Neuheisel on QB Reads (Part 2)

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

This is the second part of a video of Coach Rick Neuheisel giving a clinic on how he teaches his QBs to break down coverages. Also see: Part 1: 1-High Safety Defense and Part 3: Vertical Reads and Trigger Drills

2-High Safety Defense

via smartfootball.com

2-high safety defenses are coverages that have the middle of the field open and at least two deep defenders. If you are running cover 2 with two deep safeties then you will probably have 5 underneath defenders, so the thought process has to be different than if you were attacking cover 3 as in part 1 of the video. 

If you have 3 deep and 4 underneath then you can work the underneath zones and find a 2 on 1. If you have 2 deep and 5 under then you have to work vertical as it is a lot harder to get 2 on 1 matchups - the defense has as many defenders as you have receivers, and they are not spaced out as far. However, there are usually only two deep players. 

A couple things I would like to highlight:

• CRN mentions that you can work for a 1 on 1 using option routes - could look something like this where the receiver just works to get open against a defender.
• The two red dummies represent the 2-high safeties and are at 22 yards, which Coach Neuheisel calls "the ceiling" - no passes beyond that as the safeties will then have time to converge.
• High-low and low-high reads are the same as vertical stretches, which you will get with concepts like smash.
• Neuheisel's working with a 5-step drop, and he mentions the plant and the pop up (or the hitch step). Plant means that he is throwing on the 5th step, when his right leg hits the ground at the end of the drop and he plants and throws immediately. That throw he makes in the video has to come out quickly and cannot be late or else it will be knocked down or picked off. The pop up, or the hitch step, is when he plants and then takes another step forwards before throwing. This goes back to what he said in part 1 when he mentioned that he teaches his QBs to keep their "eyes slightly before their feet". You have to know where you want to go with the ball before you get to that plant step or else you don't be ready to throw on time - if you have to take extra steps then you're looking at a sack or worse. That footwork has to be consistent in order to get the timing down.