I've seen a lot of confusion from people about our defense. From broadcasters, journalists, to posters on the board, people keep blaming the cover 2. The fact of the matter is, this defense runs more cover 3 than cover 2.
Cover 3 is basically when there are 3 deep defenders covering the field. The deep field is divided into 3rds. The biggest advantage with cover 3 is that it's stronger against the deep bomb because the 3 deep shell keeps everything in front of it. Another big advantage is that you can bring 8 in the box. The 8th man in the box is flexible to blitz, support the run or defend the second level of the pass defense. In it's most basic form, with no blitz, this is how the responsibility of the coverage will look.
Keep in mind through all of this, that responsibilities can change between personnel. The two corners and free safety don't always have to be the ones covering the deep 3rds. It could be both safeties and one corner, or one of many other permutations.
In the cover 3, the Bears have successfully executed the scheme's bigest advantages. They've mostly prevented getting burned for deep TDs, and they've shut down the run rather well. The weakness in the scheme is the soft zone between 2nd and 3rd tier of coverage and that's where we get exploited.
Below is an example of how the Bears might look before the snap. As you can see, we'll have 8 in the box and as many as 7 within a couple of yards of the line of scrimmage.
Post snap, all of the defenders who are not blitzing must first read run or pass, if they read pass, they must retreat to their coverage zone. Also, we sometimes have our second tier of coverage in man coverage.
Here's how an opposing team might attack this with a 3 receiver set. We could have a nickelback instead of a sam... it's arbitrary. A common strategy is to run a couple of receivers hard upfield, sending the outside 3rds to retreat hard, keeping in mind that all of the deep 3rds need to keep everything in front of them. You might see a charging receiver hit brakes and sit, or they may continue with the fly or deep post to further widen the gap between the 2nd and 3rd tier of the coverage.
The opposing offense is in pink, because the opposing offense is a bunch of pansies:
The problem we have is that we often play it with a good portion of our second tier coverage playing too close too the line. This further widens the gap between the 2nd and 3rd tier from the start. Additionally, they're retreating backwards, expending energy, just to get into a basic position. By the time they get there, the offense's play is well developed. This is why quick slants can work so well. Also, we can't get a jam on the quick routes because the corners are usually responsible for the deep thirds and keeping everything in front of them. That's why the corners are often so far off the line. Making a mistake on a jam or tight coverage compromises the whole scheme.
The cover 3 defense has some nice benefits, but frankly I don't think we have the right personnel for it. And the way we play it, I don't think any human beings can really execute what's being asked of these guys. There's so much wasted energy by bluffing the blitz and retreating, it's ridiculous at times. Secondly, our corners aren't fast enough to jam a receiver and then cover deep thirds.. very very few are, but because we often don't have our second tier of guys setup to cut off the quick slant, we would need this from our corners.
I'm not saying abandon the cover 3, but let's run more cover 2. It's what our personnel is built for. Our corners can get a jam or flatten the receivers route and then release to the safeties that are two deep. Keep 7 in the box more, and off the line. Here's a basic coverage look at cover 2. Keep in mind, like cover 3, that 2nd tier of guys (LBs and corners) can go into man coverage instead of a zone.
Don't be jealous of my MS Paint skills Nerrad.
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Originally Posted by MPBears68
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