Cover 6 Defense

How Cover 6 Works

On the quarters side, the corner and safety each play a deep quarter and the safety reads the No. 2 receiver. On the half-field side, the safety plays the deep half and the cloud corner squats in the flat. In Crucible's diagram the free safety takes the left half with the corner sitting short, and the strong safety and corner on the right play quarters.

The underneath defenders fill the hook and curl zones between the two halves.

Where Cover 6 Is Weak

• The sideline hole on the half-field side, between the cloud corner and the half safety, for corner and sail routes.
• The flats on the quarters side, where the corner plays deep.
• Motion or shifts after the defense has declared which half is which, so it ends up on the wrong side.

How to Recognize It

• Two high safeties, but the two sides of the field look different.
• On one side the corner is rolled up close to the line with the safety deep and wide. That is the half-field side.
• On the other side the corner is off and the safety sits at linebacker-plus depth. That is the quarters half.
• Defenses usually set it by the formation, so the formation tells you where to look.
• At the snap the cloud corner jams and sits while that safety bails to the half, and the quarters safety sits and reads No. 2.

How a QB Reads It

Pick a side: the corner or sail route into the sideline hole on the half-field side, or underneath and to the flat on the quarters side. Crucible's Hitch reads it as a split field: the half-field side like Cover 2 Tampa, the quarters side with a Curl/Flat/Hook read.