How to Play Football : How to Play Cover 2

The cover 2 defense allows underneath passes but takes away deep post routes. Beat the cover 2 defense with tips from a former college football player in this free video on football.

Expert: Rudy Germany
Bio: Rudy Germany is a basketball coach at a Los Angeles-area preparatory school.
Filmmaker: Todd Green

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• football
• tackle
• block
• wide receiver
• running back
• offense
• defense
• kicker
• punter
• quarterback
• guard
• safety
• linebacker
• touchdown

[Palar47]

@blinky855 you're talking about 2 man...a true cover 2 has the corners in the flats, backers in the hook/curl or hook (S & W, M respectively) and the safeties in deep halves...2 man is a wrinkle with a man variant (obviously), but base 2 is all zone

[blinky855]

@THEnickNOrris936 its not that simple. outside or middle linebackers typically take backs out of the backfield man to man.....now if a linebacker does take the man out of the backfield man to man, that frees up the reciever to run a slant/dig route across the middle without getting killed if the QB throws it fast enough.

[THEnickNOrris936]

@goodie4life10 run a spread and have both recievers run a deep route and have the running back run a route in the flats..or a screen. that would beat the cover 2 my school runs but theyre all different

[THEnickNOrris936]

@ajlepisto at my school when we run a cover 2 corners have flat-pitch, but they read the number 2 reciever. like if the number 2 reciever goes deep then you lock down on the number one

[ajlepisto]

For example, manbearpig said his school has the corners cover the flats. That's essentially hard cover 2, meaning they stay in their flats regardless of the route being run or the flats being empty.

This can be exploited with mid routes if you have good timing, due to cover 2 zones being weak down the middle, esp with 3 WRs

[ajlepisto]

@cooldaniel6 Flats are the area from about the line of scrimmage to about 5-6 yards deep and outside of the hashmarks.

It depends on your specific scheme, but lots of times corners will be in a semi-man coverage on a receiver. There is a thing called hard cover 2 where they will play zones in the flats, but otherwise they stay with the WR unless a HB releases into the flat, in which he will leave his WR and cover the HB in the flat. The safety then moves over to cover the WR.

[manbearpig28mc]

@cooldaniel6 my school runs the cover 2 and our corners responsibilities are to cover 1/5 of the field so they drop back maybe 4 or 5 yards and cover the flat. Thats just us its different for aother schools

[cooldaniel6]

I still don't get what the cornerbacks responsibility is. Could someone explain more in depth. What is the flats by the way?

[goodie4life10]

ok hot shot you let me know how to beat a cover two

[andreas76]

i've heard of the Tampa 2, better known as The Steel Curtain Defense.....and yes, the seams, whether they be posts or go's will beat the the cover 2 zone. and so will trips all go's, or doubles all go's. corner routes etc.