Joe Daniel Football

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How to Defend Trips in the 4-2-5 Defense

Photo by Dennis Yang on Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0

It was recently pointed out to me (and not for the first time) that I did not include much information on defending Trips Formations in my eBook, Coaching Football’s 4-2-5 Defense.

It is also apparent to me, that I have been neglecting the 4-2-5 Defense lately! So let’s take a look at defending Trips Formations with the 4-2-5 Defense.

 

Basics of Coverage in the 4-2-5 Defense

The 4-2-5 Defense is an 8-Man Front defense, with no 2-gap players. Cover 3 is the base coverage, a single-high safety coverage that is great against the run and adequate for stopping the pass.

The two overhang safeties or Outside Linebackers, which we call the Weak Safety and Strong Safety, are almost always going to be your box players (responsible for contain). This simplicity and consistency means you can spend more of your practice time on fundamentals.

Keeping things simple also means your players can play fast, which is a key to victory. Confused defenders – thinking defenders – are going to move slowly, react slowly, and have limited success. We want simple assignments and fast, aggressive players.

Coaching your 4-2-5 Defense to defend Trips Formations

Adjusting Cover 3 to Trips

When the offense gives you a Trips formation, the Cover 3 easily adjusts to a Quarter-Quarter-Half Coverage. Lots of coaches have lots of numbers for this, none of which are universal. I have heard it called Cover 6, Cover 8, and other names. I consider it to simply be an adjustment to Cover 3.

In the secondary, our Trips Side corner will play a deep Quarter, and the Free Safety will roll over to a position outside of the Offensive Tackle on the Trips side. He will play the other Quarter deep zone on the Trips side.

To the single receiver side, the Corner is responsible for the Deep Half of the field. Many coaches will simply play him in man coverage on the single receiver. With an athletic safety, I like playing him as the deep player. With the Weak Safety dropping underneath to the single receiver, we get more help on him.

4 Underneath Cover Zones against Trips

Against a Trips formation, the underneath cover zones have to adjust as well. Normally, we have one player in the Hook-Curl zone and one player in the Flat zone.

In this case, on the single receiver side we only have 1 receiver, with a corner over him. The Running Back may release, but he is not an immediate threat. His routes will most likely be limited to flares and check downs (though not always, and this is a game plan issue). Therefore, our Weak Safety will drop Hook-Curl-Flat. This means he is going to drop with eyes on the back, getting outside of him. If he does not release, he looks up #1 and gets underneath the route if he can – Posts, Slants, and Curls will come right into his area.

On the Trips side, the Strong Safety is the flat dropper. He aligns splitting the #2 and #3 receivers and works from the #2 Receiver to #1. The Inside Linebacker on the Trips Side drops on the #2 Receiver and walls an inside release. The Linebacker away from the trips drops to the hook zone and eyes up #3 or any crossing receivers that are coming to him.

The zones do not change versus Trips Closed (a Tight end on the single receiver side) or Trey (a Tight end on the Trips side) formations. Three receivers, to the secondary, is three receivers. While the alignment of the underneath defenders may change, they do not change their coverage responsibilities.

Interested in learning more about the 4-2-5 Defense? Get Coaching Football’s 4-2-5 Defense today for immediate download!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Joe Daniel says

    With a basic 1/4 1/4 1/2, the FS would carry #3 to MOF and drop him off. The corner is playing a deep half and has to split 2 and 3. Obviously not ideal, so we’ve adjusted by playing the corner in man on the single receiver and dropping the Weak Safety into what we call a “hang” where on a pass read he gets depth on the hash and looks for #3 to come across.

    That also means that Will has to pick up back out of the backfield to the weak side.

    I mention in the 4-2-5 Defense eCourse that we give up a TD on 4 verts out of trips every week the first time we see it on Monday or Tuesday (because I put it in the scout cards just about every week). Then we go over it. We’ve never had a problem in a game.

