The last step in this Cover 2 discussion ends with the ½ field safety. Obviously their job is to put the roof over the defense and allow all other defenders to play underneath. To do this job effectively and consistently, they must know how they relate to the pattern distribution. This will reveal how they will compensate for coverage liabilities and better support the coverage shell.
Their first response is to key and recognize the #1 receiver to their side. The position of the #1 receiver will determine the immediate threat to ‘break’ the defense by an outside and vertical throw. The safety should know who the #2 vertical threat is on any given down based on formation (2x2 or (3x1).
At the snap, the safety will key the EMOL for run/pass key. After a pass key recognition, the safety reads #1 receiver – to quarterback – to #2 receiver.
#1 Vertical - #2 To The Flat
The safety should overplay the vertical threat and keep inside leverage on #1. He is anticipating the curl-flat concept.
#1 Hitch - #2 Vertical
With #2 vertical and #1 remaining shallow, the safety should expect the smash or seam concept. He will peddle back and inside read #2 as he presses into the seam. The safety should be defending the seam-to-post-corner route with inside-out leverage.
Double slant
With #2 and #1 breaking shallow inside, there isn’t much help a deep half safety can provide. He should be anticipating the slant-and-go (“sluggo”) and remain over the top of #1, leveraging inside-out.
#1 Vertical - #2 inside or hitch
Since #2 remains shallow, he is no threat to the deep half, so the safety should look to overplay the vertical by #1. With #2 shallow, he should keep inside leverage on #1and anticipate a deep, inside breaking route (dig) from #1.
After reviewing corner responses, we'll work our way outside-in, addressing the outside and inside linebacker responses to pattern distribution in Cover 2.
Outside Linebacker (weak)
The weak side linebacker who responds to the displaced #2 receiver should be playing a "vertical hook technique". This simply means he is controlling the vertical stem of #2 into the hook zone and will treat this area as a priority. He should be thinking vertical-in-the-seam by #2 on pass key, and defend this throw first. On pass, he must relate to #2 receiver. He will peek to #1 receiver to identify the route concept he should play. As the front will vary depending on formation, we'll focus on just the pass coverage of Cover 2 for the displaced outside linebacker.
#2 Vertical - #1 Outside Vertical
If #2 presses vertically, the WLB will wall and carry #2 into the seam, peeking to see that #1 is vertical (and outside). With #1 gaining depth outside, the WLB can expect the "all vertical" and / or anticipate a deep drop out / Sail from #2 (and rob from low-shoulder leverage.
#2 Vertical - #1 Inside Vertical
As with the above situation, the WLB walls and carries #2 vertically into the seam, expecting "all verticals". With an inside/vertical stem of #1, the WLB may anticipate a deep, inside breaking route (dig).
#2 Vertical and Outside - #1 Hitch
With a vertical press by #2, and #1 remaining shallow (hitch), the WLB should anticipate the "smash" concept and push to the flat. Knowing his corner should be sinking to take the "corner" route, he should be robbing the hitch from inside-and-underneath leverage.
#2 Flat
Maybe the easiest throw to respond to for the WLB in Cover 2, once the #2 receiver quickly "shoots" to the flat, the WLB should recognize the flat-curl concept. He should expand and wall to the #1 receiver, looking to rob the inside-breaking curl.
Cover 2 Inside Linebackers
In Cover 2, the inside linebackers, both strong and weak, will be keying for run as their primary responsibility. Their gap assignment and key will vary depending on the formation and defensive front they are in. They are reading run-to-pass, and respond accordingly. For the sake of discussion, we will just concentrate on their response after getting a high-hat pass read.
The inside linebackers will match their respective threat based on alignment. This will typically put the SLB or MLB TO or AWAY from the callside based on the strength of formation. An example would be;
2x2 set
The MLB will relate to the back (#3) strong or weak, based on back flow.
The SLB/Buck become relates to #2 strong and becomes the vertical seam player him.
3x1 set
Here the defensive front would be adjusted to accommodate the passing (number) threats. The MLB now relates to #3 receiver and the SLB/Buck will relate to the back.
