Running a successful offense is contingent on confusing the defense.
Against good defenses, teams can’t just run the same few plays over and over again and expect to be successful every time.
Misdirection plays such as play-action passes and draw runs are great ways to keep the defense off balance and guessing at all times.
However, not all misdirection plays are meant to confuse the entire defense.
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The Cover 3 defense is one of the most popular base zone coverage defenses in football today.
Much like the Cover 2, it involves rushing four down defensive linemen on every play — with the remaining seven defenders dropping into coverage.
Where the defensive differs from the Cover 2 is that it will drop three defenders deep and keep the remaining four as “under” defenders.
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Cover 4 is one of the most popular defensive schemes in football.
Also known as Quarters coverage, it includes having four defenders deep and three-under in a zone-type defensive scheme.
At the same time, it’s very popular because defenses are able to use principles of man-to-man defensive schemes to allow either of the safeties to put double coverage on the offense’s big-time receivers.
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ByCoach Martin|Football Basics
Wide receivers spend a lot of time building up the basic skills their position requires.
This includes speed, agility, strength, explosion and soft hands, to name a few.
One “skill” that is often overlooked, though, is the ability of wide receivers to line up correctly and to explode off the line of scrimmage.
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ByCoach Martin|Football Basics
In short-yardage situations, a football offense will often change their playcalling approach to gain just a yard or two.
On third-and-2, for example, most teams will call plays that have the objective of only gaining those two yards necessary.
Instead of spreading the field out and calling a long passing play, for example, the offense may bring in extra offensive linemen, tight ends and fullbacks to power the ball forward a few yards on the ground.
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The Cover 2 defense is one of the most popular defensive schemes in all of football.
While it was rarely used 30 years ago, teams now deploy it in all different fashions at every level of the game.
The reason why so many defenses are using some version of the Cover 2 defense is quite simple — it’s very effective.
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ByCoach Martin|Football Routes
The Shallow Cross is one of the simplest routes for both a receiver to run and a quarterback to complete.
There is nothing too complicated about the Shallow Cross route.
The receiver will simply drag across the field from one side to the other, and the quarterback will aim to hit him in stride as he’s doing so.
Despite being so simple and straightforward, it’s one of the most effective routes you can run in a football game at any level.
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ByCoach Martin|Football Strategies
In football, a kickoff always occurs at the beginning, at the start of the second half, and following every score.
This is how a change of possession occurs in these situations.
In most kickoffs, the kicker will simply drive the ball as far downfield as he can — looking to either get a touchback or at least pin the receiving team deep within their own end.
But, there are other times when they might want to use a different tactic to prevent dynamic returners from gaining a lot of yardage on a kick return.
This tactic is what’s called pooch kick.
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ByCoach Martin|Football Routes
Of all the routes in football, the Go route is one of the easiest to teach — it’s simply a deep route run straight downfield.
Of course, like any passing route in football, there are nuances to the Go route that make it a little more intricate than simply “run as fast as you can downfield.”
The Go route is obviously one of the more devastating passing routes in football.
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ByCoach Martin|Football Routes
The Stick route is one of the more popular passing routes seen today in college football and the NFL.
In most cases, it’s run as part of a passing route concept that includes three (3) different receivers, all of whom line up on the same side of the field.
The idea behind the Stick is that, when taken together, the three different routes will provide plenty of space and one-on-one coverage for the receivers.
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