Now that we've discussed protecting the passer, which is in my opinion the mot difficult part of this process to master, it's time to discuss the second element of the deep passing game, and that is getting receivers open downfield and toasting the coverage for big plays. Frankly, a lot of this just comes down to memorization. Some routes work and others don't, and a big part of being able to pass deep on this game is to learn which routes work and then decide how you want to incorporate that into your offense, in terms of selecting your playbook and looking for formations that contain plays which will actually work during a game. Please note that the things discussed below are not an exhaustive list of what will work, they are just the most common things that I have personally found to be useful.

Different routes get open against different coverages, so a big part of this element is going to rely on you knowing what coverages the defense is playing. Tackling that would make this guide even longer than it already is, so I won't address it here. If you are having trouble figuring out how to read coverages, try doing a quick search on our forums, because we've had several threads that discuss different ways to attack that issue.

The most common type of coverage that you would want to throw deep against is man to man coverage. Zone coverages are more or less designed to limit the big play and give up shorter passes, so there are a lot fewer options against a zone coverage defense, although there are still a few ways to attack those defenses with the vertical passing game, and I will discuss those in a few paragraphs.

In terms of beating man coverage, the major difference between NCAA '08 on the 360 or PS3 versus the older PS2 and Xbox games, which many of us have been playing for years, is that the streak/fly route doesn't work nearly as well. It's probably under-effective on the game, and a lot of people have been complaining about it. Really the only time that a streak route gets open against man to man coverage is against bump and run, which you don't see very often offline in dynasty, and in online it can still be hard to complete due to the well discussed issues with pass trajectory and lead passing. Let's not dwell on that here. Just know that the streak route doesn't work very well, which means that we need to find other routes which do work.

The two most common routes on NCAA Football '08 that work consistently against man to man coverage are corner routes and post routes. The main thing to consider with a corner route is that you generally want to use this route to the wide side of the field, so that your QB has more room to throw the ball on the WR's outside shoulder without throwing it out of bounds. Corner routes can be extremely effective, particularly if you get a mismatch with a slot receiver lined up against a slower linebacker or safety. Don't be afraid to use motion, particularly with the slot receivers or even a runningback out of the backfield, to create a mismatch where you get a corner route against a linebacker in man coverage. Remember that a post route can easily be converted to a corner route if you motion it to the opposite side of the formation.

Post routes tend to be more difficult to complete, simply because a lot of man to man defenses put a safety in the middle of the field, directly in the path of the post route. Particularly online, a lot of players use a safety on defense and manually patrol the middle area, making the post route a tricky throw. There are a couple ways, however, to take that safety out of the middle of the field in order to make the post route effective. The first concept is to use play action combined with a deep post route. This draws that safety up near the line of scrimmage and opens up the deep middle of the field. Against human opponents, one way to really make this effective is to either find plays that have your tight end and fullback (or both tight ends) staying in to block, or to hot route them to do so. Since they don't see anybody releasing for a pass route, they will often bite on the playfake extremely hard and vacate the deep middle.

Another idea is to combine the post route with some other route that grabs the safety's attention (particularly against human opponents). I like to use intermediate drag patterns, which are also effective against man to man coverage. Many times the underneath receiver that's running the drag will beat his man pretty badly, so if the safety doesn't come down and try to help on that, it's an easy completion for big yardage. Then if the safety does come down to try and take away the intermediate drag, the deep post behind him opens up. One play which uses this concept particularly effectively is found in Ace Twin TE WR:

Double move routes are another effective way to open up the deep pass against man to man coverage. The two most common types of double move routes, in terms of the vertical passing game, are sluggos (slant and go) and out and ups. They really work off the same concept, which is to try and take advantage of an over-aggressive cornerback by faking a shorter route and then going deep once he bites on the fake. I can't confirm if it actually makes the routes more effective or not, but I also like to throw in a pump fake (LB) when the receiver makes his first cut. These routes can be quite effective, especially if you can find a way to work in the short route early in the game to set up the fake, but they are somewhat tricky. You have to be patient and wait for the route to develop, make sure that you get a lot of air under the ball (which will be discussed later) and they require almost precise timing because you want to throw it after the receiver makes his break, but you don't want to wait too long and let the cornerback recover. The best advice with these routes is to go into practice mode, select a man to man defense (not a cover 2 man to man defense) and practice them over and over until you get the timing down.

The final type of route that can be successful against man to man coverage, although like the streak route it's also probably less successful than it should be, is the wheel route, particularly with a runningback motioned out of the backfield, or a slot receiver matched up against a linebacker. There are numerous plays that involve this basic concept. The two main challenges for the offense, particularly on HB wheel routes, is to find a way to occupy the safety, because the motion somewhat tips off the play. As a result, a lot of times this type of route is more useful as a decoy to open up something shorter or on the other side of the field, but it can also be a weapon if the defense doesn't respect it. The main key on the wheel route is to make sure that you get plenty of air under the ball, and to lead the receiver on his outside shoulder.

Against cover 2 zones, there are really 2 routes that are effective, the wheel route and the post route. The difference between throwing these routes against man coverage versus cover 2 zone is going to be in the timing. With a wheel route, you're going to want to throw the ball a lot earlier, since the idea is to throw it before the safety react. You want to wait until the receiver gets two or three steps behind the cornerback, and then you want to throw the ball to his outside shoulder. In this case, however, you don't want to put a lot of air under it, because you want the ball to get there quickly.

On the post route, what you're essentially doing is waiting for the receiver to break towards the middle of the field, splitting the safeties behind the linebackers. This route also requires that you throw the ball relatively quickly, because if you wait too long, the receiver will run past the middle of the field and will enter the area covered by one of the safeties. You want to throw a pass that has some zip on it, but you don't want an absolute bullet because it has to clear the linebacker. The major thing to be careful about with a cover 2 defense is to look out for the "Cover 2 buc" defenses, in which the middle linebacker drops back into a deeper zone which covers the post, so make sure that you read the MLB and that he's not dropping deep before you throw the ball.

The post-wheel, wheel-seam, corner-streak, or post-corner combo are probably the most effective way to beat a cover 2 zone defense vertically. What these route combinations do is attack the deep safety and make it so that he has to choose which to cover, leaving the other route open. You want to be careful on the corner routes, however, because I've noticed that sometimes the cornerback in the cover 2 zone will float deep and get in the way of that. The other challenge with the corner route is throwing the ball so that it doesn't go out of bounds. For this reason, I tend to prefer wheel routes to corner routes for beating cover 2 zones, simply because they aren't thrown out of bounds as often, even if you run them to the short side of the field.

Cover 3 and Cover 4 zones are designed to be conservative coverages that limit the deep ball, so these defenses are difficult to attack downfield. One thing that I have found success with against cover 3 is to use play action, which freezes the underneath defenders, and then use some a wheel-deep in combo. What essentially happens is that the underneath flat defenders are paralyzed by the play fake, so they don't get to their outside zones. This essentially leaves the cornerback to cover both the wheel and the deep-in route. Because the wheel develops after the deep-in, the cornerback will often stay with the in route and drift towards the hash mark to try and take that route away. As a result, the wheel route can often open up behind it. If, by some chance, the cornerback stays outside to cover the wheel route, then the deep in will usually come open shortly after the receiver makes his break, because the underneath defenders, which were frozen by the play fake, don't have proper depth. Here is an example of this concept:

Ace Spread PA Slot Wheels