Beating Quarters Coverage Means Understanding It
Here we go. Let’s look at your final segment of FirstDown PlayBook’s Coverage Beaters series. Once you get past the basic coverages played at the youth football level it is important to slow down and explain. Quarters coverage is a different level of football in several ways. To beat it, you first must understand it.
Man coverage should always be your starting point when it comes to teaching defense. Imagine trying to teach an eight year old zone coverage before they even understood how to cover a receiver. Youth football coaches, I am talking to you. You should not be running very many zone coverages and certainly not the one I am about to detail.
Previous Coverage Beaters: Cover 1: Beating Man Coverage
Quarters coverage was once an innovative thing because it dictated that all defenders saw the same thing. Notice the difference? The defenders didn’t just play their man or their zone. They now were asked to read an offensive player and all react accordingly.
When Quarters coverage is run well, it is hard to beat. Nick Saban and his protegees have long proven that. At the end of the day though it is cheating. Quarters coverage coaches want to have their cake and eat it too.
Previous Coverage Beaters: Cover 2 : Finding Seams
They want to have that one player defend the run and the pass. Depending on the formation that particular safety is counting on seeing what your players do on the snap of the football. It’s good football and more importantly it is smart football.
At some point, football gets deeper than how to to double team a 3 technique on Duo. Duo or Power will get you to the next first down…until it does not. Quarters coverage will likely be the reason the 3 technique stunted and destroyed your Duo or Power play. The defense just added an extra quarters defender that allowed that to happen.
Previous Coverage Beaters: Cover 3 Picking On That Free Safety
In order to explain how we we attack quarters coverage, we want to explain the all important point about understanding how the defense plays quarters coverage. It’s often about what formation you are lining up in and what the defense has called. It has nothing and everything to do with your Guard about to block Duo.
This video takes you through how FirstDown PlayBook categorizes our two quarters coverages. Cover 4 is quarters across the board and cover 6 is quarters to the strong side and cover 2 on the weak side of the formation. Once again, once you understand the coverages, you will be able to take advantage of the FirstDown PlayBook coverage beaters section.