  2. Donnie Kiefer says

    What are you going to so with 4 verts from that formation. If FS is jumping 3 Vertical then 2 is going to blow by a SS sitting at 3 yds off the LOS. CB has #1. Just saying because this is what we do offensively if you did not have 2 high. If you have 2 high in the same look and let backside safety play vertical of three to the other hash then your FS can take #2 vertical

  3. Anthony A says

    Thank you for the response regarding the Two TE Trips look, in drawing it up it is more of a Two TE Ace Look but with the Flanker and Slot to the Strong Side. The Split being 8 yards for the #2 Receiver, the goal is run option to the weak side using motion or various screens if the defense over shifts. Will try to get a diagram sent out as an attachment soon.

  4. Coach Cance says

    We do something very different with our coverage vs trips.

    Starting with our FS who aligns inside of #3. Once the FS gets a pass read from the OT, he reads the release of #3. If #3 goes verticle for anything greater than 5 yds the FS locks on him. If #3 releases to the flat, the FS eyes #2. As he transitions to #2 he covers any vertical route or any in breaking route by #2. If #2 breaks out, the FS eyes #1. If #1 is vertical, he stays on #2. If #1 is running an in breaking route at him (ie a post or a dig) the FS makes a “CUT” call to the Corner. That tells the Corner to release the post and look for a wheel by #2.

    The SS aligns inside shade of #2 at 3 yds deep. If he gets a pass read from the OT, he back pedals and checks #3 for an immediate release into the flat. If #3 runs a flat route, the SS leaves #2 and plays #3 in the flat. If 3 releases vertical, he plays #2 man to man. The SS plays any WR screen over the top of #2’s block aggressively.

    The Corner aligns inside shade of #1 and at a depth of 6-7 yds. He will play #1 man to man on any route that releases vertical or breaks out. If #1 breaks in, the C makes an “IN” call and looks for #2 or #3 coming into his 3rd. On a post roue the C has to see the FS or hear his “CUT” call. If the FS isn’t in the C’s vision, he will play the post man to man.

    This has never had to happen in a game b/c I don’t think OC’s do a great job of diagnosing our coverage. We see a lot of flood combo. Vert by #1, Deep out by #2 and Flat by #3. We train our FS to be so aggressive jumping a deep out that we probably get 3-4 INTs off that by our FS every year. QBs see the OLB pick up the flat route so they think the out is going to be wide open but he isn’t. The FS can get there.

    The reason we run with the post occasionally is b/c our staff understands our D and one day our OC calls for Flood in 7 on 7 but he tagged Z post. The Corner passed the Post off to the FS who was jumping the out. Hello headache. It was an easy fix. That’s why we came up with the “CUT” call and the Corner running with the post if the FS isn’t in his vision.

    We’ve never had an issue with the C and the F double teaming a post and letting an out or a wheel go but we do work hard on these combos.

    It’s not the easiest coverage but it’s been so good that we only play this coverage. It transitions well to a 2 x 2 set also where our base coverage is almost a hybrid Cover 1/3. The SS and the WS follow the same rules as they would in trips except off their pass key, they eye #2. This has helped us handle 4 verts with ease

  5. Coach Cance says

    Coach Daniel,

    We would move the FS over thought to inside the TE. I would assume Anthony A. wants to get into this look to run inside and outside zone to the strong side. I would want my FS to be able to fill the ally off a run read by the TE to stop the outside zone.

  6. Coach Daniel says

    If I understand right, you have a trey closed formation. We check roll to a 1/4, 1/4, 1/2 coverage like this: 4-2-5 Defense vs Trey Closed

    If that’s not what you’re referring to, email me a diagram.

  7. Anthony A says

    Here is a question,
    I am experimenting w a new base formation offensively, and the look is similar to Trey, but there are Two TE’s on the LOS and a Slot as well as a SE. How would a 4-4 group be expected to align in order to defend this look?
    I ask because in drawing up the diagrams and trying it out our DC’s all are confused and we nedd a better idea on what to expect from the even front teams in our area

  8. Coach Daniel says

    Gotcha coach. Actually heard one of the big college guys at a Glazier this year saying the only reason you’re seeing fewer 4-3 Defenses in college football today is that everyone starts out defending 10 personnel instead of 21 personnel now, and a 4-3 turns into a 4-2-5 against 10 personnel anyway. The names don’t really matter!

