideline or most often they are used as a game plan situation.” Wilson first teaches his players the sky concept (See Diagram 2).


In the sky concept against a post flat (which can often turn into a wheel route) the outside linebacker is forced to run with any flat/wheel route while the safety helps with the corner on the post by the number one receiver. This is an able solution if you have the types of outside backers that can run with a wheel route, but if offenses couple it with any type of run-action scheme, those backers could get sucked up and lose leverage on number two.
Which is why Wilson also implements his “squeeze concept” (See Diagram 3).


Here, the safety will play any flat/wheel combination by the number-two receiver while the outside linebacker will react late and help out the corner on a post by number one. It allows for two things – a much more athletic safety to match up with a slot receiver and it also allows the outside linebacker to stay in the box against any type of run. Wilson mainly uses this out of his under front, where the Sam linebacker is up on the line of scrimmage. “We just tell the linebacker that if he sees pass to slice through to the curl area,” says Wilson. “If he’s in that apex alignment he’s reading through that offensive tackle into the backfield so he has to make sure the run action has cleared before he handles his pass responsibility.”

Defending the Boot Concept

Because offensive coordinators understand the flat can be a weakness in quarters, they will do a tremendous job in run action to get those outside linebackers to bite up. One of these concepts is a simple boot, or naked, where the flat is threatened right away. Instead of teaching combination routes that beat cover four, Wilson teaches his players the boot as an entirely separate entity. The boot play must be recognized by the outside backers, the corners and the safeties. For the most part, the boot, or waggle as some Wing T teams call it, will have a flat threat, a drag threat and a post threat (See Diagram 4).


How those three defenders handle each of those three receivers is essential when trying to defend the boot play. If the offense executes it correctly, it’s done with a tremendous play-action fake in the backfield.


“We treat this as a play from day one,” says Wilson. “To start, the key is the outside linebacker recognizing the boot action. For the most part, the boot will have a puller to the play-side so that backer has to read the action. Once he recognizes boot, he has to get under the flat route (usually a tight end or fullback) right now. That’s in a perfect world. But if you’re teaching your guys to be aggressive on the run like we are, there may be a good chance he’ll get wrapped up in the run action and lose his flat responsibility. It’s a tough read, one that is mastered through a ton of reps. But I know one thing – if I lose a guy to a play fake I would never chew him out for being overly aggressive playing football.”


If the outside linebacker does lose the tight end in the run action, it becomes the strong safety’s job to play the flat – similar to the squeeze concept. “The safety’s rule in boot is if someone has the flat covered then go find work, which is usually the drag. If the flat is open, rally to it,” says Wilson. “We always want to force the shortest and widest throw.”


“Rally-to-it” is the proper terminology because the flat is the shortest route to give up. As long the pass is completed, there is time and a ton of ground to make a play on it. It all goes back to the “no pipes, no post” philosophy; protect the middle of the field first. The middle of the field threat in the boot action is the drag route that will hit at about 10-12 yards. It can come from any inside receiver including a tight end. Here is where both safeties have to work in tandem. Ideally, the safety to the side of the drag should see it come under him and pass it off to the opposite safety that will carry it. But, as previously mentioned, if the outside backer loses the flat responsibility, that safety will already be occupied. So, in essence, the linebackers are working off the safeties.


If the free cannot pass off the drag because the other safety is occupied, he now has to carry it. “The real item is if he can pass the drag off to the other safety,” says Wilson. “Sometimes he will be able to and sometimes he won’t depending on that outside backer. If he can pass it off, he helps the corner rob number one which is the post route. If he can’t pass it off he has to cover it. It leaves the corner on the island with the post route but with inside leverage he should be able to play it. Not many teams actually take a shot at that home run anyway. It’s just a matter of constant repetition and practice all the time. They have to learn to communicate it.” Since most teams that run the boot have a viable run threat at the QB position, the Mike linebacker is responsible for secondary contain on him.

Defending the Cross Concept

Another common cover four beater that offenses run is the crossing route, or mesh concept (See Diagram 5).


The coverage doesn’t change, but communication is more prevalent than ever here because there will be a high/low combination on the linebackers and the safeties. Because of no run-action fake, the Sam linebacker should be able to work to the flat immediately while the Will linebacker should collision the mesh route by number one. The Sam eventually passes off the cross to the Mike linebacker who runs with it. Again, the safeties must communicate any post or pipe threat by staying deep and vertically over the top of any number-two receiver.






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