Trouble with defending TE crosses

[chauncy]

My roomate continues to run TE crosses with the Miami dolphins.McMichael catches it every time. It is really starting to piss me off knowing that he will go for it on 4th and 12 and even though I know he is gonna run that play, I STILL CANT STOP IT! plz help

[Five_O_Five]

First you must realize how the play is suppose to be run. If I know the guy is running "TE CROSS," I know that the Running Back doesnt have a route so I should blitz the guy who os responsible for him or play to the area where you think he will thrown it, which is to McMichael right?
Try do the pass commit feature.
Quarters Fire Blitz should blow that play up if your coverage skills are good.
Try Nickel 3-3-5 Monster Blitz except drop all your linebackers into Hook Zones and then drop your guys deep with the pass commit.
4-3 Over or Under Edge sting is nice.
Nickel normal storm brave I think is another play where both lbs blizt, anyways be the guy who is responsible for the rb and shut him down

[CONCEDE]

Im decent at defense but I have a different philosophy than most. I pick and choose my spots to bring heat and play conservative most of the time. I force the opponent to be patient and to put together a long string of plays in order to get down the field. Crossers will KILL man coverages so I have a couple suggestions to stop this play.

1. Run a 4-3, 3-4, or Nickel 3-3-5 man under 2 deep coverage, whichever you're more comfortable with. This will man up on the outside receivers and keep safety help over top to help against the deep ball (which a good player will attack if he sees you drop in a zone to stop the crossers). Next, hot route your LB's to drop in the hook zones (RB + R stick up on 360). This will have your LB's dropping underneath of the crossers and they should get in the passing lanes and deflect the pass coming to the TE. This is especially effective for double TE crossers b/c if you merely jump one of the routes with a LB or Safety a good player will hit the crosser to the other side.

2. A second option is to run a zone blitz to the side he likes to roll out and hit the crosser. The only problem with this is that most TE crosser plays has one of the WR's running a streak and a good player will attack that when you're in zone. So I usually only run this when they are inside my 35 yard line coming in to score (it negates the effectiveness of the deep ball). A good zone blitz is in Dime normal-Zone blitz.

3. Last one, if you're decent on the sticks and arent worried about any other routes, you can always grab the MLB or safety and jump the route...if he's any good he will adjust and find something else open, but in a pinch it might be a good option.