Tampa 2 Defense Dying a Slow Death as Lovie Smith's Buccaneers Go with It
New Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Lovie Smith, who earned his big NFL break as Tampa Bay's linebackers coach nearly two decades ago, was supposed to return the Bucs to glory.
They added key free agents during the offseason, such as cornerback Alterraun Verner and defensive end Michael Johnson. Many thought Smith had the firepower needed to shut down NFL offenses with his renowned Tampa 2 defensive scheme.
Instead, the Bucs are dead last in the NFL in scoring defense, dead last in the NFC South at 1-5 and dead last in Bleacher Report's NFL Power Rankings.
TOP NEWS
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Colts Release Kenny Moore
Projecting Every NFL Team's Starting Lineup 🔮
Rookie WRs Who Will Outplay Their Draft Value 📈
Smith and his Tampa 2-running colleagues were once the toast of the NFL, but now he—and they—have been burned to a crisp by modern offenses.
Is the Tampa 2 dead?
A Decade of Dominating D
During Smith's first stint with Tampa in the late '90s, he worked with head coach Tony Dungy, defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, defensive line coach Rod Marinelli and defensive backs coach/assistant head coach Herman Edwards. Together, they built a defense that ranked in the NFL's top 10 in points allowed for 10 consecutive seasons.
Their twist on the classic Cover 2 defense—forever known as the Tampa 2—enabled teams to smother short and deep passing routes, generate pass rush without blitzing and stop the run with a coordinated one-gap system.
It's no wonder that those Bucs defensive assistants landed head coaching gigs across the league. Smith, Marinelli and Edwards all went on to skipper teams of their own.
For a detailed breakdown of the Tampa 2, its variants and how to attack it, Bleacher Report NFL Lead Writer Matt Bowen has you covered.
The short version: Like a standard Cover 2, it's run from a 4-3 front with short zone coverage on the outside, the linebackers in three short zones across the middle and two safeties deep, like this:
The "Tampa" twist is the zone the middle linebacker covers, highlighted above in green. This deep zone allowed the middle linebacker to take responsibility for athletic tight ends or slot receivers who would frequently try to split the two safeties.
As a result, the Tampa 2 was perfectly adapted for an NFL with more flexible receivers and emerging tight ends such as Tony Gonzalez.
Today's NFL, not so much.
Aging Disgracefully
Last season, Monte Kiffin made his return to the NFL as the Cowboys defensive coordinator. He brought his tried-and-true Tampa 2 defense to Dallas, and it was an unmitigated disaster.
Here's how the Cowboys looked in 2013, against the Drew Brees and the spread-out New Orleans Saints:
Look familiar? Yep, it's the base Tampa 2.
This is a 3rd-and-1 in the first quarter. New Orleans is showing stacked receivers to the left (weak) side and a tailback offset to that side. The two receivers are going to run a smash concept: The deep receiver, Marques Colston, will run an intermediate corner route, while the other receiver runs a hitch underneath him.
The hitch route will draw the corner up close, and Colston will attack the huge gap between the corner and the safety behind him—what commentator Jon Gruden hilariously dubbed "the turkey hole" on Monday Night Football. Meanwhile, the tailback will feign pass protection before leaking out on a curl route of his own.
Now, watch what happens:
All three receivers come open past the sticks.
It's 3rd-and-1, so the cornerback's short zone isn't short enough. The middle linebacker's deep zone is too deep to come up and cover the running back, and Colston is wide-open. The turkey hole, gaping, beckons. Brees immediately hit Colston for a 21-yard gain, and the Saints went on to win 49-17.
The Cowboys finished 26th in the NFL in scoring defense that year, and it looked as though the game had passed Kiffin by. Then during the offseason, the Cowboys lost pass-rushers DeMarcus Ware and Jason Hatcher to free agency and middle linebacker Sean Lee to injury. An athletic middle linebacker is key to pulling off the Tampa 2. It looked like the Cowboys were doomed.
Then, they got creative.
A New Coat of Paint
Dallas promoted Rod Marinelli to defensive coordinator in early 2014, and he added some much-needed wrinkles to that Tampa 2 scheme.
Instead of using a pure Tampa 2, Marinelli has used a base alignment to disguise another look or eschewed Cover 2 entirely. As a result, the Cowboys defense looks completely different in 2014—and the difference is amazing.
Against the Saints this season, the Cowboys showed a myriad of looks. Here's an early 3rd-and-3 where the Cowboys defense beat the Saints offense with a disguised Tampa 2 scheme:
The Cowboys had nickel personnel on the field, with both linebackers and the nickel corner showing blitz. One safety is up in an off-man position on the strong side, while the other is playing deep "center field" (Cover 1).
Here's what the real assignments were:
That's right: a zone coverage not unlike a Tampa 2. Here's how it played out:
The coverage was good enough—and well-disguised enough—to force Brees to think twice, pump fake and ultimately scramble from the pass rush. Had the Cowboys kept interior pressure up front, it would have been a coverage sack.
The Cowboys defense held the Saints to just 17 points, in a 38-17 victory.
The Tampa Truth?
Why doesn't Lovie Smith use some of these same wrinkles in Tampa today? He does.
But his problems are personnel and experience.
In Tampa, there are some talented players. Whether they're perfect fits for the Tampa 2 is arguable, and whether they understand their responsibilities yet—truly understand them instinctually at full game speed—is not.
In a strict system like the Tampa 2, if one player misses a run fit, or blows a coverage switch, there's a gaping hole. There are going to be some bumps and bruises throughout the season as the Bucs adjust, but they will adjust.
How fast they do it, and whether they can do it fast enough to salvage this season, is still very much in doubt.
As for the Tampa 2? It's not dead. It's part of almost every 4-3 team's playbook. It's still a very useful pass-coverage scheme.
What's dead is the idea of a rigid defensive system that can smother any opponent in its base alignment. Be it the early-2000s Bucs, late-2000s Bears or today's Seattle Seahawks, talent will only trump the rest of the NFL for so long.
Offenses have become incredibly diverse, with anywhere from 2-5 receivers, 0-3 tight ends and 0-3 running backs. With spreads, bunches, doubles, trips, jet motions, read-options and more, there's no way a single alignment can effectively account for every look.
Defenses like the Tampa 2 must adapt, and become adaptive, or die.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
.png?w=480)
