What is a cover 2 in football?

What is Cover 2? The base Cover 2 is a zone defense where every defender is responsible for an area of the field and not a specific man. The field is divided into five underneath zones and two deep zones. The two corners and three linebackers play the underneath fifths, and the two safeties play the deep halves.

What is Cover 3 in football?

Cover 3 is a zone defense with 4 underneath players, and 3 deep players. A defense like this allows you to distribute almost equal amount of players to the deep part of the field and the underneath coverage on the field.

What is the difference between Cover 1 and cover 2?

Cover 2 is the first zone coverage in our series of zone coverages. Whereas cover 1 has one deep defender with man coverage underneath, cover 2 has two deep defenders, and all the underneath defenders are playing zone. Cover 2 is useful to defend against teams that like to throw crossing routes or short routes.

What is cover 2 vs Cover 3 in football?

As the name suggests, the Cover 3 has three defenders in deep zone coverage. But while Cover 2 usually sees the safeties playing deep while the corners and linebackers play a variety of coverages underneath the safeties' zone coverage, Cover 3 takes a different tact.

What is the difference between cover 2 and Cover 4?

In Cover 2, the corners are going to be tighter to the line of scrimmage, and be slightly outside of your outside receivers. In Cover 4, they ultimately need to be deeper on the snap of the ball so they will not get beat deep, as they have the entire quarter of the field, from the line of scrimmage to the endzone.

How to Play Zone Defense & When to Use Cover 2, Cover 3, or Cover 4 | NFL Film Sessions

What is Cover 7 defense?

Nick Saban's Cover 7 uses zone with man-match principles. At its simplest, the Saban defense creates rules to allow defenders to attach in man coverage based on depth of route and receiver alignment. What's more, no matter how many top tier players he loses to the NFL draft, his defenses keep on producing.

What is Cover 5 defense?

Sometimes called “2-Man” or “Cover 5,” this is a defense where the two safeties split the deep part of the field (as in Cover 2), but the linebackers and corners all match up in man coverage.

What is a cover 0 defense?

Cover 0. Cover 0 refers to pure man coverage with no deep defender. Similar to Cover 1, Cover 0 has the same strengths and weaknesses but employs an extra rusher at the expense of deep coverage help leaving each pass defender man-to-man.

What is cover 6 defense?

During Cover 6, the field safety and corner positions cover four quarters of the field, with the outside linebacker supporting underneath. Cover 6 defense is a weak ( boundary ) reduction, a mixture of cover 2 & 4. This coverage is commonly used in today's modern day football.

What is cover 9 defense?

9 Men Coverage schemes have 2 defenders rushing the quarterback, while 9 defenders drop back in pass coverage. Below are a few examples of 9 men coverage schemes that we like to call from a 2 Man Under base defense.

What is Cover 2 for dummies?

What is Cover 2? The base Cover 2 is a zone defense where every defender is responsible for an area of the field and not a specific man. The field is divided into five underneath zones and two deep zones. The two corners and three linebackers play the underneath fifths, and the two safeties play the deep halves.

What is the weakness of Cover 2?

The weak spots against Cover 2 are multiple deep routes. The most natural “Cover 2 beater” is 4 vertical routes. With only two high safeties, the smallest mistake by either one of them, can lead to a wide receiver running free down the field. Cover 2 is also vulnerable against a trips formation.

What is dime in football?

The dime package refers to six defensive backs on the field at the same time. The defense now employs four down linemen, one linebacker and six defensive backs. It is a lot like the nickel package. The only difference is a sixth defensive back for the Sam linebacker.

What is cover 8 in football?

Cover 8 is defined as an eight-man front with a 7, 3, 1 and 5 technique backed by four linebackers, two corners and a safety. The beauty of the Cover 8 is you have eight to nine men in the box, which covers all situations that may be presented.

What is Cover 4 in NFL?

Cover 4 (or "Quarters" coverage) is a four-deep, three-under zone defense that uses man-to-man principles while creating opportunities for both the free and strong safety to double (or "bracket") the No. 1 wide receivers.

What is a Cover 4 defense?

Also known as quarters coverage, Cover 4 has four deep zones, typically two corners and two safeties, splitting a fourth of the deep portions of the field. The two safeties are in the middle of the field, while the corners take the quarter of the field to their side.

Is the 46 defense still used?

In today's game, the 46 defense is often simplified to its main component of walking the strong safety up to the line of scrimmage as an eighth man in the box to help contain the run. Defenses today may also run safety blitzes and corner blitzes at crucial moments without committing wholly to the "46" defense.

What is a 50 defense?

“Over 40, Under 50”. One way to tell if a defensive might be an Under front, is that it will look like a 50 (five man) defensive line because the Sam linebacker is up on the line of scrimmage. However, the real for sure way to tell if it's an Under front, is that the 1 technique defensive tackle is to the strong side.

What is a 50 front defense?

One way to tell if a defensive might be an Under front, is that it will look like a 50 (five man) defensive line because the Sam linebacker is up on the line of scrimmage.

What is cover 1 in NFL?

The main goal of Cover One Robber is to play man coverage across the board. The free safety drifts back into the deep middle of the field, while the strong safety comes down as the hole defender over the middle. The players in man coverage are tasked with playing outside leverage.

What is the weakness of Cover 1 man?

What is the Weakness of Cover 1 Man? The biggest weakness of cover 1 man is deep routes down the sideline. Unlike cover 2 man where a safety is deep on each half of the field, cover 1 man only assigns 1 safety to provide over the top help on the entire field.

What is 55 coverage in football?

Saban also runs 55, which is a double bracket coverage. Each safety on either side will be responsible for bracketing the most dangerous receiver (WR, TE, or RB, based on game plan) to their side.

Why is it called dime defense?

The defense gets its name because a dime, worth ten cents, is the next step up in United States coin currency from a nickel, which is worth 5 cents. There are also "quarter" and "half-dollar" formations, each protecting against progressively deeper and more likely pass attempts.

What does a 3 3 5 defense do?

The 3-3-5 defense uses 3 defensive linemen, 3 inside linebackers and 5 defensive backs. The 3-3-5 is sometimes referred to as a 3-5-3 defense or a 3-3 stack as well. The defense has 3 defensive linemen as previously stated and in its base set, a combination of 5 linebackers or DB's lining up across from the defense.