What is Cover 0 in 7v7 flag football?
Cover 0 in 7v7 means five defenders take the five eligible receivers and the two spare players come after the quarterback, with nobody left deep. Seven against five is the only arrangement in flag football where an all-out call still covers every receiver one-on-one, which makes this a real call here rather than the gamble it is at eleven a side.
Why Cover 0 works in 7v7
Two rushers, and both of them are free
There is nobody to block them. In tackle football Cover 0 has to beat a protection; here the only thing between a rusher and the quarterback is the seven yards he has to cover, so the call becomes a question of timing rather than of blocking.
The corners have no help and no sideline either
A 7v7 field is as wide as any other, and an outside defender with no safety behind him is defending the deepest part of it alone. It is the one format where the widest man can be beaten and nobody will even be in the picture.
It is aimed at a quarterback, not at a play
Against a team that throws on rhythm this call loses; against a quarterback who pats the ball and waits for somebody to come open it is the best thing on the sheet. The read before the snap is the passer, not the formation.
It takes away the easy throw
Every receiver is covered from the moment he moves. There is no soft area to sit in and no zone to find, which is exactly what a quarterback looks for when he sees pressure coming. The ball has to go to a covered man or not at all.
The rush is the coverage
The extra bodies are the whole point. If a quarterback needs three seconds and the call takes two of them away, how well anybody is covered stops mattering. Cover 0 is the only call where the rush and the coverage are the same decision.
Nobody has to think
Everybody has a man and the rest go. There is no pattern to read, no zone to sort out and nothing to communicate, which is why it is a call teams can add late in a season and still run correctly.
Before and after the snap
The same call twice. What a coverage IS lives in the difference between these two pictures, not in either one of them.
- The alignmentCover 0 at 7v7 before the snap: the alignment and the rush, with no coverage drawn.
Where everybody stands, and who is coming. This is all an offense sees before the ball moves, which is why a defense that tips its coverage from the alignment has given away the only thing it was hiding.
- The coverageCover 0 at 7v7 after the snap, with every zone drawn and labelled.
The same men a beat later, with what each is responsible for. Every seam and every soft spot on this page is a gap between two of these shapes.
How to beat Cover 0 in 7v7
Throw on time, to the first break
A five-yard route breaking either way is open before two rushers can travel seven yards. Cover 0 gives that up by design and the offense that takes it every snap is the one this call cannot beat.
Cross two receivers underneath
Two routes meeting at five yards make their defenders collide, and there is nobody behind to sort it out. In this format the collision is more likely, because nobody is blocking anybody and both receivers arrive at full speed.
Release the back late
A back who blocks nobody and leaks out is covered by a defender who was watching the quarterback a second ago. It is the slowest matchup on the field for the defense and the easiest completion available.
What Cover 0 gives up
Anything that beats one defender
There is no help behind it, so a missed jam or one step lost is not a completion, it is six points. Every other coverage degrades when a defender loses; this one does not degrade at all.
The hot throw
Any offense that has seen pressure before has an answer built in: a receiver breaks his route off short, the ball comes out before the rush arrives, and the defender covering him is trailing by design.
A quarterback who runs
Every defender has his back to the ball and the players who would normally watch the quarterback are the ones rushing. If he escapes the first wave there is nobody left facing him.
Take it to your team
Draw your plays in the football play designer, collect them in the free playbook maker, and print wristband play cards so every player knows them come Saturday.
Draw Cover 0 for your own team
Open the designer, set your alignment, and save it to your playbook.
Open the free play designerRelated questions
Can you blitz in 7v7 football?
How do you beat an all-out blitz in 7v7?
Is Cover 0 a good call in 7v7?
Related guides
Coach Ray Carroll
Coaches 5v5 flag football from kindergarten through 7th grade in San Mateo and San Carlos, California, and built RC Football to design, teach and print the plays his own teams run.