The Cover 2, also known as the Tampa 2, was all the rage in the NFL for most of this past decade. It is a simple defensive scheme masterminded by Tony Dungy and his friend Lovie Smith. The Tampa Bay Bucs employed it from the mid-1990s through the early 2000s with great success. It is a very basic scheme as you can see in the picture below.

The system itself resembles a smiley face.  The 2 safeties cover their respective deep halves of the field.  The 4 down lineman and the linebackers must stop the run, while the middle linebacker must also be able to drop into coverage on passing plays.  The corners are supposed to press the receivers at the line of scrimmage and defend the sidelines up to 15-20 yards down the field.  The defense requires speed, the ability to create turnovers, a four-man front that can get pressure on the quarterback, and a middle linebacker that has the speed and agility to defend the pass.

Unfortunately for our friend Lovie Smith, a variety of internal and external factors has caused his smiley-face Cover 2 defense to go from trendy to useless in a few short years.  Now the Cover 2 resembles something that reflects our feelings about it pretty well.

What has happened here?  A few things.  First off the rest of the NFL has caught on to this defense.  There are huge seams that can be exploited at will, no matter how well the scheme is executed.  For instance, the wide receiver slant across the middle is almost indefensible, and NFL teams go to it frequently against Cover 2 looks.  It pulls the outside linebackers up a bit which then requires the safeties to cheat up some.

While those outside factors are huge, the real problem has been personnel.  With Urlacher being hurt and the secondary being unable to do anything they are supposed to, the cornerbacks have been forced to back off and provide the opposing receivers with greater cushions.  At the same time, the front four have been completely inept at putting pressure on the quarterback or stuffing the run since 2006, and the safeties, who suck anyways, are forced to cheat even further up to help stop the run.  As you can see from the picture, it is a rather sad looking situation.

Will Lovie and the Cover 2 be kicked to the curb?  Seems unlikely considering the current economic climate of the NFL and the Bears desire not to take on any long-term commitments past the end of the current CBA.  If the Bears wish to have any success while refusing to ditch the Cover 2, they will have to completely overhaul their roster and hope that Urlacher makes a miraculous recovery.

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Tags: Cover 2, Lovie Smith