How do you beat Cover 2 in 11v11 tackle football?
Find out whether the middle is actually open first. In 11v11 a two-deep shell is often Tampa 2, with a linebacker running to the deep middle to take away the seam that beats it at smaller sizes. Smash is still the base answer because it attacks the corner rather than the middle, and the middle-of-field throws are worth calling only once you have seen what the linebacker does.
Three answers, in the order to try them
- Start here
Smash
Start here
It attacks the corner rather than the middle, so it works whether or not a linebacker is running to the deep hole. At eleven a side that makes it the safe opening call rather than merely the simplest one.
- If the linebacker carries the seam
Dagger
If the linebacker carries the seam
A middle linebacker sprinting to the deep middle has left everything in front of him. The dig runs into exactly that space, which is the specific punishment for the specific adjustment that makes 11v11 Cover 2 different.
- If the safeties are slow to widen
Y-Cross
If the safeties are slow to widen
A receiver crossing the field at depth stresses two deep defenders horizontally rather than vertically, and it takes long enough to develop that it needs a real pocket. That is a trade you can make with five linemen and cannot make with none.
What changes at this size
Somebody may be running to the deep middle
The two-deep hole that decides the 5v5 and 7v7 pages may not exist at eleven a side. Tampa 2 asks the middle linebacker to open and run to the deep middle at the snap, which closes the seam four verticals is aiming at and turns a free throw into an interception. That single adjustment is why the small-sided answers do not transfer, and it is impossible below nine a side because no flag format has a player to spare for it. The rest is the rush. Five linemen protect against four rushers, so you have time for a concept that develops, but the deep dig and the corner route both take real depth and a quarterback who is willing to hold it. The read is the same as everywhere else, though: the corner is playing two levels, and he has to be wrong about one of them.
When not to call it
Against Tampa 2, do not throw the seam first
The whole point of that coverage is to bait the middle-of-field throw with a linebacker running to it. Watch him for a down before you trust the middle.
When the rush is winning
Dagger and Y-Cross both need close to four seconds. Against a front you cannot block, the smash hitch is the only one of these three that is on time.
Take it to your team
Draw your plays in the football play designer, collect them in the playbook maker, and print wristband play cards so every player knows them come Saturday.
Draw any of these in about a minute
Open the designer, change the routes, save it to your playbook.
Open the designerRelated questions
How do you beat Cover 2 in 11v11 tackle football?
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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.