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Film room: Strengths and weaknesses of Cowboys DC Dan Quinn’s base defense
One thing that should definitely make Cowboys fans happy: Quinn’s base scheme is strong against the run.
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FILE - Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, pictured here while he was head coach of the Falcons during a game against the Buccaneers on Dec. 29, 2019, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)(Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
By John Owning
9:00 AM on Jan 20, 2021
Last week, we discussed some of the basics of new Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn’s base defense. This week, we dive a little bit deeper to go over some of the inherent strengths and weaknesses of his base Cover 3 scheme.
It’s important to note that this isn’t the only scheme Quinn uses. Nothing is absolute in football. He will incorporate myriad other coverages (including different types of man, man-match, zone-match and true zone) and fronts into his weekly game plan depending on a variety of factors.
With that out of the way, let’s start by peeling back a layer to examine some of the finer details of Quinn’s base scheme before diving into its strengths and weaknesses.
‘Vision-and-break’ Cover 3
The Football 101 synopsis of Quinn’s Cover 3 defense is that it’s a middle-of-the-field-closed (MOFC; deep zone defender in the middle) three-deep, four-under look that allows you to be plus-one in the box (one more defender than there are blockers) while taking away much of the vertical passing game.
The Football 201 synopsis, however, unveils the type of Cover 3 that Quinn (and most of the Pete Carroll coaching tree) likes to use.
There are two distinct umbrellas of Cover 3 coverages (and all zone coverages, really): pattern-match (zone with man principles) and spot-drop (true zone coverage also referred to as “country” zone or “vision-and-break” zone).
Pattern-match has been around for a long time, but it’s been popularized by Alabama head coach Nick Saban. Basically, it’s regular top-down zone coverage (meaning they stop on top of routes instead of in trail or hip-to-hip coverage) until a receiver enters a defender’s zone. Then, the defender must play man coverage, or “match” the route by the receiver who entered his zone — essentially, it’s zone coverage that turns into man coverage. Pattern-match coverages require the defenders in coverage to be able to process different route combinations quickly so they can relate to the proper routes and minimize throwing windows. If you want to get an in-depth understanding of pattern-match coverages, I recommend this Saban clinic.
Spot-drop zone coverage — or vision-and-break, as I like to refer to it (I think it paints a better mental picture of what the defense is trying to do) — predates pattern-matches and is often viewed as old school or outdated, but as the Carroll coaching tree can attest, it’s still incredibly effective with the right personnel. Vision-and-break zone coverage basically gives each coverage defender an area of the field to cover, which they do while “visioning” the quarterback and “breaking” when he begins to throw. This is a much simpler coverage for defenders to learn than pattern-match, focusing on the passer instead of relating to various route combinations.
The general key difference between the two is where the intermediate zone defenders focus their eyes. In spot-drop, their eyes are almost exclusively on the quarterback as they use peripheral vision to ”feel” the routes around them. In pattern-match, those defenders get their eyes on their man once he enters their zone.
Quinn revealed at a recent coaching clinic that he likes to use match-style coverages in short-yardage situations because defenders tend to play tighter to the receivers. In addition, there are checks and reads built into Quinn’s defense that make his spot-drop Cover 3 look a little more match-like. For example, the Carroll coaching tree uses a “soft sky” check to defend four verts, a common Cover 3 beater.
But as was the case in Atlanta and Seattle, Quinn generally prefers to use vision-and-break zone, with the Cover 3 version being the defense’s base coverage.
While the deep-third defenders bail to their zones, the intermediate defenders (the “hook” and “buzz” players in the graphic) are taught to drop to their respective zone and drift, or “melt,” within it in accordance with the quarterback’s drop and eyes.
While the quarterback makes his drop, the intermediate defenders are supposed to push for depth (a passer’s dropback tends to correlate with the depth of the routes in his progression, so longer drops mean longer routes and shorter drops mean shorter routes). But once the quarterback reaches the top of his drop, the zone defender stops dropping for depth and starts melting with the passer’s eyes. If the quarterback looks left, the defender drifts that way. If the quarterback looks right, the defender drifts that way. This allows those defenders to make plus breaks because they’re essentially drifting toward the pass as soon as the quarterback looks that way.
Now that we know the type of Cover 3 Quinn likes to use, we can better examine its strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths
Strong against the run
The NFL is a passing league, but as the Cowboys showed this season, a horrific run defense can still be troubling beyond belief. So, the fact Quinn’s base defense is strong against the run should make fans happy. It should be said that even if Cowboys can call the perfect scheme to defend the run, it won’t matter until they get better players to execute it. The X’s and O’s are important, but the Jimmys and Joes are even more so.
