Playbooks & Drills for Flag Football

21 Deep Cross

Play Description

#21 Deep Cross is the Air Raid 5v5 Flag Offense’s take on a traditional Air Raid staple, Y-Cross.

This simple flood concept overloads one side of the field with more receivers than the defense can defend, creating easy reads for Quarterbacks and uncontested catches for receivers.

Call this versatile play against any zone coverage. Teach your QB to read grass deliver the ball to receivers.

Assignments & Key Reads

Deep Cross is another simple flag football route concept that your kids can master in just one practice. If everyone does their job, a zone defense can’t account for all of your receivers.

  • WR (orange) – Go route. Outside release and get vertical down the sideline. Look for the ball after seven steps.
  • TE/C (blue) – Flat route to a depth of five yards. Look for the ball immediately.
  • Slot (green) – Crossing route to a depth of ten yards. Look for the ball when you cross the midline of the field.
  • WR (purple) – Post route breaking at seven yards. Look for the ball out of your break.
  • QB (red) – Get a pre-snap read of the Safety/Safeties. Find open grass. Deliver the ball in under three seconds.

Beating the Defense

Deep Cross is a zone beater designed to stress defenses by putting more receivers in one area than the defense can account for.

Beating Cover 1

Deep Cross puts a Cover 1 Safety in an unwinnable situation. Two receivers (orange and purple) run into the deep zone. The Safety is forced to choose one, leaving the other open. This makes the QB’s job easy.

Beating Cover 2

Against Cover 2, both deep routes will likely be covered by the Safeties. This leaves the left Cornerback to choose between the five yard flat route (blue) and the ten yard crossing route (green). The QB finds the open grass and delivers to the receiver running in that area.

If the left CB drops to ten yards to cover the green receiver, throw underneath to blue. If the same CB bites shallow on blue, throw to green before the defender can react.

Beating Cover 3

Deep Cross attacks Cover 3 in much the same way as it beats Cover 2. The deep routes on the outside occupy the three safeties leaving just one short zone defender on either side. The QB finds the grass vacated by the play side defender and throws to either the flat (blue) or cross (green).

Typically, the left CB will run wide with the TE/C, leaving the Slot receiver open in front of the deep Safeties.

Beating Man Coverage

Avoid calling Deep Cross against Man to Man unless you have an obvious physical advantage. Try #22 Mesh or #23 Post-Wheel instead.

Final Notes

While effective as a stand alone play, Deep Cross is most difficult to defend when called alongside #22 Mesh and #23 Post-Wheel. These plays combined lead to long drives, big plays, and frustrated defenses. They also help your QB spread the ball around to keep the defense guessing since there is no primary target, only grass reads and throwing decisions.

When run properly with good spacing and timing, Deep Cross is basically the old school Veer. The only difference is that the ball is distributed behind the line of scrimmage in the Veer. In the Air Raid, your QB makes his or her decisions 5-15 yards downfield.

“I run six plays… It’s like Novocain. Just give it time, it always works.”
Herman Boone, Remember the Titans

Check out our guide to reading flag football coverages to get better at calling plays on the fly.

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