How do you beat Cover 2 in 7v7 flag football?
Attack the seam between the two safeties. Cover 2 splits the deep field in half and gives each safety one side, which means the middle of the field behind the underneath defenders belongs to nobody. Send a receiver straight up that seam on a post at around fourteen yards, hold the corner with an out underneath, and put a vertical route on the opposite side so the safety on that half cannot cheat toward the middle. The quarterback throws the seam unless a safety closes it, and takes the out if he does.
Three answers, in the order to try them
- Start here
Smash
The corner is wrong whichever route he takes.
A hitch underneath and a corner route over the top of the same defender is the oldest answer to two-deep coverage and still the best one. The corner has to choose, and the quarterback throws to whichever he did not choose. No timing, no progression, one defender to read.
- If the corner sits on the hitch
Dagger
Clear the safety out and throw into the space he left.
When the corner refuses to jump the short route, the soft spot moves inside. Dagger sends a vertical to carry the safety and runs a dig underneath into the grass he vacates. It needs two receivers to be on time with each other, which is why it is second rather than first.
- If the safeties split wide
Four Verticals
Two safeties, four seams, and they cannot have them all.
Cover 2 has exactly two deep defenders. Sending four receivers downfield asks them to cover four seams between them, and the one in the middle of the field is the one nobody owns. The simplest call here and the one most likely to score outright.
Why it works
Cover 2 gives the middle away by design
Two safeties splitting the deep field means each is responsible for a half. Neither owns the line between them. A receiver running straight up that line is in nobody's area until a safety abandons his half to take him.
The out route holds the defender who would help
Y breaking out at six occupies the flat defender on that side. Without it he sinks under the seam and the throw closes. The underneath route is not a checkdown here, it is what makes the primary work.
The back-side vertical stops the safety cheating
X running deep on the opposite side means that safety cannot slide toward the middle before the snap. One vertical route on the other half buys the seam a yard of daylight it would not otherwise have.
How to run it
- 1
Confirm it is actually Cover 2
Two deep defenders at roughly equal depth, split across the hashes, with the rest underneath. One deep defender in the middle is Cover 3 and this play is wrong against it.
- 2
Send the tight end up the seam at fourteen
Straight up the middle between the safeties, then lean slightly to whichever one is deeper. He should be running, not drifting: the window opens for about a second.
- 3
Break the out at six, on time
Y breaks toward the sideline at six yards regardless of what the flat defender does. His job is occupation, and running it late defeats the purpose.
- 4
Read the near safety, then throw
If he stays on his half, throw the seam. If he closes on it, the out is open by definition because the defender underneath him went with Y. One defender, two answers.
Adjustments
Flip the seam to a corner route
Against safeties who squeeze the middle hard, run the tight end at the seam and break him outside at twelve instead. Same stress, different finish, and it uses the space the squeeze just created.
Add a second seam
Two receivers up both seams forces both safeties to commit and leaves the underneath middle completely open. Effective, but it asks your quarterback to read two defenders instead of one.
Motion to confirm the coverage
Send a receiver across before the snap. If a defender travels with him it is man, not Cover 2, and this play is not the call.
When not to call it
Against Cover 3
A single deep safety in the middle of the field owns the exact space this play attacks. The seam runs directly at him. Flood one side instead and make the deep third choose.
When your quarterback cannot throw fourteen yards on a line
The seam window is narrow and it closes. A ball that arcs gets picked by the safety it was designed to avoid. If that throw is not there yet, run the out and take six yards.
In the red zone
Inside the twenty there is no deep field to split, so Cover 2 stops being Cover 2 and the seam has nowhere to go. Width and traffic beat it down there.
Take it to your team
Draw your plays in the free flag football play designer, collect them in the playbook maker, and print football play cards so every player knows them come Saturday.
Draw this against your own defense
Open it in the play designer, set your own depths, and print it for game day. Free, no download.
Open the play designerRelated questions
What is Cover 2 in flag football?
What is the weakness of Cover 2?
How do you tell Cover 2 from Cover 3?
Does this work in 5v5 as well as 7v7?
Related guides
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.