Understanding coverages allows you to know what the defense is trying to do. If you can understand where the defenders are going to be and what their responsibilities are then you can figure out ways to exploit and beat the defense. Mastering the mental side of the game is the separator from good to great and great to elite. Once you start playing at high levels, everyone is big, fast, athletic, and talented so the separation comes from preparation and understanding the mental side of the game better than anyone else on the field.
But Coach, is it necessary to understand the strengths and weaknesses of defenses if I only play offense?
It is absolutely critical to know the strengths and weaknesses of defenses as an offensive player. If you begin to understand how defensive coordinators think then you can figure out the best ways to attack them and beat their defense. It’s like the old saying goes, “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer”.
There are many reasons to run a 4-3 cover 2 defense, but we will talk about some of the more common reasons you will see this defense. First off, with 5 defenders playing shallow zones, cover 2 does a great job taking away shallow routes. Also, because corners are jamming and playing in the flats they can often help with run and quick screens. It is a great defense if you are playing a team that runs lots of quick screens and short routes.
Like mentioned earlier, 4-3 cover 2 is a good defense vs shallow routes. On the flip side, if you have good pass protection, deep route concepts can be great vs cover 2. Although it is good against certain routes like hitches and outs, there are plenty of holes if you want to throw the ball vs cover 2. Let’s talk about some common ones…
With the safety being responsible for the deep ½, it is often difficult for him to get all the way to the sideline if you throw it on time and on a line. Well coached defenses will do two things to help with this.
Hold the safety on the hash. Try and look down the safety to prevent him from running to the sideline.
Throw this ball on a line and on time. This has to be on a rope 15-18 yards on the sideline. If you put lots of air on this the safety will pick it or the WR will get crushed… neither is good for you.
With the safeties being responsible for deep ½, the middle of the field can be open. To open this up, it is best if you 3on2 the safeties meaning you have 2 guys down the sideline and one guy down the middle of the field. By doing this, you can throw to the WR that is not being covered by the safeties. Just like with fades, you often want to throw the ball on time and on a line if you are trying to split the safeties.
With the corners up in the flat and the safeties inside and deep a natural hole often opens up behind the corner and in front of the safeties on the sideline. A common concept that takes advantage of this is a smash concept (Hitch and corner). You high low the corner with a shallow and deep route on the sideline. If he’s shallow then you throw the corner over his head. Vs cover 2, treat a corner route like a deep out – you want to put it high, on a line, and bend the WR to the sideline.
Cover 2 does a great job stopping a lot of quick concepts, but one that can be good is double slants. Because the corner will funnel the WR inside you can 2on1 the outside backer with both slants. It is key the inside slant keeps his angle steep so that he doesn’t run into the outside backer.
