This week’s edition of Eleven concerns the Cover Two, a base defense that was mentioned in last week’s zone blitz article. Once again, Bob has a lot of great information for you, so read slowly (something that should come easily for you Virginia Tech fans… I keed, I keed!)
By the way, if you have any suggestions for future articles, leave a comment. Bob knows all.
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Eleven
Last week, we talked a bit about the zone blitz, and as an example I used a collection of routes that I called a cover three beater. Well, that’s well and good, but why would you call it a cover three beater? Would the zone blitz not work as well against a cover two? What about cover four? Really, what’s the difference between cover two and cover four? What? Why? ? ? ?

OK, I hope you get the point. Lots of questions to be asked about different coverages. Due to the difficulty in drawing this stuff in Word, and in fitting it into a manageable space, I’m going to focus on only one – Cover two. Now, I hope everyone knows what a cover two is, but to make sure, I’ll draw it up and explain it below. For diversity’s sake, I’ll use a different formation from last week. For simplicity’s sake as well, we’ll forget about field position, assume the ball is in the middle of the field, and assume a vanilla front (no twists, slants, blitzes – just a straight up 4-3 cover two).

Basic Rundown:
E: Run responsibility – outside contain, Pass – outside contain of QB
N: Run – weak A gap (between G and C), Pass – collapse the pocket
3: Run – strong B, Pass – collapse the pocket
B: Run – C gap (T and Y), Pass – contain
W: Run – weak B, Pass – Hook to curl
M: Run – Strong A, Pass – hole
S: Run – Contain, Pass – hook to curl
C: Run – strong outside force (i.e. force any outside run play to have to turn back up field. Anyone gets outside of you – you die), Pass – Flats, support deep
FS/SS: Run – support late, Pass – deep outside halves
OK, 3 things about alignment –
1) Which safety is where is kind of a toss-up against this formation. Your SS is normally stronger against the run, while the FS is normally a better coverage guy, but the pass strength and run strength are the same in this formation. When I played, I preferred to align as above for two reasons: A) With only one real threat for the weak side corner (X), he can give a lot of support in coverage to the SS and he can play the run a little tougher, and B) you will see a lot of LB flow to the strong side, often leaving you vulnerable to the cutback – therefore it’s nice to have a SS filling that cutback lane to rattle some teeth.
2) As we talked about zone blitzes and sight adjusted routes last week, if S doesn’t widen (he stays inside or right on top of the Y) the H is gonna catch a lot of balls. Therefore he needs to adjust his alignment to take away the immediate throw to the H. Furthermore, since he has quite a few immediate threats to his zone (Y, H and Z) it makes more sense to get to where he can cover any of the three when they come to his area. Really though, you shouldn’t have to tell him to get there more than once, because if he doesn’t on the first outside run play he’s gonna get crack-backed so hard by the H that his mom will shit her pants. Both M and W should bump a little to balance the formation.
3) Notice the alignment of the corners. They should always be outside of the WR’s, and should never let them get a clean release outside of them. A lot of coaches even have them play at a tilt with their ass to the sideline. I’ll explain why later.
OK, OK, we got that cleared up, and hopefully understand where everyone should be aligned, and roughly what their responsibility is. So the question now is, why? Why run a cover two?
First things first – if you have corners that can play, it can be very tough against the run. For teams that like to try and get the ball to the edge on a toss or stretch, a good run-support corner in two can wreak havoc. If he plays it right, it essentially eliminates the edge, as he should always make the ball carrier turn up field, or right back into the pursuit. Also, when the corners take away the edge, it constricts the amount of space that the DL and LBs are responsible for, making things much easier for them. When you condense that space, it makes it much harder for the offensive line to generate seams for the ball carrier to slip through. Having the corners wide does take away some support from the safeties, but you still have quite a few men in the box.
Secondly – a well run cover two is very strong against a short- to mid-range passing attack. You have five men, all responsible for underneath coverage, and since the LBs don’t have to try and get to the flats, they don’t have to turn and run nearly as much as they will in a cover 3 or any man. Since they don’t have to run as much horizontally, it’s more likely they will get good depth on their pass drops and help clog up some of the mid-range passing lanes. It gives them a good chance to sit on crossing routes and light up anybody who tries to come across the middle. Another benefit – if you have safeties who can run, it should make you less vulnerable to the BIG passing play; they only have one responsibility in the passing game – don’t let anyone deeper than you.
So then, how do you beat a cover two?
As I said earlier, the corner can never let the WR in front of him get an outside release. Here’s why:

OK, the corner on the left has done his job and forced X to an inside release, making it easy for the SS to get on top. The corner on the right though let his guy get outside of him, which makes FS have to cover a lot of ground in getting on top of both H and Z. A good QB, when he reads two, will be looking to get the ball to Z in what’s called the void. The void is the no-man’s land just behind the corner along the sideline (about twelve to twenty yards down field). Too deep and the FS can get there, too shallow and the corner might still be able to break on the ball and make a play. Also, as soon as that Z gets behind the corner, he has no idea where Z is, as his eyes should be towards the field. Therefore he needs to learn from his buddy on the other side and keep Z in front of him so he can see him along with the rest of his threats. Let’s assume he DID his job this time:

