BBDS has won us games. ‘84 Boston College, ’87 Fiesta Bowl, and some other games that I don’t remember (But jesse. would!).

But, yeah, BBDS can also lead to what happened in the Rose Bowl.

What is Cover 3 Defense?
In: Football – American

The Cover 3 Defense includes any defense with 3 deep coverage zones. The most standard defensive Cover 3 is when a team uses 2 cornerbacks and 1 safety to cover the 3 deep zones. Zone defenses divide the field up into areas, or “zones” and each coverage player is responsible for any receiver in his zone. Each cornerback would be responsible for an outside deep 1/3 of the field, while the Free Safety is responsible for the middle 1/3 of the field. “Deep” zones usually begin at 12-14 yards. Underneath zones will be covered by outside linebackers and inside linebackers – most commonly 2 outside “Flat” zones and 2 inside “Hook/Curl” zones.

Another example of a Cover 3 defense is the Tampa 2 Coverage, established by NFL head coach Tony Dungy a few years back. The idea is to shut down any deep passes by dropping the safeties further down the field, then moving the middle line backer down to act as a safety as well. each covers a third of the field. the defense should not expect any hail maries from this coverage.
Offensively, this coverage is one of the easiest coverages to react on. This reason being, since the middle line backer drops deep into the coverage, that leaves the other two linebackers having to cover that portion of the field in halves. Since the safeties are so far back, the linebackers are tempted to cover the middle area of the field, giving the illusion that all is covered. The quick dump to a receiver, tight end, or even a back is very much exposed in this coverage, giving the player a good 5+ yards.
Also, wide open is verts. Sure, there are 3 safeties down field, but no matter what the coverage, the safeties get confused when they are outnumbered. If recievers are stacked outside and they go for the vert, expect a big play to be the outcome.

emphasis mine

more info

Cover 3 by nature is a balance coverage with three defenders deep and four underneath in zone defense. In Cover 3 the CB’s try to stay wide of the WR’s and box them in towards the inside of the field. This defense like Cover 2 is an excellent disguise coverage from which to stem into other coverages especially Cover 1 for example. Here is a picture of the soft spots in a Cover 3 zone defense.

The CB’s in particular are normally playing off the WR in this case by several yards. This makes the defense vulnerable in the uncovered flat zone areas in front of the WR’s as well as the seams between the CB’s and the deep Safety. This makes Cover 3 quite susceptible to the quick passing game with most of the 3 step drop patterns above in the passing tree. In 1.2 seconds for example the defense generally can not close fast enough on the WR to get to the ball. Similarly with only four defenders underneath instead of five like in Cover 2 there is more lateral field for the defense to cover (i.e. 53 and 1/3 yards divided by 4 people instead of 5 people). Conversely the defense knows the offense will often throw the ball short on these situations and are less likely to attack deep when only a few yards are needed for first down. The defense “gives” some things and the offense can “take” some plays against this alignment.

Concepts that offensive coordinators like to run against Cover 3 are some of the following. Quick Hitch routes on the outside where the receivers drive hard and then turn back work well. Quick Speed Out routes to both sides work as well. Curl (or Hook) routes by the wide receiver while the backs or tight ends run Flat routes underneath them work well also. The corner is preoccupied with the WR coming at him and the back or TE goes laterally to the flat area before the slower linebacker can get there. Three Verticals probably will not work well against Cover 3 in the secondary but sending 4 WR’s (i.e. 4 Verticals) down field will. The reason is again that it leaves 3 DB’s to guard 4 WR’s…someone has to be open. Comeback routes on play action passes work against Cover 3. Double Post routes run by WR’s from the slot positions could work as well by putting two WR’s into the middle against only one safety. Many other combinations will work as well. The key in all of these is for the receiver to work his way into a seam and remain away from a defender.

So there you go, I found some stuff on the internets. I get a little pissy about Bradley’s coverage scheme, but honestly I’m not educated enough to suggest something different so really I have no business complaining. I just hope he learned a thing or two during the Rose Bowl because that crap better not happen again.

I didn’t see no grill.

with the second guess as well. For example.

Assuming of course Joe owns/uses a computer