Quinn’s base defense is strong against the run because it loads the box, so there’s a defender for every gap and a plus-one advantage in or around the box. This makes reads much easier for second-level defenders, leading to functional run defense with sound structure — the essence of single-gap defenses.
Loading the box like this is so effective that many teams, especially in college football, will just check out of run plays against looks like this. This can be an effective weapon to leverage against certain teams.
Play faster
Because all of the coverage defenders have their eyes on the quarterback within their respective zones, they are able to play fast and attack the catch point.
Notice in the above clip how the “buzz” defender starts breaking on the shallow curl route as soon as the quarterback gets to the top of his drop. The intended receiver may look open when the quarterback begins his throwing motion, but the buzz defender is able to quickly undercut the pass for an interception.
This would have been harder in a man or pattern-match scheme because the linebacker’s eyes wouldn’t have been on the passer.
Also, look at how simple the coverage is for each defender. They’re simply dropping to a spot and melting their coverage with the quarterback’s eyes. This enables them to play fast and break on the ball, which should lead to more turnover opportunities.
Because defenders have their eyes on the passer, they can follow them to the football to jump routes for interception opportunities. Here’s an example:
To the boundary side of the field (bottom of the screen), Falcons cornerback Desmond Trufant is playing his deep-third responsibility in Quinn’s vision-and-break Cover 3 defense. He does an excellent job of staying on top of the vertical route in his zone, and because his eyes are on the passer, he’s able to easily jump the route for the pick.
Added physicality
Defenses that are effective in this scheme often get labeled as physical, tone-setting units, and while some of that is due to the types of players who are typically used, the scheme just inherently leads to physical collisions in the short-to-intermediate portions of the field.
Because defenders are dropping to depth, melting with the passer’s eyes and making plus breaks, they are able to build up a lot of momentum by the time they reach the catch point. A lot of times, there’s more than one defender arriving, leading to some real bone-shivering hits.
In the above clip, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott dumps the ball off on a short curl route to tight end Dalton Schultz, who gets sandwiched by the hook and buzz defenders to his side. While the play gains positive yards for the offense, it still takes a physical toll on the opponent that can pay dividends later in the game, especially against receivers.
Modular
You probably noticed I haven’t used labels like linebackers, cornerbacks or safeties to describe any of the positions in Quinn’s base scheme.
That’s not by mistake.
The “hook,” “buzz” and “deep-third” roles can be largely interchangeable if taught correctly, allowing creative defensive coordinators to dress up a simple coverage in ways that are complex for the offense but simple for the defense.
In my opinion, unless you have the overwhelming talent Quinn did during his stint as defensive coordinator for the Seahawks with the Legion of Boom, this is the No. 1 key for this type of defense to be successful in today’s NFL.
If a defense is going to align in static spot-drop Cover 3, it’s going to get picked apart by even slightly above-average quarterbacks. But if you’re able to change the picture for the passer by mixing up which defenders play which roles, it gives the defense a much better opportunity to be successful despite playing largely the same coverage.
This was a big problem when Richard was running Dallas’ secondary, which didn’t employ enough changeups and tendency breakers within the base defenses to keep quarterbacks guessing. Luckily for the Cowboys, Quinn has displayed more of a willingness to take advantage of the modular capabilities of vision-and-break Cover 3. Here’s a great example:
On this play, with zero cornerbacks to the boundary against Dallas’ 3x1 shotgun formation, Atlanta is feinting as if it’s going to be in man coverage. Typically in zone coverage, the boundary corner won’t travel to the trips side of the field. But when the ball is snapped, the Falcons drop into their vision-and-break Cover 3 scheme, with linebacker Mykal Walker (No. 43) taking the deep-third responsibility to the boundary that’s usually reserved for corners.
You can tell Prescott is slightly confused by the disguise, which forces him to check the ball down to the shallow curl route, way short of the sticks.
Eliminate big plays and force long drives
As you can probably tell, playing top-down spot-drop coverage helps eliminate a lot of big plays and force quarterbacks to check the ball down often. This means offenses are scoring on drives of 10-plus plays instead of hitting a big play or two over the top.
While this can keep the defense on the field longer, leading to fatigue toward the end of some games, it also requires an offense to be perfect for longer stretches than it’s used to, which should lead to more turnover opportunities. I don’t like the term “bend-but-don’t-break defense,” but this is why these types of defenses often earn that moniker.
Weaknesses
Overly reliant on the front four to generate pressure
One common thread among the best defenses that utilize the vision-and-break Cover 3 as a base scheme is a ferocious pass rush.
