Abstract: Aiming at the safety hidden danger caused by the instability of the roof plate in the face of tunneling and the technical difficulties such as low efficiency of tunneling caused by the improper value of the headroom distance, we systematically analyze the stress distribution characteristics and deformation law of the roof plate of the face of the coal tunneling in the three-dimensional stress state by taking the 5329 lane of the Qingxieyao Coal Mine as an example. The research results show that there is an obvious negative correlation between the deformation of the roof slab and the cohesion of the roof mudstone and the support strength, while the deformation of the roof slab shows a positive correlation with the thickness of the roof mudstone and the distance between the roof and the roof; according to the geological characteristics of the 5329 road, the distance between the roof and the roof is set to 2 m, which makes the support strength increase to 0.27 MPa; the speed of the excavation is increased from 160 m per month to 360 m per month after the adjustment of the roof distance, which realizes a better performance of the excavation speed and the deformation pattern. 360 m per month after adjusting the hollow roof distance.