How do you beat Cover 3 in College Football 27?

Attack the two seams with four verticals, or flood one deep third with a three-level concept. The single high safety can only carry one seam, so the other one comes open. When they squat on the seams, dump it underneath.

How do you know it's Cover 3?

Find the safeties before the snap. One safety parked in the deep middle with the corners bailing off your receivers is Cover 3. One high safety means single-high, and dropping corners means zone instead of man.

What beats Cover 3 Match?

Match carries your verticals, so the seams close up. Go underneath instead. Crossers and mesh tear up the match drops, and a flat route still pulls the curl defender out of the way.

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How to Beat Cover 3 in College Football 27

5 min readCFB 27 Dynasty

Cover 3 is the shell you will see most online, and the good news is it hands you a free map. The defense puts three deep and four underneath, which means they are giving you the entire short field plus two soft seams up the gut. Find the one deep safety and throw at what he cannot cover. You will move it at will.

Read it before you snap it

Start by finding the safety. One safety parked in the deep middle is your tell. If the corners are bailing off your receivers instead of pressing up in their grill, you are looking at Cover 3. Now you know the picture. Two corners own the outside thirds and the safety owns the deep middle, while four defenders squeeze underneath trying to cover a ton of grass.

Cover 3 shell: three deep zones, four underneath zones, four rushers — Cover 3: three deep, four under, four rushing. The seams live in the gaps between the deep zones.

Reading Cover 3: eyes on the single high safety, throw away from him — Who to read: lock the safety. He leans to one seam, you throw the other. Checkdown if he splits the difference.

The seams are the money

The fastest way to punish it is four verticals. You are putting four deep threats on three deep defenders, so by simple math somebody runs free. The outside receivers run off the corners and pin them in their thirds. Your two slots attack the seams right at the lone safety, and he can only carry one. Read his hips and throw the other seam. This is the bread and butter, and it keeps eating until your opponent proves he can take it away.

Four verticals attacking Cover 3, both seams stressing the single high safety — Four verts: the outside guys pin the corners, both slots hit the seams, the safety picks one.

Flood a third when they squat

If your buddy starts sitting on the seams, stop banging your head into them and flood one side instead. Send three receivers into the same deep third at different depths. Put a go route up top to clear out the corner. Underneath it, run a deep out or corner around fifteen yards. Then leak a back into the flat. The corner has to honor the deep route, the flat defender gets stuck under it, and you take whoever they leave open. Roll the pocket that way and the read gets even easier because you cut the field in half.

Flood concept versus Cover 3: go, sail, and flat stretching one deep third — Flood: the go clears the corner, the sail and the flat hi-lo the curl defender. Take whoever he leaves open.

Smash when you're in a hurry

Short on time and you just want a clean completion? Run smash at the boundary corner. A hitch sits underneath while a corner route climbs behind it, both aimed at the same deep-third defender. He cannot squat the hitch and carry the corner at the same time. Whatever he picks, you throw the other one.

Smash concept versus Cover 3: hitch under a corner route at the boundary — Smash: hitch underneath, corner route over the top, both at the deep-third corner. He can't carry both.

When they go Match, go underneath

Here is where the sharp players get you. A good opponent runs Cover 3 Match, where the underneath defenders carry your verticals up the field instead of dropping to a spot. Your pretty seams just got swallowed whole. Do not keep forcing it into coverage. Drop down underneath where Match leaves the door wide open. Crossers and mesh shred it because those defenders are busy running with verts and the middle goes empty, and a simple flat route still drags the curl defender out of the way every single time. Make them guess wrong twice.

The whole plan

Read the safety first. When they spot-drop, take a seam. When they squat on the seams, flood a third. When they switch to Match, dump it underneath. Boot it up, hunt for that one high safety, and go cook.

Where this came from Distilled from a breakdown by SuperBack PGS. Watch the full video for the rep-by-rep version.