How viable are smoke screens and hitches or curl routes vs ZCV?

Posts: 1098 |

7,171

I know those routes wouldn't be effective against MCV but against ZCV how viable can they be? It seems they could be good checkdowns or routes that can gain you 5+ yards here and there and can also open up a side of the field depending on how deep defenders are playing. Also the user is usually zooming around most users aren't really going to stick to a curl or hitch route unless you keep hitting them with those routes successfully. Any thoughts on using these routes vs ZCV and any tips?

Posts: 212 |

Definitely better against zone, but you need to know where the zones are, because otherwise a lurker linebacker in a hard flat snatches your throw in no time. Zone is less about what routes work in my opinion (other than ones that beat most of the broken zones like crossing routes) and more about hitting the seams and holes in their specific coverage, if they play the same cover 3 you need to find the route that hits the seam, usually a TE streak hot route or something. I'm far from a great player so don't take this as absolute but this mindset works for me.