Question about the 'Cover 2'

[gil]

I was wondering, how much blitzing is ordinarily involved in the Cover 2 defense - i.e., where is the pressure on the QB really expected to come from?

Obviously, you always want pressure from your front 4, but how creative does this scheme allow coordinator's to be with blitzes?

For example, will we see more/less safety/corner blitzes than in the past?

I am honestly just curious, I guess the one team I have seen in limited action with this D is Tampa, and at the time they had quite the formidable front 4 that was (at least the way we look now) better in creating pressure than the front 4 we'll be yielding this year.

[OpIv37]

from what I understand, the tenacity of the Cover 2's pass D depends on getting pressure from the front 4 and leaving everyone else in zone or man-under pass protection, hence the switch to smaller, faster DT's. Essentially the cover 2 wants the "back 7" to be in pass protect so there is not a lot of blitzing.

But I've read a few articles this week that say Fewell will be running a "modified Tampa 2". Given that our defenders are used to Gray's blitz-happy schemes and the fact that our front 4 is unlikely to produce significant pass pressure, I wouldn't be surprised to see more blitzing from the Bills than is usually included in Cover 2 schemes.

[BuffaloBillsStampede]

I hope we blitz more than usual because we will get toasted otherwise. Our front four will not create the amount of pressure that Tampa's, Chicago's, or Indi's does. We need another year of free agency and drafting to get that type of personel in my opinion. I do however think that Chris Kelsay might be better suited for this type of defense where it is just pass rushing and not really worrying about run stuffing too much. We have enough speed for this D though. The only guy I am concerned about speed wise is Troy Vincent only because hes older. If he struggles with having the type of range needed for this D than I would expeect to see Ko Simpson get a lot of time this year.

[OpIv37]

I hope we blitz more than usual because we will get toasted otherwise. Our front four will not create the amount of pressure that Tampa's, Chicago's, or Indi's does. We need another year of free agency and drafting to get that type of personel in my opinion. I do however think that Chris Kelsay might be better suited for this type of defense where it is just pass rushing and not really worrying about run stuffing too much. We have enough speed for this D though. The only guy I am concerned about speed wise is Troy Vincent only because hes older. If he struggles with having the type of range needed for this D than I would expeect to see Ko Simpson get a lot of time this year.

Whitner should be starting opening day- I wouldn't be surprised if Vincent is slowly phased out over the course of the season in favor of Simpson. It's no big secret that Vincent only has a year or two left and is basically here to mentor all the young DB's on this team (the 3 we drafted this year, Baker, King, Greer, etc).

[ghz in pittsburgh]

Cover 2 is the base set. What actually gets run from play to play can be very different. So theoretically an outside LB covers a portions of the field right behind a DE, chances are the offense does not run a play involving his coverage area, so what does he do? If he does nothing and nothing happens in his area, the coach will say he's doing his job. If he goes after the QB or help out coverage in another area, he ccould be an hero or goat (if the play comes back to his area). So two things can be learned here:

1) if the play is really good, has studied the opponent's play, has the instinct, he can make right judgement and contribute unexpectedly - a star.

2) the coach has a good understanding of what the offense is trying to do and calls a good play sending his players ignored by the offense to do something like blitz.

This is the kind of variation cover 2 can give you when your back 7 are in the wait and see mold.

[TedMock]

Tampa blitzed Ronde Barber from the corner quite a bit. I don't know if that was always the intent, of if he was just so good at it they couldn't resist. I don't believe Brian Kelly did a ton of blitzing from the other side. Barber was always good for 2 or 3 sacks per year and a ton of pressures.

[LifetimeBillsFan]

Fewell was with the Bears last season, so I'm expecting that to figure into the modifications that he makes to the basic system. If so, the amount of blitzing and where it comes from can vary considerably depending on personnel and the amount of pressure that the front four is able to generate.

For example, during the first half of last season, the Bears did quite a bit of blitzing with their MLB and safeties. Because he was so effective with his blitzing, in addition to everything else, at mid-season B.Urlacher was being mentioned as a legitimate MVP candidate. But, that all changed in the second half of the season. Because the Bears were getting great pressure from their front four after Ogunleye fully recovered from the injury that slowed him early on in the season and the Bears safeties got banged up, the L.Smith and the Bears' DC cut back drastically on the amount of blitzing that they were doing. By the time they played Atlanta and Carolina, it was being reported that they were using only two blitzes in their game plans and employing them infrequently. Urlacher's sack numbers were virtually non-existent in the second half of the season after this change, although he continued to put up good tackle numbers. WLB L.Briggs' tackle numbers also increased, although he didn't have many sacks in either half of the season.

Since the Bills--at least until proven otherwise--do not have the personnel on their defensive line to generate the same kind of pressure that the Bears are able to get out of their front four, I would expect the Bills to probably do as much or more blitzing than the Bears did early last season when their D line was banged up. Also, since Fletcher, as good as he is, is not the player that Urlacher is, I would expect the Bills to be more varied in the kinds of blitzes and personnel that they use. For example: a reasonably healthy Spikes would be more of a blitz threat than even L.Briggs, who is a pretty good WLB, etc. The fact that the Bills still have a lot of players who played in a blitz-happy scheme, I could see the Bills using a more varied set of blitz packages if their defensive line does not consistently generate enough pressure on opposing QBs, but I think that overall the amount of blitzing will be less than it was. I also think that the personnel that the Bills have on their defensive line, while not up to the quality of the Bears' D-line, will be a better fit in this defense and, as a result, could surprise a lot of people with the amount of pressure that they will be able to bring. If Tripplett and McCargo, in the under-tackle rotation, are the real deal, players like Kelsay, Schobel and Anderson could end up looking a lot better than people are giving them credit for being in this thread and that could give Fewell a lot of options in terms of how much or how little he chooses to blitz.

[jamze132]

Due to the speed we have in the secondary, you can count on a lot of corner blitz's from both sides of the field. And young QBs will struggle picking it up if the play is masked well. I would aslo expect a lot of sucess when we play against Miami if Culpepper is playing. He hasn't been known to read defenses all that well. I also think that we will actually be competitve in almost every division game we play this year since none of the other teams have seen us play a "cover 2" style of a defense. Everyone has seen the 4-3 from us in the past. I'm not saying it will change the outcomes, but I think our defense will have sucess early in the season against NE, Miami, and NY.