Tag Archives: Cover 2

Key Plays from Week 6: New England v. Kansas City

Posted on by
Reply

Week 6’s Sunday Night Football matchup between the Chiefs and Patriots featured one of the highest scoring games of the season. It also gave defensive coordinators some film of Patrick Mahomes not being Superman, with the Patriots taking a 24-9 lead into half after 2 Mahomes’ interceptions. Let’s take a deeper dive into some of the key plays from the game.

  1. Game situation: 1st Quarter, 5:23, 1st & 10 at KC23, 3-3

After tight end Demetrius Harris (#84) motions to the left side of the formation, the Chiefs are running the following route combination with play action:

Continue reading →

Rodgers Play Action Progression leads to long Jordy Nelson Sting Route TD

Posted on by
1

The first quarter of Week 5’s Thursday Night game featured a 66-yard Aaron Rodgers Touchdown to Jordy Nelson. Rodgers put on a QB clinic on this play with an excellent Play Action fake, going through his progression, looking off a safety, and then throwing an accurate deep bomb to Jordy Nelson on a Sting Route. Green Bay only needed a 2-man route to score a Touchdown. Here is the pre-snap look with the routes: Green Bay is running a Play Action pass faking Outside Zone to the left. Randall Cobb, (#18) at the bottom of the screen is inside releasing and running a deep “Post-Dig” route at 15 yards. Finally, Jordy Nelson, (#87) the Wide Receiver at the top is inside releasing, stemming to the corner, and then running a Deep Post (called a Sting Route):

Slide1
Minnesota is in a base 4-3 Cover 2 look, with both Safeties responsible for one “Deep-Half” of the field, and each of the Cornerbacks and linebackers taking an underneath zone for five defenders across underneath: Continue reading →

Unconventional/Inverted Tampa 2 Zone Coverage w/ “Robber”

Posted on by
2

In last week’s Georgia v. South Carolina game, Georgia was able to create a huge turnover in the 4th Quarter with a less common version of Tampa 2 Zone coverage. Tampa 2 is a modification of traditional Cover 2 which goes back to the Steel Curtain, but was made famous by Monte Kiffin and Tony Dungy’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. As opposed to traditional Cover 2, Tampa 2 involves the Middle Linebacker dropping into the “Deep Hole” or vulnerable deep middle of the defense.

Tampa 2

MLB drops into the deep middle zone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a video example of how each Safety attempts to cover a Deep 1/2 of the field on either side and the Middle Linebacker (Urlacher #54) drops in between to cover any deep middle routes from slot receivers or tight ends.

Continue reading →