Think about the 49ers’ defense in 2019 that led that team to the Super Bowl. That unit leveraged the vision-and-break Cover 3 to become the best defense in the NFL thanks to a dominant pass rush.
When a quarterback is consistently forced to get the ball out of his hands quickly at the top of his drop, he plays right into the strengths of the vision-and-break Cover 3 scheme, when defenders are able to make plus breaks to condense completion windows and contest catch points.
But when a quarterback has time to sit back and go through his progressions, voids between zones start to develop as a his eyes move from target to target. Moreover, a lack of a pass rush makes the defense vulnerable to eye manipulation by quarterbacks.
So if a quarterback identifies a vision-and-break Cover 3 scheme and has time in the pocket, he can look in one direction — knowing the linebackers will melt that way with his eyes — before whipping his eyes to a different location where a receiver is set up in a void before defenders can react.
There’s barely more than a handful of NFL quarterbacks who can consistently manipulate defenses with their eyes without making a mistake, but this weakness is why many think a vision-and-break Cover 3 scheme tends to struggle against top passers.
Stress on intermediate zone defenders
Just because vision-and-break Cover 3 is one of the simplest coverages in football doesn’t mean it completely eliminates the need to think and process information quickly. No matter how simple or complex the coverage, the ability to quickly and accurately process info is extremely important.
Although the intermediate zone defenders only have spot-drop responsibilities against the pass, they still have to honor their run fits. Against play-action passes and RPOs (run-pass options), the voids between zones tend to enlarge, which can lead to easy pitch-and-catch completions for the offense.
This is why it’s very important to have intermediate zone defenders who can immediately identify run-pass to maintain the proper structure of the defense against play-action and RPOs.
Against condensed formations, the “buzz” defenders (curl-to-flat zone defenders; see the graphic at the top of this article) can usually be outleveraged to the flat since they have to align closer to the box to execute their run fit if needed. Here’s an example:
Notice how the Cowboys are in a 3x1 shotgun formation with a tight bunch to the wide side of the field. Amari Cooper, the outermost receiver in the bunch running a speed-out route to the flat, is aligned about two yards outside of the hash whereas Falcons linebacker LaRoy Reynolds, the buzz defender responsible for the flat zone, is aligned on the hash. Not only is Cooper much more athletic than any linebacker, but he also has a leverage advantage based on alignment.
Reynolds had no chance here, illustrating the types of advantageous environments offenses can create if the defense becomes too predictable.
+++
One thing that should definitely make Cowboys fans happy: Quinn’s base scheme is strong against the run.
FILE - Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, pictured here while he was head coach of the Falcons during a game against the Buccaneers on Dec. 29, 2019, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)(Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
By John Owning
9:00 AM on Jan 20, 2021
Last week, we discussed some of the basics of new Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn’s base defense. This week, we dive a little bit deeper to go over some of the inherent strengths and weaknesses of his base Cover 3 scheme.
It’s important to note that this isn’t the only scheme Quinn uses. Nothing is absolute in football. He will incorporate myriad other coverages (including different types of man, man-match, zone-match and true zone) and fronts into his weekly game plan depending on a variety of factors.
With that out of the way, let’s start by peeling back a layer to examine some of the finer details of Quinn’s base scheme before diving into its strengths and weaknesses.
‘Vision-and-break’ Cover 3
The Football 101 synopsis of Quinn’s Cover 3 defense is that it’s a middle-of-the-field-closed (MOFC; deep zone defender in the middle) three-deep, four-under look that allows you to be plus-one in the box (one more defender than there are blockers) while taking away much of the vertical passing game.
The Football 201 synopsis, however, unveils the type of Cover 3 that Quinn (and most of the Pete Carroll coaching tree) likes to use.
There are two distinct umbrellas of Cover 3 coverages (and all zone coverages, really): pattern-match (zone with man principles) and spot-drop (true zone coverage also referred to as “country” zone or “vision-and-break” zone).
Pattern-match has been around for a long time, but it’s been popularized by Alabama head coach Nick Saban. Basically, it’s regular top-down zone coverage (meaning they stop on top of routes instead of in trail or hip-to-hip coverage) until a receiver enters a defender’s zone. Then, the defender must play man coverage, or “match” the route by the receiver who entered his zone — essentially, it’s zone coverage that turns into man coverage. Pattern-match coverages require the defenders in coverage to be able to process different route combinations quickly so they can relate to the proper routes and minimize throwing windows. If you want to get an in-depth understanding of pattern-match coverages, I recommend this Saban clinic.