Makes a huge difference. Can Z still get to the void? Yes, but that’s as difficult of a timing throw as there is, even on a clean release. By doing what he did, he forced that receiver to change his timing, and he also squeezed down the spot that the QB can throw to. OK, now that we got people doing their jobs, let’s talk responsibilities:
Left Corner: Pre-Snap threats – X, T. Assignment – force X into an inside release, if X sits in zone, stay on him, if he runs, stay on his hip, but get eyes on number 2 (T), if 2 shows (which he does in this case), release X to SS (Talking to him as you do), and rally up to the tailback.
SS: Pre-Snap threats – X, Y, T. Assignment – Need to be wide enough to stay on top of X, but not so wide that you can’t help the FS down the middle of the field. Get depth and then break on the ball when it’s thrown.
FS: Pre-Snap threats – Z, Y, and H are all immediate threats, so the FS needs to be in a position to get on top of all three. This does NOT mean right in the middle of all three. It takes the ball a lot longer to get to Z down the sideline then it does to get to Y right down the seam, so play accordingly. Since he has three threats, at the snap he should get immediate depth, keep his eyes on the QB, all while talking with his SS and C. Must be very vocal to not only help himself, but to allow his underneath coverage to help him.
Right Corner: Pre-Snap threats – Z, H, Y. Assignment – force Z into an inside release, if he sits you sit, if he runs you keep on his outside hip but eyes go immediately to number 2 (H). If 2 breaks outside, asshole him or take the pick for six, if 2 disappears (meaning he goes deep or crosses the formation), eyes go right to three (Y), where the same rules apply. If all three disappear, keep sinking to help the FS on anything in the void.
W: Pre-Snap threats – X, Y, T. Assignment – get into a zone drop and get some width to get in the passing lane if X tries come inside. Look for the crossing route from Y, or a hook from the tailback.
M: Pre-Snap threats – Y, H, T. Assignment – Get a little depth, look to cause a collision with any crossing routes. The longer the QB holds the ball, the deeper you should sink.
S: Pre-Snap threats – H, Y, Z, T, Assignment – Look to clog passing lanes to both H and Z, and if Y shows in his face, collision him.
When I say collision, I mean collision. LBs should never let a man get across their face or the formation without any contact. Not only does it create confusion, but it changes timing and doesn’t let the routes get as deep. This is very important. The corners can also adjust the way they play. What if the WRs for the opposing team are pretty speedy? Maybe get right up in their face so they don’t get a clean release, or maybe sit back a bit and try and bait the QB to throw a quick one (think Deion before people wised up), but what ever you do, don’t let him get outside of you. If he tries to go outside, you push him all the way out of bounds.
Clear as water? Clear as mud? Sorry, it’s tough to describe this stuff without being on the field. When I prioritize threats above, that’s just what each player should do before the snap, in his head. In all reality, defenses don’t really care what positions are called. They care about eligible receivers, and that’s about it. You do have to communicate though, so I’ll explain the systems I grew up in, which should clarify what I mean by 1, 2, and 3. We always counted from the outside in, so the formation above would look like this in defensive jargon (minus the big boys, no offense meant):

For the left corner his number 2 is T, but the tailback is not really an immediate threat. That’s why he should give the SS solid support on the X. For the SS, his number 2 will be the Y, but like for the corner, Y isn’t an immediate threat. On the flip side, the FS really needs to be chatting up his corner about numbers 2 and 3, especially if 1 is going deep. The corner should really stay on 1 until either 2 or 3 show in the flats.
So that’s roughly how a cover two works. Now the question is how do we beat it? As always in football, there are a number of ways, but they aren’t guaranteed. It’s all about putting your guys in a position where they can make a play, and if a defender screws up, they can make a big play. I already demonstrated one route package that makes it very tough on the FS. But in the following I’ll show a couple of different things. One thing you will often hear people talk about is combination routes. Combos can be effective against any coverage, but I’ll just show a couple that can cause problems for a cover two. Combo routes can be any number of receivers, but to keep things simple I’m just going to use 2 v 2:

1 runs a short stop route to hold the corner while 2 runs a corner route over the top. This combo will often include a number 3 receiver attacking the middle of the field to hold the FS. A good free should always be able to get there, but it can be a long run at times. A good corner should be ready to sag and break on the ball as well.

2 runs off the FS while 1 runs a square in. Yes, you should have LBs to clog the passing lane to 1, but since 2 disappeared, the corner has to stay with 1 unless another receiver shows in the flat. Very tough cover. If you watched the South Carolina – Central Florida game the other day, you may have seen this particular combo as Spurrier runs it a bunch. They actually missed a big play when the FS got confused and let 2 run right by him.

The 1 blocks the corner while the 2 takes one step and then gets a quick pass. It’s plays like this that require the LB on that side to widen out. A good variation to run off of this, if you’ve completed the quick screen once or twice is to have the 1 block for a second, and then run up the sideline. Hopefully the FS will be rallying up to help on the screen, while the corner is trying to fight off the pseudo block.
Those are just a few combo routes that I remember disliking in my DB cover two days. The trick in beating any zone (in any sport, really) is to stretch it and then create seams. With a cover two, you try to stretch the safeties horizontally. With a cover three you try to stretch it vertically and attack underneath. Route running is very important in doing any of this. OCs send receivers to certain spots for a reason, namely to occupy certain defenders. A good receiver should also be able to recognize a hole in a zone and know when to sit in one and when to keep stretching, but that’s something that takes a long time to learn. Some people, including coaches, never learn it. One staff I worked on coached the WRs to always sit in holes and never had people that kept running. They could never understand why we weren’t able to open things up like they expected. But that’s a story for another time. Check back with ya next week.
— Bob Pentland
Eleven Archives
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Eleven – 1 – Introduction
Eleven – 2 – The Zone Blitz
Eleven – 3 – The Cover Two
Eleven – 4 – Zone Blocking
Eleven – 5 – The Bootleg
Eleven – 6 – Extra Points And Field Goals