This is a rather simple accommodation as I hesitate to call it an "adjustment". The inside (run) linebackers are simply going to cover down their immediate passing threat. An example of matching the backs with the linebackers is shown below;
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One of the advantages of the 7-man front is ability to eliminate the perimeter with a corner as a force run defender (essentially allowing 9 to stop the run). Consequently, the one drastically different response in Cover 2, will be from the corners. The following will outline how corners are to handle and respond to threats in their zone, and whom they should be relating to.
In Cover 2, corners relate to the #1 receiver and keying the end man on the line of scrimmage for a pass/run key. On run action TO him, the corner should maintain (outside) leverage on #1 and squeeze the running lane to shut off the perimeter from the ball carrier. On run action away from him, he should sink and expand in relation to #1 (again, maintaining leverage as run force).
On pass read from the EMOL, the corner should immediately scan the stem of the #2 receiver, to determine how he responds to the route.
#2 Inside - #1 Vertical
If #2 takes an immediate inside release, he can rest assured that #2 will not be threatening the flats (no longer a threat) and can focus his attention on the #1 receiver (who will likely be running an inside breaking route). When #2 does not present a threat to the corner, he will reroute and carry #1.
#2 Outside - #1 Vertical Inside
If #2 releases outside (again being the key the corner looks to on pass read) AND #1 stems vertically and inside, he should expect a high-low pattern and sink and carry #1 (the deeper of the two routes). Much like the 'smash' route below, if the corner does not sink on the deeper throw it will create an unwinable situation for the defense, as the corner will be too shallow and the safety to contracted to defend this deep, outside throw.
#2 Flat - #1 Vertical Outside
With #2 shooting to the flat (immediate threat) and #2 stemming outside and vertical (fade), the corner should look to expand #1 for width to the sideline and spy the QB's vision/shoulders on which throw to pursue. By expanding and delaying #1 vertically, he is buying time for the playside safety to cover ground on a downfield throw outside the numbers. The corner should expect the flat throw (as he is eliminating the deep throw confirmation read from the QB)
#2 Vertical - #1 Shallow
One of the most susceptible throws against Cover 2 is the shallow by #1 and the expect Smash , open hips play the '7' (corner) route. As mentioned above, this is a situation where if the corner bites on the shallow hitch, he opens the width to the deep sideline to a point where the half field safety is helpless to defend.
#2 Vertical - #1 Vertical
With #2 vertical and #1 vertical, the corner should expect "all go" (no other threat to the flat) and should collision #1 and carry his route vertically. With nothing left to defend, he can help the safety out (hopefully collisioning #1 enough to prevent both receivers getting vertically at the same level).
As our season winds down, I plan on going over a rather detailed breakdown of pattern-matching concepts with a zone defense. The concept can appear rather convoluted or intimidating to some folks, but is actually quite simple and it compartmentalizes the passing game into digestible portions.
The next few posts will be foundational tenets needed to build successful recognition of and playing (response) threats to a defender's zone.
Since there are 5 eligible receivers (not counting the quarterback), determining how a defense is being threatened is important in distinguishing just what, in particular, a defense will be stressed by. To do this, a common vocabulary is required to quickly identify how to play receiver allocation. This will also help in defining each player's role based on the offense's response in all 3 types of actions.
I've drawn these examples up in 2-back and 1-back looks, but the formations are essentially irrelevant. This is intended to just give you a basic run-down of how this would look. The routes being run are also not important now. We're are simply categorizing how an offense spreads the 5 receiving threats at a defense. FLOW
Flow is a 4x1 disbursement sending 4 receivers to the strength of the formation and 1 receiver weak. This is a rather common action with rollout/sprint out drops.
FLOOD
Flood is a 2x3 disbursement of receivers, sending 2 receivers strong and 3 receivers weak. This flood of receivers typically indicates boot action.
SPLIT
Split is a 3x2 disbursement, sending 3 receivers strong and 2 receivers weak. This is the most common way of threatening the defense and equally distributing the receiving threats. Air Raid and WCO are primarily split-flow offenses.
Since we have already gone over route reading from a 1-high (Cover 3) look, we'll explore pattern matching out of a 2-high (Cover 2) zone defense.
As a helpful guide, you can bookmark or follow along, by using the "Pattern Reading" tag that will pull up all posts detailing this technique (or keep it more specific to the Cover 2 posts that will follow).
