Chicago: Cover-2 just doesn't capture it (1 Viewer)

[Chaos Commish]

Chicago Sun-Times

We just can't seem to get it right in Chicago when it comes to defense. Not playing defense, mind you, but naming it.

Instead of a cool nickname that captures the essence of what it takes to play great defense, namely an overpowering line -- the Steel Curtain and the Purple People Eaters come to mind -- the Bears have run schemes named for safeties instead of the guys up front.

It's just plain wrong. And also confusing and misleading.

Buddy Ryan's 46 defense assaulted quarterbacks but took its name from safety Doug Plank's jersey number. The current scheme is called the cover-2 or Tampa-2, even though the Bears actually play cover-2 only about 30 percent of the time.

The ''2'' comes from the pair of safeties, who each must cover half the field, dropping deep and helping cornerbacks over the top in zone coverage. The defense was popularized by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers under coach Tony Dungy and defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, who adapted principles that Dungy found in his Pittsburgh Steelers playbook, designed by Bud Carson when Dungy was a Steelers defensive back. Lovie Smith learned the scheme in Tampa, ran a version of it with the St. Louis Rams and brought it with him to the Bears.

The central principle is to generate a pass rush from the front four to force the quarterback to throw the ball before he can wait for the intermediate and deep perimeter routes to open. If four men can shoot gaps and hurry the offense, then seven can drop in coverage with the idea of keeping every play in front of them.

The outside perimeter routes and the deep middle of the field are the vulnerable spots in the cover-2, but quarterbacks need time for routes to develop to throw in those areas.

''There are little windows, but they are real small,'' Bears safety Mike Brown said. ''We have athletes at linebacker and athletes in the secondary that can break and make plays on the ball because we're getting pressure with the front four.

''This defense is all based on the line. That is what cover-2 is about. If you get pressure with the front four, you don't have to blitz, you can play coverage and they don't have anywhere to go.''

Defensive coordinator Ron Rivera chuckled when asked if the cover-2 is misnamed.

''You ought to talk to the defensive line,'' Rivera said. ''I'm sure they'd love to call it 'The Front Four.'''

That's the area the Bears immediately developed when Smith was hired before the 2004 season. End Alex Brown was the only holdover starter from **** Jauron's last team. Phillip Daniels, Keith Traylor and Bryan Robinson were replaced by a draft that brought tackle Tommie Harris in the first round and inside rush specialist Tank Johnson in the second. Then came a blockbuster trade after training camp that sent wide receiver Marty Booker and a third-round pick to Miami for end Adewale Ogunleye.

The defensive line is more than a front four, though. Try front nine because the Bears play a rotation of players all capable of making an impact. Look at what rookie end Mark Anderson has done, producing 3½ sacks in limited play. He's already 10th on the team's all-time list for rookie sacks, with Wally Chambers holding the unofficial record with nine in 1973. The NFL didn't start keeping sacks statistics until 1982, so the official record for rookies is Brian Urlacher's six in 2000.

''We are a jealous group,'' Johnson said. ''If one guy gets a sack, we all get [ticked] off, and we all want to get home, too.''

The Bears' 15 sacks rank third in the NFL behind the Baltimore Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles, and 14 of them have come from the line.

''We have a whole bunch of guys that can rush the passer,'' Alex Brown said. ''Whatever four guys on the field, they can get after the quarterback. And, really, this defense goes as we go. If we have a good game, the defense has a good game.''

All that's missing is a name that reflects it.

 

[Jene Bramel]

Chicago Sun-Times

We just can't seem to get it right in Chicago when it comes to defense. Not playing defense, mind you, but naming it.

...

Buddy Ryan's 46 defense assaulted quarterbacks but took its name from safety Doug Plank's jersey number. The current scheme is called the cover-2 or Tampa-2, even though the Bears actually play cover-2 only about 30 percent of the time.

The ''2'' comes from the pair of safeties, who each must cover half the field, dropping deep and helping cornerbacks over the top in zone coverage. The defense was popularized by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers under coach Tony Dungy and defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, who adapted principles that Dungy found in his Pittsburgh Steelers playbook, designed by Bud Carson when Dungy was a Steelers defensive back. Lovie Smith learned the scheme in Tampa, ran a version of it with the St. Louis Rams and brought it with him to the Bears.

...

The central principle is to generate a pass rush from the front four to force the quarterback to throw the ball before he can wait for the intermediate and deep perimeter routes to open. If four men can shoot gaps and hurry the offense, then seven can drop in coverage with the idea of keeping every play in front of them.

''You ought to talk to the defensive line,'' Rivera said. ''I'm sure they'd love to call it 'The Front Four.'''

We're seeing more and more articles about this defense, particularly in NFC North newspapers with 3/4 of the teams running the Tampa-2 variation as a base defense. It was hard to find good breakdowns of the scheme a few years ago.This article makes a couple of good points about the scheme that get lost in the discussion sometimes.

First, only Tony Dungy (and Monte Kiffin) runs this particular defensive coverage more than 50% of the time. For those teams that don't though, 30-40% is still a significant enough percentage to call it the "base" defense and the predominant cover scheme they use -- so it's still an important part of evaluating the 'value-added' roles of WLB and CB. And the players they draft must fit the 'base' scheme, so even though 30-40% sounds like we may be making too much of the Tampa-2, that's really not the case. It's still a big driving factor on draft day (both NFL and IDP) with these teams looking for the right skill sets at each position.

Secondly, Rivera is absolutely right about the line being the key part of this scheme -- it's the key part of every scheme. The Tampa-2 variation undoubtedly got it's name because Dungy was a defensive back. Plenty of teams run significant amounts of Cover-2; we still call them 3-4 fronts or 4-3 teams.

Thanks for the post CC.

 

[Rozelle]

A bonus for teams running this scheme is: the corners who are a good fit for the Tamap/Cover 2, are available late first day and second day of the draft. I read earlier this year, Tampa feels they got a steal with Zematis in the 4th.