So Their Running Cover Two, Huh?

First you must be able to read when the defense is in cover 2. When the defense is in the cover 2 the corners will be in tight against the receivers and the safeties will be equally sided by each other. This shows that the corners will be playing underneath and probably jamming and the safeties will be covering the deep portion of the field. In order to beat the Cover 2 you must understand the weakness. When you have figured out that a defense is in the cover 2 you know that there are at most usually 4 defensive linemen and you have five offensive lineman.

Off the back if you have a decent offensive line and your quarter back stays in the pocket you should have time to make a quality throw. Also the cover 2 is split up into two the deep and the underneath in which the two are split from 10-15 yards out meaning after about 15 yards the middle of the field is open or a little weaker. This is one area that should be attacked in the cover 2. Another area to attack would be the sidelines about 20 yards out just outside of the weak and strong side linebackers. The fact about it is no matter what defense your in your vulnerable to something , every defense has soft spots.

Attacking the Soft Spots

Once you have figured out that the defense is running the cover 2 and you have thought about where the soft/weak spots are now you got to get your receivers in the right positions. Tight ends seaming up the middle is one way especially if the linebacker stays playing underneath. Most talent linebackers will know when running cover 2 that anytime a receiver comes inside of them they must switch to a man coverage with that receiver in order to help the safety out. There is just not enough time for the safety to get down in time if they are deep already. A good way to fake the defense out sense they are in zone the defenders are watching the quarterback so if cover 2 is picked up right away the quarterback can come and right away sell a pump fake to a shorter route maybe inside of the 15 yards this will freeze the defense and help carry out the throw over the top to the tight end.

Working with the recovers you want routes that put them pass the cornerbacks who will be cover underneath and in front of the safeties who will cover deep. Virtually it will be very hard to get a huge gain on the cover 2 defense however you can set your self up nicely to a decent gain first downs are definitely obtainable. Put receivers on 10-15 yard outs. Also you can do double posts , slants and hitches. This will put two receivers in the same area making them impossible to cover. Sense there is pretty much seven parts to the cover 2 defense. In order to attack it and expose the defense running double patterns will give the quarterback two options with on one defender.