The Curl Flats is an excellent passing concept that attacks and beats most zone coverage’s found in football videos games. For players that are struggling to the pass the ball, this passing concept is easy to learn and execute. The simple design of this passing concept makes for an easy read high-low read.
Play Diagram and Quick Play Breakdown:
The Gun Doubles– Curl Flats has mirror pass routes being run on both sides of the field .The split end (X) and the slot receiver run a curl flat combo in the left side. On the right side, the flanker (B) and tight end run that same route combination. The runningback runs a delay curl route out of the backfield.
Playbooks Found In:
- Brian Billick
- Buccaneers
- Colts
- Cowboys
- Lions
- Panthers
- Pass Balanced
- Redskins
- Run n Gun
- Steelers
- Texans
Quick Set Up:
- None
Pass Reads Order:
- SL (Y)
- SE (X)
- RB (RB)
- FL (B)
- TE (A)
Play Breakdown:
In the image above, notice the X and Y receivers run a curl flat combo to the right and the A and B run a curl flat route combo to the right. This is known as mirroring pass routes.
The defense comes out in Cover 3 coverage.
The quarterback can tell before the ball is snapped that Cover 3 coverage is called, by looking to see if there is a safety lined up over the deep middle. In this case it’s the free safety. He also can look at the two cornerbacks. If they line up at normal depth, chances are it’s sometime type of 3 deep coverage.
Once the ball is snapped, the quarterback looks to see if the safety drops back over the deep middle. In the image above, the free safety is the defender dropping in deep zone coverage over the deep middle.
He also can check to see how to corners are dropping. In the image above, the corners are dropping straight back, thus telling the quarterback they are playing zone coverage.
Notice the flats are covered by the nickelback and strong safety. The slot (Y) and tight end (A) are not open.
The split end (X) and flanker (B) are open as they curl back towards the quarterback.
The ball is thrown towards the split end. Notice the right cornerback is about 5-yards off the split end when the ball is thrown.
The split end makes the catch for a 10-yard pick up.
Coaching Points:
- Against Cover 3 coverage, the two outside receivers are good choices to throw once they break towards the corners as the cornerbacks will cheat towards inside to cover the slot and tight end who both run seam routes.
- The offensive play called in this breakdown is called Gun Doubles – Curl Flats. This play gives the quarterback an easy high – low read on both sides for the field. We generally decide before the snap which direction we are going to look to throw to. In this case, we look to the the left side of the field towards the split end (X) and slot (Y). The slot runs a shoot route towards flat, while the split end runs a curl route. If no defender covers the slot as he runs towards the left flat, then the ball should be thrown immediately to him. If the slot is covered, then we would look to throw to the split end running the curl route. If he is open, we would throw him the ball.
- If neither of those two receivers are open, then we look to throw to the runningback (RB) running the delayed curl route out of the backfield.
- Keep in mind, we could easily read the right side first where the exact same route combo is being ran by the tight end (A) and flanker (B).
