Weaknesses of a Zone Defense

Modern football offenses have become more passing-oriented. Because of that, the use of the zone defense has become increasingly important. Zone defenses call for defensive players to cover an area of the field, rather than a specific man, allowing players to perform more to their strengths and playmaking abilities. However, each type of zone defense does have its weaknesses.

  1. Cover 2

    • The defense made famous by the late-1990s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their head coach, Tony Dungy, the Cover 2 is a defensive line-dominated scheme calling for safe secondary play, an ultra-athletic middle linebacker and safeties that can cover a lot of ground. The purpose of the Cover 2 is to not allow the big play, while forcing the opposing offense into mistakes either by impatience-caused interceptions or “coverage sacks” by the defensive line.

      Because the Cover 2 is a two-deep safety look–-each safety is given half of the field to cover--with the corners playing their respective flats, the main area to attack is the deep middle, which is covered by a dropping middle linebacker. Teams with athletic, fast tight ends usually do a good job of exploiting this design flaw because their tight ends are able to get behind the commonly less athletic middle linebacker.

    Cover 3

    • The Cover 3 defense is a single-high safety scheme, with both corners covering the deep zones on their third of the field. A more conservative defense, the Cover 3 usually has a more aggressive strong safety playing close to the line of scrimmage and a free safety playing “centerfield".

      Depending on where the linebackers’ coverage responsibilities lie, the places to attack a Cover 3 are the flats and intermediate routes to the outside like curls and slants, because the cornerbacks play a loose coverage and guard against the deep play. Also, if more than one receiver is running a deep route in one of the thirds, it would cause a 2-on-1 mismatch for the offense.

    Cover 4

    • More commonly known as “Quarters”, the Cover 4 is mostly used by a defense with a lead in the final minutes of the game. This defense is designed to keep everything in front of the secondary and allow no big plays. Also called the “prevent” defense, four secondary players--two safeties and two corners--are all guarding against any deep routes by dropping into zones 20-30 yards downfield, leaving lots of open space, especially in the middle of the field.