Attack Flag Football Quarters Coverage Part 2


By FirstDown PlayBook on Nov 4, 2023
FirstDown PlayBook Flag Football

On Thursday we talked about how to beat flag football quarters coverage. Our focus was on the youth flag football offense and more importantly it centered on how a flag football coach needs to be smart about their play selection. Today we will expand it to a look at adult flag football or when you are coaching older players. You still need to be mindful of your personnel but older players may be able to handle these concepts.

Quarters Coverage Hates The Dagger

There’s nothing like using a defensive coverage against themselves. The Dagger concept is a combination of our two suggestions in our first blog. The Dagger concept involves running your inside receiver on a go route. You are looking to clear out the inside quarters defender. The inside quarters coverage player is going to carry the inside receiver.

Flag Football Plays On A Flag Football Field

This allows your outside receiver to break inside to catch the ball in the voided area over the middle. You will see in the video that we talk a lot about the fact that quarters coverage means that the defenders covering your outside receivers are playing outside leverage. This allows the in route to win. We touch on more detailed coaching points in the video.

Bait The Inside Quarters Defender & Throw Behind

You will see in the video that there are several different names for this concept. Some coaches call it the “Mills” concept and others just refer to it by the route numbers being run. It can be called a 48, 68 or even an 88 because what is happening is you are baiting the aggressive inside quarters player with your adult flag football slot receiver.

Flag Football Curl Flat Read

Meanwhile, your outside receiver is running a post route in behind this. Once again, if a defense is playing true flag football quarters coverage the outside defender is playing with outside leverage. This should allow your outside receiver to win on the post. If the defender is playing with inside leverage then you have to look at your man coverage beaters.

Attack Flag Football Quarters Coverage With Mesh

Finally, the last concept we want to mention is the “Mesh” or “Drive” concept. Full disclosure, this is a hard concept to run with effectiveness if you don’t practice it enough. Instead of creating a high low that breaks down the flag football quarters coverage you will have receivers stacked on top of one another.

If this happens then no one will be open. Even worse, your quarterback is going to throw the ball into traffic resulting in a tipped ball and the dreaded interception. If run properly though, it can give your quarterback a easily completable throw to your shallow cross or even the basic cross.

So as you watch the video, take it in with realistic expectations for your flag football offensive players. It is inevitable that as flag football grows and becomes more popular, it will also become more complex. That’s a good thing. Just make sure you attack adult flag football quarters coverage with a plan that fits your personnel.

FirstDown PlayBook offers you plenty of flag football help including 4v4, 6v6, 7v7, 8v8 and 5v5 flag football plays. You should consider one or two of these for your Adult Flag offense. Tap on any one of the tiles below to visit the article describing these powerful plays.

Angellica Grayson