How to beat Cover 3?

[thekodinator]

Help! My friends must know my weaknesses or something, but they just run cover 3 all game against me every time we play. they show blitz to stack the box against a run, and then just sit back in a base or nickel cover 3 and i can NOT throw against it for the life of me. Help!

[kjayb51]

WR Screens usually work.

[Valdarez]

Cover 3 out of what? Nickle, dime, 3-4, other?

Typically to beat a cover three, you want to run a post pattern on the side opposite the side the safety is pulling from, or a post/slant from the slot opposite the side the safety is pulling back to the center zone from.

If they move the safety around, then it's all going to depend on the positioning of the players and location from which they are falling back into their zones.

[Black59Razr]

Quote: Originally Posted by kjayb51

WR Screens usually work.

....against every defense,

[marcus82]

Quote: Originally Posted by Valdarez

Cover 3 out of what? Nickle, dime, 3-4, other? Typically to beat a cover three, you want to run a post pattern on the side opposite the side the safety is pulling from, or a post/slant from the slot opposite the side the safety is pulling back to the center zone from. If they move the safety around, then it's all going to depend on the positioning of the players and location from which they are falling back into their zones.

this is true. if your opponent starts to user some guys to cover the deep middle that's when you need to have a slant or drag underneath. the post will pull the outside and middle lineback deep so you should be able to drop a pass in underneath. the key is to be patient against the zone and not go for the homerun each play.

[Dmacho]

Did you try throwing to the flat ? Because the flats, which are broken in this game, are usually a weakness of the cover 3 scheme. Deep outs, and come backs all kill cover 3 coverage.

[beardownchitown]

10 yard hook patterns work pretty well too.

[CreatineKasey]

posts/digs/ins/outs/screens/seam routes.

Flood route combinations.

Running with your QB.

Running inside: defenders don't fill gaps well when in soft zone D. Running power-O.

A lot of madden's routes open well in zone with combination routes to occupy nearby defenders. If you can grasp this concept, any zone breaks down fairly easily.