Cover 3 coverage is great for our 4-2-5 Defense System and 33 Stack Defensive System. Those are both 8-man fronts that match perfectly with a single high safety. The force players never change.

You can run Cover 3 with our 3-4 Defense System. Many coaches roll the coverage depending on who is blitzing, so the force defender does change. That adds some complexity, but it's still a great fit.

I do not recommend Cover 3 for our 4-3 Defense System. That system is based off the Miami 4-3 Defense that Jimmy Johnson created, and it fits best with two high safety coverages like Cover 2 and Quarters.

Many high school football coaches are quick to dismiss Cover 3 as being too simple. At all but the highest levels of high school football, those coaches are wrong.

For Youth and Middle School football coaches, Cover 3 is almost always the best answer. It should at least be part of the package for defending heavy run teams.
Let's look at the strengths of Cover 3 coverage for your defense...

Strength #1: Cover 3 is a great run stopping coverage. The normal reasons coaches say this are that it has 8 run defenders and only 3 deep defenders. It also keeps everyone's eyes in the backfield running zone instead of looking at a man.
Those are the normal reasons. Not my reasons.

Cover 3 is a dominant run stopping call because you get 9 run defenders, not 8 of them. The Free Safety is a primary run stopper in our Umbrella Run Fits. He ties the force defenders to the spill defenders.

Key reads tell all of your defenders if they are defending the run or the pass. He's still going to be in his deep third on a pass read (we key the Quarterback for a ball up, ball down read). But on a run read, he is very aggressive.

So he might bite on a bad play action read. To deal with it, Corners in Cover 3 have a "Stay in Coverage" run assignment. They do not come out of coverage even if the play is a run, until the ball has crossed the line of scrimmage. We don't care if their eyes are in the backfield, they're still not coming up for primary run defense.
The greatest strength of the Cover 3 as a great run stopping coverage comes from the fact that...

Strength #2: Cover 3 is simple to install at any level. You can teach this defense in about 10 minutes. My Coach Simple Philosophy loves this.

Keep it simple so the kids are confident they know how to do their job. Confident players play fast on the field. Faster players win more football games.
Coach Simple. Play Fast. Win.

Because you're running a spot drop Cover 3, players don't have a lot to think about if it's a pass. You get a pass key read, run to your spot. For linebackers and overhang safeties, that is very easy to learn.

That lets them use their brain power to focus on defensive run fits: Spill, force or alley. Everyone but the corners - they keep all their brain power on the pass, since they have a "Stay in Coverage" run assignment.

Keeping those pass coverage assignments simple means that you'll have...

Strength #3: Cover 3 has fewer opportunities for coverage breakdowns. It’s just deep third coverage for the deep defenders. Stay over top, nothing gets behind you. Know where your help is.

For underneath defenders, drop to your spot. Get enough depth to cover intermediate routes and help to cloud the deeper throws for the deep third defenders.

Does Cover 3 have weaknesses? Absolutely. There are plenty of very effective Cover 3 beaters. 4 verticals attacks the deep thirds. Slant-flat or curl-flat concepts attack the underneath zones.

But every coverage has weaknesses. As long as you know the weaknesses, you can develop a plan for them.

Man coverages have the weakness of being man-to-man. If they've got a dude, you might not have a dude to match him. If your pass rush gives the Quarterback too much time, it's harder to cover man-to-man. Plus, if your defense does not communicate and one receiver is unaccounted for, he's just wide slam open.

Pattern Match coverages have fewer weaknesses on paper than zone or man coverage. But the game is not played on paper and pattern match has tons of opportunities for breakdowns. It takes time to teach players when to pass off a receiver and when to lock on him.

In Cover 3 defense, you go to your spot. Stay over top. Handle your zone. The space between zones is vulnerable, but that is a weakness in the coverage. Not a total breakdown with a wide-open receiver catching a ball that looks like a punt and walking into the end zone.

Before we get to the coverage, a quick lesson on passing zones...

The high school football field breaks down into six underneath passing zones and four deep zones. It doesn't matter what coverage you run. This is fact.

4 Deep Zones: Deep zones start at 14-17 yards from the line of scrimmage. Then you divide the field width into quarters, 40 feet wide each (13 1/3 yards).

6 Underneath Zones: The underneath zones start at the line of scrimmage. They extend to about 14 yards deep. Then we divide the field width into 6 even zones, 23 2/3 feet or just under 9 yards wide.

If you could drop 10 players into coverage, it would be almost impossible to complete a pass. But you can't, the Quarterback would have a field day with only one pass rusher.

In Cover 3 defense, the three deep defenders are each responsible for one third of the field width (53 feet, 4 inches or close to 18 yards). It's a big space - remember there's four passing zones back there.

There are 6 underneath zones, three to each side, that you handle with only four defenders. The Hook Zone goes from the middle of the field to the hash. From the hash to top of the numbers is the curl zone. And from the numbers to the sideline is the flat zone.

We give the underneath defenders a spot to drop to when they get a pass read that puts them in the best position to defend their zones. The inside dropper is the Hook-Curl dropper, and he drops to the hash at 12-14 yards deep. The outside droppers are the Curl-Flat defender, going to the top of the numbers at 12-14 yards deep.

For simplicity, call them the hook and flat defenders. They're both helping on the curl. That's how we handle four zones with six defenders.

We did a breakdown several years ago, and a huge percentage of underneath passes were caught on the numbers or on the hash. Passes over the middle are rare. Many High School Quarterbacks can't see over their linemen. Fewer passe are caught within 5 yards of the sideline because the sideline is one of your best defenders.

Don’t mistake spot drop defenders for statues. The spot is where they are dropping to on a pass read, but his eyes are up. He sees the Quarterback's eyes and front shoulder and slides to move where the ball is headed. He locates receivers in his zone and moves with them or tries to collision the routes. In high school, we can bump receivers until the ball is in the air.

There are two advantages of spot drop zone defenders keeping their eyes on the Quarterback. You lose these when you run man coverage or pattern match watching the receivers:

Spot Drop Advantage #1: The Quarterback knows where the ball is going. Less experienced passers will stare down the target so you can adjust your drop to get in the passing window.

Spot Drop Advantage #2: High School and Youth Quarterbacks are not always accurate. Unlike a video game or most of the QBs you see on TV... these guys misfire a lot. Keeping eyes on the QB, you can see those errant throws and get to the ball. That means more interceptions, at the cost of more completions on accurate throws.

Let's talk about a couple of nuances of Cover 3 defense.

I'm not going to get into Cover 3 beaters, since this is a defensive focus. But Cover 3 has two major weaknesses.

Weakness #1: Cover 3 defense is weak to deep horizontal stretches. That means four verticals. Or any concept with four receivers running into the four deep zones. We're especially weak on the seams between our deep zones - the hash marks. The outside deep third defenders have the sideline's help, so we use a "5 Yard No Cover Zone" on the sidelines. Don't chase a defender that close to the sideline, so you can give more help to the free safety on the hashes.

Weakness #2: Cover 3 defense is weak against underneath horizontal stretches. No surprise here. Six underneath zones, four defenders.
Like the deep zones, you have sideline help. Don't cover the sideline. Plus many High School Quarterbacks can't see over the line, so don't worry as much about the middle of the field.

In theory, you could stretch the defense vertically. The seam between the underneath and deep zones could be a weakness. But we use a 5 Yard No Cover Zone for the first five yards from the Line of Scrimmage, too.

That lets the underneath defenders play deep enough to handle the intermediate throws. We'll rally to throws in the no cover zone when the Quarterback throws it (another advantage of eyes on the QB).
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