Spot-drop zone coverage — or vision-and-break, as I like to refer to it (I think it paints a better mental picture of what the defense is trying to do) — predates pattern-matches and is often viewed as old school or outdated, but as the Carroll coaching tree can attest, it’s still incredibly effective with the right personnel. Vision-and-break zone coverage basically gives each coverage defender an area of the field to cover, which they do while “visioning” the quarterback and “breaking” when he begins to throw. This is a much simpler coverage for defenders to learn than pattern-match, focusing on the passer instead of relating to various route combinations.
The general key difference between the two is where the intermediate zone defenders focus their eyes. In spot-drop, their eyes are almost exclusively on the quarterback as they use peripheral vision to ”feel” the routes around them. In pattern-match, those defenders get their eyes on their man once he enters their zone.
Quinn revealed at a recent coaching clinic that he likes to use match-style coverages in short-yardage situations because defenders tend to play tighter to the receivers. In addition, there are checks and reads built into Quinn’s defense that make his spot-drop Cover 3 look a little more match-like. For example, the Carroll coaching tree uses a “soft sky” check to defend four verts, a common Cover 3 beater.
But as was the case in Atlanta and Seattle, Quinn generally prefers to use vision-and-break zone, with the Cover 3 version being the defense’s base coverage.
While the deep-third defenders bail to their zones, the intermediate defenders (the “hook” and “buzz” players in the graphic) are taught to drop to their respective zone and drift, or “melt,” within it in accordance with the quarterback’s drop and eyes.
While the quarterback makes his drop, the intermediate defenders are supposed to push for depth (a passer’s dropback tends to correlate with the depth of the routes in his progression, so longer drops mean longer routes and shorter drops mean shorter routes). But once the quarterback reaches the top of his drop, the zone defender stops dropping for depth and starts melting with the passer’s eyes. If the quarterback looks left, the defender drifts that way. If the quarterback looks right, the defender drifts that way. This allows those defenders to make plus breaks because they’re essentially drifting toward the pass as soon as the quarterback looks that way.
Now that we know the type of Cover 3 Quinn likes to use, we can better examine its strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths
Strong against the run
The NFL is a passing league, but as the Cowboys showed this season, a horrific run defense can still be troubling beyond belief. So, the fact Quinn’s base defense is strong against the run should make fans happy. It should be said that even if Cowboys can call the perfect scheme to defend the run, it won’t matter until they get better players to execute it. The X’s and O’s are important, but the Jimmys and Joes are even more so.
Quinn’s base defense is strong against the run because it loads the box, so there’s a defender for every gap and a plus-one advantage in or around the box. This makes reads much easier for second-level defenders, leading to functional run defense with sound structure — the essence of single-gap defenses.
Loading the box like this is so effective that many teams, especially in college football, will just check out of run plays against looks like this. This can be an effective weapon to leverage against certain teams.
Play faster
Because all of the coverage defenders have their eyes on the quarterback within their respective zones, they are able to play fast and attack the catch point.
Notice in the above clip how the “buzz” defender starts breaking on the shallow curl route as soon as the quarterback gets to the top of his drop. The intended receiver may look open when the quarterback begins his throwing motion, but the buzz defender is able to quickly undercut the pass for an interception.
This would have been harder in a man or pattern-match scheme because the linebacker’s eyes wouldn’t have been on the passer.
Also, look at how simple the coverage is for each defender. They’re simply dropping to a spot and melting their coverage with the quarterback’s eyes. This enables them to play fast and break on the ball, which should lead to more turnover opportunities.
Because defenders have their eyes on the passer, they can follow them to the football to jump routes for interception opportunities. Here’s an example:
To the boundary side of the field (bottom of the screen), Falcons cornerback Desmond Trufant is playing his deep-third responsibility in Quinn’s vision-and-break Cover 3 defense. He does an excellent job of staying on top of the vertical route in his zone, and because his eyes are on the passer, he’s able to easily jump the route for the pick.
Added physicality
Defenses that are effective in this scheme often get labeled as physical, tone-setting units, and while some of that is due to the types of players who are typically used, the scheme just inherently leads to physical collisions in the short-to-intermediate portions of the field.
Because defenders are dropping to depth, melting with the passer’s eyes and making plus breaks, they are able to build up a lot of momentum by the time they reach the catch point. A lot of times, there’s more than one defender arriving, leading to some real bone-shivering hits.
In the above clip, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott dumps the ball off on a short curl route to tight end Dalton Schultz, who gets sandwiched by the hook and buzz defenders to his side. While the play gains positive yards for the offense, it still takes a physical toll on the opponent that can pay dividends later in the game, especially against receivers.
Modular
You probably noticed I haven’t used labels like linebackers, cornerbacks or safeties to describe any of the positions in Quinn’s base scheme.
That’s not by mistake.
