Cover 3 Weak Shell?

[Bakes]

Well I'm bowing down to you football god's and admitting I don't know everything but there is one thing I would like to know about..What are the Pro's and Con's of the Defensive adjustments..the ones where you hold RB and move the Right stick around..I think there are four options..Cover 3 weak shell..Safety Weak..Cover one weak shell and another one i can't remember right now.. what do these do? Well I see that it moves the safeties and Corners around but I'm not sure the situational usage of these..help would be appreciated..:thumbsup:

[Bakes]

Bump..so it doesn't get shotdown into the duldrums

[BallOut247]

In the following, "cover" refers to the "shell" that the defense rolls into after the snap of the ball, more specifically the number of defenders guarding the deep portion of the field.

Cover 3 refers to 3 deep defenders each guarding one-third of the deep zone. Cover 3 schemes are usually used to defend against passes, mainly those towards the deep middle of the field. Unlike Cover 2 schemes that create a natural hole between safeties, Cover 3's extra deep defender is able to patrol the middle area effectively.

The most basic Cover 3 scheme involves 2 CBs and a safety. Upon snap, the CBs work for depth, backpedaling into their assigned zone. One safety moves toward the center of the field. The other safety is free to rotate into the flat area (about 2-4 yards beyond the line of scrimmage), provide pass coverage help, or blitz.

One of the biggest benefits of the cover 3 coverage scheme is the ability to walk the SS up into the box with minimal to no changes in the coverage due to the pre-snap center field position of the FS. This enables the defense to play both man and zone coverage out of an 8 man front while cover 2 schemes allow only for man coverage with 8 man fronts. The New England Patriots are notorious for using SS Rodney Harrison as more of a third OLB than a coverage safety and regularly employ cover 3 coverages.

Cover 3 schemes are succeptable to short, timed passes to the outside due to the hard drop of both CBs. This puts pressure on the OLBs to get into their drop quickly. Another disadvantage of cover 3 schemes is they are relatively easy to diagnose by opposing QBs. Because of this teams will often employ slight wrinkles in their coverage to confuse offenses. An example of this includes employing man coverage on one side and zone on another or swaping coverage zones between defenders.


So Cover 3 Weak Shell would mean...after the snap the Safeties and CBS will "Shell" into a Cover 3 Zone shading the weak side???? Not a defensive coach but sounds good doesnt it lol.

[Bakes]

Well thanks for the info..but I have a good grasp on Cover 1's 2's and 3's and where the player's go and stuff like that..I probably didn't state this the way I wanted but even after I pick maybe say a Cover 1, I have the option to select say a Cover 3 Weak shell..in selecting the shell it doesn't change my original coverages..now from my thinking maybe it is just a diversion to disguise the coverage..am I right in thinking that that is what these DB adjustments are for?..Disguising the actual coverage?

[Reed#20]

So Cover 3 Weak Shell would mean...after the snap the Safeties and CBS will "Shell" into a Cover 3 Zone shading the weak side???? Not a defensive coach but sounds good doesnt it lol.

Actually what this means is this is the look the secondary gives you prior to the snap. So on D you can call Cover 2 Soft and give the offense a cover 3 deep shell look. On the snap the Defense will roll to 2 deep. It's just something to throw off the QB read. It's a very nice addition.

[Bakes]

Ok cool that's what i started to think it was but wasn't sure..I'll be using this alot

[BallOut247]

Yeah...wikipedia can make anyone look like a genius lol

[nyknicks33]

I'm under the impression that it is a disguise.

For example..lets say you call a play which calls for "zero" coverage..man on man all over the field, but do not want to tip your hand, so you coverage shift to "cover 3 shell" which aligns your secondary in a cover 3 type look.

gotta be careful though..depending on the offensive formation you may have some guys way out of position.