What is Cover 2 in 7v7 flag football?
In 7v7 football Cover 2 splits the deep field between two safeties and leaves only two defenders underneath, because a third is rushing. Five underneath is what makes this shell hard to throw short against at eleven a side, and you cannot have five here. Two zones covering the full width at ten yards is a very different and much leakier defense.
Why Cover 2 works in 7v7
Two underneath, not five, and that changes what the shell IS
The eleven-player version smothers the quick game with five defenders standing in it. This version has two, so the short throws that are unavailable there are free here. If you call Cover 2 in 7v7 expecting the defense you have seen on Sunday, you will get something with the same name and none of the same strengths.
It is a pressure call here, not a base call
This version rushes three, which in a format where one is normal is genuine pressure. That is what the two underneath defenders buy: the offense sees Cover 2 and gets a rush it is not expecting. As a base defense the numbers do not hold up; as a change-up on an obvious passing down it does.
The famous hole is still there and now it is bigger
The deep middle at eighteen yards belongs to nobody in any Cover 2. At eleven a side a linebacker is at least in the neighbourhood on his way to a hook zone. Here there is nobody underneath the middle at all, so the throw is not contested by anybody on its way in.
Five underneath is a lot of underneath
Most passing offenses live between the line of scrimmage and fifteen yards. Cover 2 puts five defenders in exactly that band with their eyes on the quarterback, so the quick game gets smothered and every completion is contested immediately. A team that has been living on slants and flats will look slow against it.
The corners can be aggressive
With a safety over the top of each half, a corner does not have to respect the deep ball alone. He can sit on the flat, jam the outside receiver and play everything in front of him, which takes away the two easiest throws in football and forces the quarterback to hold it.
Everybody is looking at the quarterback
Zone defenders face the ball, so a bad throw is an interception rather than an incompletion. It is the shell that generates turnovers on tipped balls and late decisions, because eleven pairs of eyes are watching the thing that is about to be thrown.
Before and after the snap
The same call twice. What a coverage IS lives in the difference between these two pictures, not in either one of them.
- The alignmentCover 2 at 7v7 before the snap: the alignment and the rush, with no coverage drawn.
Where everybody stands, and who is coming. This is all an offense sees before the ball moves, which is why a defense that tips its coverage from the alignment has given away the only thing it was hiding.
- The coverageCover 2 at 7v7 after the snap, with every zone drawn and labelled.
The same men a beat later, with what each is responsible for. Every seam and every soft spot on this page is a gap between two of these shapes.
How to beat Cover 2 in 7v7
Throw underneath, immediately
Two defenders cannot cover the width at ten yards. A quick out, a flat route or a shallow cross is open on the snap, and against a three-man rush the quarterback has the time to find it. The defense is betting you take a shot instead.
Put a receiver in the middle at eighteen
The same answer that works at eleven a side works better here, because there is no underneath defender passing through that space. Hold the safeties wide with outside verticals and run a dig or a post behind the two short defenders.
What Cover 2 gives up
The hole between the safeties
Two deep defenders cannot cover the whole width, so the middle of the field at about eighteen yards belongs to nobody. Any route that gets a receiver there with the safeties widened is the classic answer, which is why a deep dig or a seam down the middle is the first thing an offensive coordinator looks for.
Four verticals, or anything that stretches it
Sending more deep receivers than there are deep defenders is arithmetic the coverage cannot answer. Two safeties against four vertical routes means two of them are running at grass, and the coverage has no way to be right. This is the reason Tampa 2 exists.
Take it to your team
Draw your plays in the football playmaker, collect them in the playbook maker, and print wristband play cards so every player knows them come Saturday.
Draw Cover 2 for your own team
Open the designer, set your alignment, and save it to your playbook.
Open the free play designerRelated questions
Should Cover 2 be my base defense in 7v7?
What is the difference between 7v7 Cover 2 and the real thing?
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Coach Ray Carroll
Coaches 5v5 flag football from kindergarten through 7th grade in San Mateo and San Carlos, California, and built RC Football to design, teach and print the plays his own teams run.