Talking to some coaches the other day, and it was mentioned that we just need to run more traditional Cover 2, with the corners pressing the outside shoulder of the Wide Receiver. I agree, I think Cover 2 is a great coverage. If you could really force with the Corners, you’re talking about 2 deep safeties and then 9 guys in the box. But there are some problems with this defense.
First of all, your Corners are the contain/force out there. So they need to be physical, they need to be able to tackle, and they need to be able to hammer a wide receiver. In most Cover 3 schemes, you can line a couple of softies up at 8-10 yards deep and play bend-but-don’t-break defense. You know they’re going to be okay. But in Cover 2, there’s no room for those guys!
Second, can you really force/contain with someone who’s split out that wide? We liked to check to Press Cover 2 in our Quarters on the side with a single removed receiver, into the boundary. From that position, I felt it was legitimate to ask a guy to be the contain player. What about the other side of that? A receiver split out 20 yards from the EMOLS? Can we legitimately expect him to contain anything? Now it has to be the Defensive End! Could you invert the coverage?
If you’ve run Cover 2 exclusively, you probably have answers to this. But to me, Cover 2 is an awesome defense as long as the offense gives you something you are comfortable with. But it seems like you can get in a lot of trouble if your force player is 20 yards wide, and your safety is 15 yards deep by the time he recognizes run. Don’t get me wrong on that Safety, by the way, he has to be deep and he won’t help on the run. No matter what coverage you run, someone is going to be a deep zone player or someone is going to be in Man Coverage, and they will be out of the run game. 9 men playing the run is about the best you can do.
So what do you do, Cover 2 guys? And how does the Offense attack a Cover 2 team?
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