[BostonCard]

 An uncovered receiver means there was a breakdown in the defense, and is not something you can count on in your scheme.  What you want is to throw to a receiver in single coverage.

I can't totally agree here. It partly depends on what you mean by covered. In fact, most teams do try to get a receiver "open". They don't always succeed, and have to settle for loosely single covered. For instance, that really great play we ran against Oregon where we forced the defender to choose which of the two receivers he was going to cover on the "in" route. That produced an open receiver. "Pick" plays produce open receivers, at least for an instant. Slants with the defender playing behind and outside contain produces a receiver that is functionally open because the DB can't get to the ball without going through the receiver. WSU produces open, in fact uncovered, receivers as a matter of course. Sometimes these patterns are real short, but they are going for YAC. Against a zone, you can get guys open by overloading an area of the field. So, teams really do try to get an "open" receiver.

I could be mis-remembering, but I thought the play we ran against Oregon forced the safety to pick which receiver he was going to cover.  Costello's job there was to determine which receiver was in 1-on-1 coverage, not which receiver was uncovered.

Your other examples are really examples of where the receiver tries to get separation from the DB (it can also be accomplished with a really fast receiver or with a play-action pass that catches the safeties cheating in on the run), but being able to get a bit of separation is not the same as being uncovered.

BC

[BostonCard]

 An uncovered receiver means there was a breakdown in the defense, and is not something you can count on in your scheme.  What you want is to throw to a receiver in single coverage.

I can't totally agree here. It partly depends on what you mean by covered. In fact, most teams do try to get a receiver "open". They don't always succeed, and have to settle for loosely single covered. For instance, that really great play we ran against Oregon where we forced the defender to choose which of the two receivers he was going to cover on the "in" route. That produced an open receiver. "Pick" plays produce open receivers, at least for an instant. Slants with the defender playing behind and outside contain produces a receiver that is functionally open because the DB can't get to the ball without going through the receiver. WSU produces open, in fact uncovered, receivers as a matter of course. Sometimes these patterns are real short, but they are going for YAC. Against a zone, you can get guys open by overloading an area of the field. So, teams really do try to get an "open" receiver.

I could be mis-remembering, but I thought the play we ran against Oregon forced the safety to pick which receiver he was going to cover.  Costello's job there was to determine which receiver was in 1-on-1 coverage, not which receiver was uncovered.

Your other examples are really examples of where the receiver tries to get separation from the DB (it can also be accomplished with a really fast receiver or with a play-action pass that catches the safeties cheating in on the run), but being able to get a bit of separation is not the same as being uncovered.

BC