What Is A Zone Defense In Football?

"Zone defense is when you cover an area," he said. "So when a man runs out of your area, you're not going to follow him. Say if I have a four deep or a three deep and I'm the left cornerback and a guy runs through my zone. I'm going to just relay that to someone so that he gets picked up in someone else's area. But when we play zone, we usually try to play a match up zone. And that means, once they get in your zone, we want to match up with them and keep our heads on a swivel. When you play zone, you're supposed to cover the deepest guy in your area. And if nobody is in my zone, we squeeze and look for somebody coming across."

A defensive backs coach at Hampton University, Rose knows the many different types of zones to play as well.

"There are all types of zones," he said. "Basically you have what you call your no cover zone which is the first five yards. So that means, we really don't want to cover anybody in that area. Most teams want you to bite on that so they can pull behind you.

"But as far as areas go, you have your flats, you have your hooks, hooks on both sides, flats on both sides, hole in the middle, you have your down hash and you have your three deep zones," he said. "There is also a two zone, two deep zone and many more. So it just depends on what type of zone you play."

So why do defenses play zones? "Zones are primarily used to keep everything in front of you," said Rose. "You don't have you back to the ball and you're supposed to see everything as well as be able to react to the football.

"Sometimes you see eight or nine guys getting to the ball at the same time but that's because they're playing a zone and everybody is looking at the path of the ball," he added. "When you play man-to-man, you may watch the quarterback initially, maybe in his first three steps. But as soon as the player gets in his route, you have to stop watching the quarterback and focus on the wide receiver. And so in a zone, everybody is basically watching the ball and where it is going. Zones are safe to play when defenses don't want to give up the big play."

So, are there any weaknesses that may result in playing a zone? "The only thing about a zone is that there is usually a soft spot where a team can gain yards against," said Rose. "Like in the no cover zone, those first five yards, a lot of times, teams will give that up because they don't want to give up the deep ball. And other times, it depends on what style of zone you're playing. Say if you're playing a 3-4 then you have more people in your zone. If you're playing a 4-3, you may have less people in the zone. So, it's kind of hard to ask a linebacker to play the hook and the flat. So more times than not, the hook and the flat would be the two pass routes you might give up when playing a 4-3 zone."