Adjusting to Motion in Man Coverage
Playing Man with Receivers on the move
Motion.
Canadian football Defensive Coordinators can’t escape from it.
Here are a couple quick thoughts about dealing with Motion when we’re in Man-to-Man Coverage.
Same Side
Start with a simple one. A quick switch of two Receivers on the same side of the Formation.
Two clear options here. The defenders could LOCK their initial Receivers, or they could SWITCH.
If the defenders LOCK, the Offence will likely know it’s Man Coverage. This is an early key to the Offence and could allow them to hurt you on the play. It also might be difficult to maintain the desired leverage if you LOCK versus this look.
On the plus side, LOCKING is simple. Each defender lines up across from a certain Receiver, and they know they are covering that player for the entire play, no matter what.
If you SWITCH, you disguise things better and it’s easier to maintain leverage, but now some communication is required. Any mistakes on the SWITCH could result in an uncovered Receiver and a potential touchdown.
Bomber
This is an interesting one.
What if your Receiver adds in to the box to help with Pass Protection? What should you do next?
I’ve seen a couple different plans here.
One option would be to Blitz and Engage. This means to attack your Receiver aggressively in order to create more pressure on the QB. The tricky part is that your Receiver is still eligible, so you need to be ready for them to slip out into a late route or Screen.
Another option would be to fall off and become an additional Low Zone help player. The challenge here is that your teammates are not expecting your help, so it’s tough for them to adjust their leverages and techniques to utilize your help. You basically become a bonus player.
Motion Across the Formation
Just like with the same side Motion, your two big options here are to LOCK or SWITCH.
I recently recorded a short video on this topic, you can watch it here:
All the best,
Jon Svec
Defensive Coordinator
St. Francis Xavier University
X-Men Football
IG: @jonsvecx
Twitter: @jonsvecx
Jon Svec is the author of the e-book Canadian Football Chalk Talk: Defensive Basics.
As usual an excellent article from Coach Svec. While switching can be beneficial it certainly has a downside as evidenced during the last Super Bowl. The Eagles looked like a poorly coached high school team when KC scored twice with the same play - they motioned their widest receiver, making it look like a cross the formation move - the receiver then came back to his original position and ultimately scored when the DBs switched and didn't switch back. Hard to believe it was possible to use the same tactic and score yet again, however KC were really deceptive and went to the left rather than the right. If you are going to teach switching make sure to watch these plays and to show them to your players!
Sonny Wolfe