  9. Coach B says

    I didn’t mean to criticize the actual personel calling it a 4-2-5. It could be a 4-3-4, or even a 4-4-3, depending more on personel adjustments more than anything. The diagram did show that. 🙂

  10. Coach Daniel says

    Coach B,

    First thanks for the comments. I really do appreciate the discussion. But I strongly disagree with a lot of it. Mainly because it sounds like we’re defending two very different offensive attacks.

    This is the base adjustment to trips for most teams, if you study 4-4 and 4-2-5 defenses (which the diagram is, the program did not have a WS player available at the time so I used an S for safety. The article is pretty clear that he is a weak safety.)

    I would never recommend a base adjustment to trips to be a 5 man box walking the linebacker out. For most high school football teams, the QB is one of the biggest rushing threats.

    There is absolutely the threat of ISO – a Q Iso.

    Your adjustments seem to be very concerned with the pass, and absolutely valid against a passing team. Most teams spread the field to run, though.

  11. Coach B says

    Not to be that guy but the diagram I see looks like a 4-3 defense. You have 3 linebackers Sam, Mike, Will, 4 down linemen, and a FS, SS, and 2 corners. With that said, Your adjustment to trips leaves what you have identified as the Hback uncovered completely. You are asking the Mike backer to get to the hook/curl zone to the strong side from the middle of the formation and the SS to cover the flat. That is ok but gives a lot of ground to cover and a lot of holes in the zone to exploit. I suppose if the Hback runs vertical u have Mike latch on then pass him off to the FS over the top. So that would put you in a real bind if you got a combo Post/Smash route from the H and Y receivers. It also leaves u very vulnerable to quick passes and screens to the Hback and Y back. You only have 2 defenders to cover three receivers in a short area. You must walk out a Backer to play inside leverage against the Hback or you will be in trouble all game long if you are a zone team. if you are a man team then you could lock up a backer or drop ur FS down to play man coverage on one of the receivers. The standard adjustment to trips is to be in some form of cover 3 or man free with the FS over the top of the trips side with a backer walked out to account for the three receiver side so that you are not outnumbered 3 to 2 like ur diagram seems to suggest. Then you have lots of freedoms to adjust with combo man or banjo calls vs the 2 inside receivers. Why would u keep 2 linebackers home vs 1 offset runningback? There is no FB to lead block so you are not outnumbered there….you are missing the MOST critical adjustment to an overloaded receiver side.

  12. Coach Daniel says

    Sorry the diagrams don’t come out too well! Feel free to send me a picture (they may come out better on the forum, I don’t think anyone’s tried yet)

    As far as overload, it depends on your definition of overload but if we’re talking about something an unbalanced formation, we treat the middle of 5 linemen as the center. So against unbalanced we’d bump over one man.

    Against the TE/Wing combination you’ll probably want to walk your OLB up. This may also be a good time to play with some other fronts, like Under Front or a Bear look. Both of those involved walking up your Strong Safety, but he has to stay outside shade of the Wing since he’s still the contain player.

  13. Jordan says

    Coach,

    Great stuff, what adjustment would you make to a overload on the line? Or TE+wing? How should we adjust for the new gap?

    x
    x
    x
    x x x x x x x x

  14. Joe says

    We also treat the wing as Trips, not the offset back – unless he’s particularly wide, which would be a game plan thing. Also love using the backside blitz if you know the back isn’t going anywhere and your Corner can handle him!

    Good point too about getting your best cover guy to the boundary, which is where the single receiver will usually be set. Great addition coach, Thanks!

  15. Eric Carrillo says

    Something to add…we treat any wing or offset back to a two receiver side as trips as well and check to this QQH Coverage. It helps with any Flood routes. If we have a call for any edge pressure by the trip side Hybrid player we just check it in to the inside backer while the Other ILB pushes to #3 or we have what we call a riverside call and blitz from the backside of the trips and have your corner on an island…obviously your best coverage guy!