Tampa Bay 3-High Structure: SB 2020 Season (vs KC)

KEY POINTS

Against a team looking to push routes deep down the field, a 3-high structure can provide great value. Tampa Bay saw good success with this against KC in the Super Bowl. See more details on a 3-high defense here.

• It removes middle field open / closed reads presnap (from 2high and 1high looks respectively)
• Adds flexibility in coverages. Particularly in top-down rotations.
• Can align potential deep defenders at a better depth to stay over any deep routes from a speedy receiver. 

Tampa played five snaps of 3-deep presnap looks. 

• Two snaps of a 1-deep, 5 under STICKS coverage..
• Two snaps of a boundary rotation cover 3.
• One snap of straight cover 3.

• Outcomes: 1 Int, 2 Inc, 2 checkdowns allowed.

Note TB played a bunch of 3-deep prevent calls at the end of the game, which we are not including here. 

FILM

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1st Quarter, 11:34, 3&8 - STICKS (1-deep 5-under)

    Boundary and Middle safety drop to hook/hole at sticks. Here we can see all 5 underneath defenders within 2yds of the 1st down marker. Nobody matches either vertical route up the middle. Compare this to the next play.

1st Quarter, 5:22, 3&11 - STICKS (1-deep 5-under Dbl outside blitz)

    Here we see a great sample of the flexibility of a 3-high look. BCB and Sam (Ni) blitz both edges and are replaced in coverage by the outside safeties, while mugged backers drop out into the hooks at the marker. In coverage, note both corners playing top-down on the possible outside verticals, to make sure the single deep safety is not outnumbered as he was the prior clip. 

2nd Quarter, 2:00, 1&10 - Straight C3

    While not a standard 3-high look with the outside CB as 3rd high defender, it ends up playing like a standard 3-high with the Sam (Ni) here replacing the CB as flat defender. Pausing halfway into the play, you can see the distributions of the 3-deep 4-under. 

3rd Quarter, 6:30, 3&13 - C3 Boundary Rotation

    Boundary and Middle safety are dropping, while both CBs are taking deep 3rds from a backpedal on snap.  With no vertical, a CB will continue to zone off to his deep 3rd to make sure he takes away any deep crosses. Boundary corner #24 here s pulled down a bit by the hunt route of #87, while #10 is running the deep cross behind him. #24 manages to get back and make a great play on the ball to cause a turnover.

4th Quarter, 6:22, 2&10 - C3 Boundary Rotation

 

   Same rotations as prior clip. While not targeted, KC does run another deep cross aimed behind the boundary corner.