What is Palms coverage in College Football 27?

Palms, also called 2-Read or Cloud, is a match coverage from the Quarters family that you call to one side. The corner and the safety to that side both read the slot (the #2 receiver). If the slot breaks to the flat, the corner traps it and the safety takes the outside receiver over the top. If the slot runs vertical, it plays exactly like Quarters. You call it to a two or three receiver side to take away the quick flat and the smash concept.

How do you run Palms in College Football 27?

Call it to your trips side in a 3x1 set and set your match principles in coaching adjustments. The corner traps the flat when the slot goes there and plays the outside man when the slot goes vertical. User your backside safety, the free one away from the trips, and rob the middle, since crossers and posts are where match coverage leaks. That leaves your field safety to top the outside man on his own.

How do you beat Palms coverage?

Beat the trapping corner with a double move. Run the slot on an out-and-up, fake the flat and then wheel up the sideline, so the corner jumps the flat and the slot runs behind him. Four verticals stresses it too, because the safety has to carry the slot and cannot also help on the outside receiver.

What is the difference between Palms and Quarters?

Same family, one rule apart. In Quarters the corner plays the outside receiver in man (MEG) the whole way. In Palms the corner reads the slot first: slot to the flat means he leaves the outside man and traps the flat while the safety takes the outside man deep. When the slot goes vertical, Palms is Quarters.

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How to Run Palms Coverage in College Football 27 (2-Read, Explained)

6 min readCFB 27 Dynasty

A lot of guys call Palms thinking it is just a Cover 4 drop, everybody bailing to a spot and hoping nobody comes open. The real thing is meaner. Palms is Quarters with one trapdoor: the slot runs to the flat, your corner pounces on it, and the safety takes the outside guy over the top.

Here is the move: call it to your trips side in a 3x1. Trips offenses live on the quick game to the three-receiver side, and Palms traps exactly that. The trade is that your backside corner is left alone on the single receiver, so know your matchup before you dial it up.

If you already run Quarters, and you should, here is how to run Quarters, Palms is its running mate. Quarters is your base. Palms is what you call to a side to trap the flat. They go hand in hand. And if match coverage is still fuzzy, start with how match works first.

What Palms actually is

Palms goes by a couple of names, 2-Read and Cloud. The 2-Read name is the one that teaches you something. The corner and the safety to that side both read the slot, the #2 receiver, and they split him up based on where he goes.

One rule runs the whole coverage, and it lives on that slot. Slot to the flat, the corner traps it and the safety takes the outside man deep. Slot vertical, nobody traps and you are playing straight Quarters. One read, two outcomes.

In your 3x1 that read happens to the trips side. The corner and the field safety read the #2 of the trips. The nickel walls the #3, the inside trips receiver, so he cannot release clean up the seam, and the backside safety leans over to help on top of him. Your backside corner takes the single receiver in man with no help. That island is the price you pay to gang up on the trips quick game.

Palms to the trips side in a 3x1: the trips corner and the field safety both read the #2, the nickel walls the #3, a backside safety helps over the top, and the backside corner is solo in man on the single receiver. — Palms to trips. The corner and the field safety both read the slot (#2). The nickel walls #3 and a safety helps on top. Your backside corner is on an island with the single receiver.

The read: watch the slot

Everything hangs on the slot, the inside receiver. Your corner and your safety both have their eyes on him at the snap. Here are the two things he can do.

Slot to the flat: spring the trap. The corner drives down and traps it, which just means he leaves the outside receiver and sits on that quick out route in front of him. The safety then takes the outside receiver over the top, man to man, so nothing gets behind. This is why Palms eats the smash concept alive. Smash is a hitch underneath a corner route, and Palms hands the hitch to the trapping corner and the corner route to the safety. Both covered, and your corner is sitting on the easy throw waiting to jump it.

Palms to trips, slot to the flat: the trips corner drives down and traps the flat, the field safety takes the number one over the top, the nickel walls the number three, and the backside corner stays solo on the single receiver. — Slot to the flat. The trips corner leaves #1 and traps the flat, the safety takes #1 over the top. The quick game trips offenses love dies right here.

Slot vertical: it is just Quarters. If the slot climbs straight up the seam, nobody traps anything. The corner stays glued to the outside man in MEG (Man Everywhere he Goes, true man coverage that follows him anywhere), and the safety carries the slot up the field. Same rules as Quarters, which is why these two coverages travel together.

Palms to trips with a vertical slot: no trap, the trips corner stays man on the number one in MEG and the field safety carries the slot, exactly like Quarters. — Slot goes vertical, no trap. The corner stays man on #1 and the safety carries the slot. That is Quarters.

The Mike behind it carries the back out of the backfield and sits in the short middle until then.

Where it gets beat

Palms has one clean answer against it, and good players know it cold. It is the double move by the slot.

Run the slot on an out-and-up. He sticks his foot in the ground like he is breaking to the flat, the corner reads flat and drives to trap it, and then the slot wheels straight up the sideline behind him. Now the corner is sitting on a route that vanished and the slot is running free, because the safety is busy taking the outside man. That is the whole game against Palms.

Beating palms from trips with an out-and-up: the slot fakes the flat, the trips corner bites and traps, and the slot wheels up the sideline into the window behind him. — Out-and-up. The slot fakes the flat, the corner bites and traps, the slot wheels up behind him into the window. The safety is on #1, so nobody is left for the wheel.

The fix is your field safety, the one over the trips. His rule is to top #1 the second the corner jumps the flat, so the wheel runs right into him when he plays it honest. If your CPU safety is slow to climb and the double move keeps hitting, flip your user over to him until they quit trying it. Four verticals stresses the same spot, so carry the slot honest and live with the checkdown.

And do not forget the X you left on an island. If they have a burner alone on the backside, that one-on-one is the other place a sharp player goes. If that matchup scares you, check out of Palms and call something with help over there.

Run it on the sticks

Set your Palms or 2-Read principles in coaching adjustments and save the whole side as a custom adjustment macro so you can call it fast. You call Palms to a side, so pair it with something on the other side, usually Quarters or a man call.

The one habit that matters: user your backside safety, the one away from the trips. He is your free hat. His eyes go to the #3 seam first, the inside trips receiver coming up the middle, and from there he robs whatever crosses, a dig or the post off that seam. If nothing shows in the middle, he rallies to the ball. That free robber is the most valuable defender you can put your hands on, because the middle is exactly where match coverage springs a leak.

Usering him means you are trusting your field safety, the one over the trips, to top #1 on his own when the corner traps. So the out-and-up on the trap side is on him by rule. If that CPU safety keeps biting it, flip your user over there.

Honest flag, same as the rest of the site. This is built off last year's game, so treat the exact menu and names as our read until College Football 27 is out. The football is real and Palms has been in these games for years. We will lock the specifics the day it drops.

What to run tonight

Call Palms to your trips side in a 3x1 set. User your backside safety, the free one away from the trips, and clean up everything that crosses the middle. Your corner sits on the flat on his own, so the first time they run smash or a quick out, he is already there waiting on it.

Then respect the out-and-up. The second a good player figures out you are trapping, he will fake the flat and go. Carry it honest and make him prove he can hit the deep one. Take everything underneath all day.

Where this came from Distilled from a breakdown by Superback PGS (@superbackpgs). Watch the full video for the rep-by-rep version.