When do you call Cover 6?

Call it when you read a flood or a three-level stretch to one side. You cloud that side so a corner sits the out and a safety caps the top, putting a defender in the window a flood usually finds open. More broadly, run it any time you want to defend the two halves of the field differently.

Verticals to the clouded side beat it. That half rides on one deep safety, so three receivers running vertical leave the inner seam open with nobody deep over it. Motioning the bunch from the cloud side over to the quarters side hurts it too, since your three-level help ends up on the wrong half.

What is the difference between Cover 6 and Cover 2?

Cover 2 plays the same two-deep structure across the whole field. Cover 6 plays Cover 2 to one half only and quarters to the other, so it is really half of a Cover 2 bolted to half of a quarters call. You get the squat-corner flat coverage on the side you need it and keep true quarters on the back side.

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What Is Cover 6 in College Football 27? (The Answer to the Flood)

Q: What is Cover 6 in College Football 27?

Cover 6 is a split-field coverage, quarters to one half of the field and Cover 2 to the other. Coaches call it quarter-quarter-half. The split lets you put a different structure on each side of the field on the same snap, which is what makes it work as a flood answer.

4 min readCFB 27 Dynasty

Cover 6 against a flood across the snap. Hit play or drag the slider. The second and third plays show the looks that expose it.

Cover 6 is a split-field coverage. You play quarters to one half of the field and Cover 2 to the other, so each side gets its own structure on the same snap. Coaches call it quarter-quarter-half, and that split is exactly what makes it the cleanest answer to a flood.

A flood stretches one side of the field at three levels and beats the Box check because the out-breaking sail settles into a window where Box has nobody home. Scrub the graphic up top and watch how Cover 6 closes that window. You cloud the flood side, and now there is a hat at every level of the stretch.

What "cloud" actually does

Cloud means the corner squats. He sits the flat and the short out while the rest of that half folds in behind him. The nickel sinks under the curl. The safety caps the top and takes the go.

That gives you a defender at all three levels on the side the flood is attacking. The sail that ran into open grass against Box now has a body sitting right in its lap. The back side plays true quarters, so the lone receiver over there gets bracketed by a corner and a safety.

Why you check into it from Box

When you read a flood the whole way, get out of Box before the snap and into Cover 6. Box is your rub answer for a bunch and it is great at that, but stretch it sideways with a flood and it leaks. Cover 6 clouds the flood side. The corner drops on the out and a safety caps the top, which plants a hat in the exact window where the sail came open.

Cover 6 is the answer when they stretch you sideways with a flood. If instead it is just a vertical off the point man, Bingo morphs the bunch call to cover the deep ball without leaving it.

The labels in the graphic show the split, quarters one way and the cloud the other. That first play is the whole reason the call exists.

When to call it

Call Cover 6 when you read a flood or a three-level horizontal stretch to one side. If a team keeps hitting you with sail and out concepts to the field, this is the check that drops a defender in that throwing lane.

The bigger idea is that Cover 6 lets you defend the two halves of the field differently on purpose. Soft squat coverage to the side that is stressing you, true quarters to the quiet side. Any time you want a different answer on each half, this is the call.

Where it leaks

Cover 6 is asymmetric, and that is the cost of it. The cloud side rides on one deep safety, so it is thin to verticals. Send three vertical up the clouded side and the inner seam splits the field with nobody deep over it. Scrub the second play and watch that seam run free.

You also have to set the cloud to the correct side. Cloud the boundary and let them motion the bunch over to your quarters half. Now the flood window comes right back, because your three-level help is sitting on the empty side. The third play shows that exact burn. So set your cloud to the flood read pre-snap, and the second they motion the strength across, get off it.

Before you bank on it at launch

One heads-up. These check names are read off last year's menus, so confirm Cover 6 and its cloud checks actually made the cut in College Football 27 once you are in a real game. Split-field coverage has lived in these games forever and it looks safe, but get on the sticks and make sure the menu still lets you cloud a call to a side.

Next time a team floods you out of a bunch and that sail keeps coming open, quit eating it. Read the flood and set your cloud to it. Let the squat corner and the half safety camp in that window. Make them go find a different answer.