The Cover-2: Is It Broken?

The Bears defense was mauled by the Cincinnati Bengals this past weekend and the talk on most of the radio stations covering the Bears is that the cover-2 defense is broken.  We saw the Bengals chew the cover-2 up and spit it out like a bad steak and so now the question is, how can this be fixed?  Is the cover-2 a dead defense?

The Bears cover-2 defense is predicated on pass pressure and when there is no pass pressure quarterbacks could have all day to throw and will complete a lot of throws as a result.  The cover- 2 is designed to keep the play in front of the defender so that he has time to react and stop the play before it turns into a long gain.  It allows for a short gain but hopes are high that the defensive line is good enough to get enough pass pressure to force an incompletion.

The cover-2 used to be good when it was first conceived in Tampa Bay by Tony Dungy (called the Tampa 2) but now it’s become easily figured out and almost useless.  It’s hard to imagine that head Coach Lovie Smith would have thought that the cover 2 would have worked as long as it had but he has made no effort to move to a different defense.  In addition to this, the defenders that he currently has on the roster are geared towards being cover 2 defenders as opposed to regular 4-3 defenders.  Remember that he wanted lighter and quicker players for the cover 2.

The Bears may need to start playing more man coverage from now on in order to help keep teams from passing on them like they have been.  Are the Bears cornerbacks suited for man coverage?  Charles Tillman would do well in man coverage but it’s unclear to see just how well Zachary Bowman may do.  Perhaps the Bears should try more man coverage to see if it works out for them.  The Cleveland game would be a good game to try this out in.

If Smith wants to save his job he will have to adapt and overcome to get his defense back on track and get the Bears winning games again.  Whether he wants to realize it or not, he may have to do it without his signature defense because whatever he does, he has to lead his team to victory even if it means leaving the past behind.