The “hook,” “buzz” and “deep-third” roles can be largely interchangeable if taught correctly, allowing creative defensive coordinators to dress up a simple coverage in ways that are complex for the offense but simple for the defense.
In my opinion, unless you have the overwhelming talent Quinn did during his stint as defensive coordinator for the Seahawks with the Legion of Boom, this is the No. 1 key for this type of defense to be successful in today’s NFL.
If a defense is going to align in static spot-drop Cover 3, it’s going to get picked apart by even slightly above-average quarterbacks. But if you’re able to change the picture for the passer by mixing up which defenders play which roles, it gives the defense a much better opportunity to be successful despite playing largely the same coverage.
This was a big problem when Richard was running Dallas’ secondary, which didn’t employ enough changeups and tendency breakers within the base defenses to keep quarterbacks guessing. Luckily for the Cowboys, Quinn has displayed more of a willingness to take advantage of the modular capabilities of vision-and-break Cover 3. Here’s a great example:
On this play, with zero cornerbacks to the boundary against Dallas’ 3x1 shotgun formation, Atlanta is feinting as if it’s going to be in man coverage. Typically in zone coverage, the boundary corner won’t travel to the trips side of the field. But when the ball is snapped, the Falcons drop into their vision-and-break Cover 3 scheme, with linebacker Mykal Walker (No. 43) taking the deep-third responsibility to the boundary that’s usually reserved for corners.
You can tell Prescott is slightly confused by the disguise, which forces him to check the ball down to the shallow curl route, way short of the sticks.
Eliminate big plays and force long drives
As you can probably tell, playing top-down spot-drop coverage helps eliminate a lot of big plays and force quarterbacks to check the ball down often. This means offenses are scoring on drives of 10-plus plays instead of hitting a big play or two over the top.
While this can keep the defense on the field longer, leading to fatigue toward the end of some games, it also requires an offense to be perfect for longer stretches than it’s used to, which should lead to more turnover opportunities. I don’t like the term “bend-but-don’t-break defense,” but this is why these types of defenses often earn that moniker.
Weaknesses
Overly reliant on the front four to generate pressure
One common thread among the best defenses that utilize the vision-and-break Cover 3 as a base scheme is a ferocious pass rush.
Think about the 49ers’ defense in 2019 that led that team to the Super Bowl. That unit leveraged the vision-and-break Cover 3 to become the best defense in the NFL thanks to a dominant pass rush.
When a quarterback is consistently forced to get the ball out of his hands quickly at the top of his drop, he plays right into the strengths of the vision-and-break Cover 3 scheme, when defenders are able to make plus breaks to condense completion windows and contest catch points.
But when a quarterback has time to sit back and go through his progressions, voids between zones start to develop as a his eyes move from target to target. Moreover, a lack of a pass rush makes the defense vulnerable to eye manipulation by quarterbacks.
So if a quarterback identifies a vision-and-break Cover 3 scheme and has time in the pocket, he can look in one direction — knowing the linebackers will melt that way with his eyes — before whipping his eyes to a different location where a receiver is set up in a void before defenders can react.
There’s barely more than a handful of NFL quarterbacks who can consistently manipulate defenses with their eyes without making a mistake, but this weakness is why many think a vision-and-break Cover 3 scheme tends to struggle against top passers.
Stress on intermediate zone defenders
Just because vision-and-break Cover 3 is one of the simplest coverages in football doesn’t mean it completely eliminates the need to think and process information quickly. No matter how simple or complex the coverage, the ability to quickly and accurately process info is extremely important.
Although the intermediate zone defenders only have spot-drop responsibilities against the pass, they still have to honor their run fits. Against play-action passes and RPOs (run-pass options), the voids between zones tend to enlarge, which can lead to easy pitch-and-catch completions for the offense.
This is why it’s very important to have intermediate zone defenders who can immediately identify run-pass to maintain the proper structure of the defense against play-action and RPOs.
Against condensed formations, the “buzz” defenders (curl-to-flat zone defenders; see the graphic at the top of this article) can usually be outleveraged to the flat since they have to align closer to the box to execute their run fit if needed. Here’s an example:
Notice how the Cowboys are in a 3x1 shotgun formation with a tight bunch to the wide side of the field. Amari Cooper, the outermost receiver in the bunch running a speed-out route to the flat, is aligned about two yards outside of the hash whereas Falcons linebacker LaRoy Reynolds, the buzz defender responsible for the flat zone, is aligned on the hash. Not only is Cooper much more athletic than any linebacker, but he also has a leverage advantage based on alignment.
Reynolds had no chance here, illustrating the types of advantageous environments offenses can create if the defense becomes too predictable.
+++
