Follwing the success the Tampa Bay Buccaneers exhibited in their Super Bowl season, the Cover Two style defense started gaining popularity and spread like wildfire. Whether it was the traditional Cover Two or the Tampa Two or whatever variation of this disgusting defense that was in existence, most teams employed it in one way, shape or form. The idea is to divide the field into portions, with each player aside from the four down linemen assigned one portion. The safeties play a huge part here as they are almost always the only players that end up covering deep routes, and with inadequate safety play, the defense falls apart. While all of the variations center on preventing the big play and forcing turnovers, none have become so dependant on turnovers as the particular style employed by my favorite team, the Chicago Bears. The Bears variation is pretty close to the Tampa Two, and while Lovie Smith has said it is in fact different, i have yet to see why. The Bears spread their safeties a bit wider apart than the traditional Cover Two dictates, but no more than that of the Tampa Two. Anyhow, the idea of relying on the other team to make mistakes really irks me. I am a believer in making things happen and only relying on things that you can make happen.
Last year the Bears were among the league leaders in takeaways. This year, although not nearly as productive in the takeaway deprtment, they still rank a respectabl 12th with 24. So why are the Bears so bad this year? The answer is because even though you can use takeways to limit the opposition's chances at scoring, what counts is a) what you do when you are not getting takeaways and b) when you do get takeaways, can your offense capitalize. Last year, the Bears were a defense that at times did struggle, but for the most part was of the lockdown variety. Also, the Bears were the highest scoring team in the NFC last season, thanks largely in part to the extra 2+ possesions per game the defense gave them. The is year, the Bears not only can stop anybody, but they cant score either. A cover two defense is all fine and dandy when the turnovers amount to something, but the defense is exposed as a fraud when the offense cant score or the defense has no skill other than taking away the ball.
In fairness, the Bears have struggled largely thanks to a number of injuries on defense, but the Bears, if not for Jerry Angelo and Smith's offseason arrogance, could have been in a position to succeed despite those injuries. Lovie allowed Todd Johnson to leave and traded away Chris Harris to make room for his lapdog Adam Archuletta, who should have been out of the league two years ago. He also promoted Daniel Manning, who despite his superb speed has regressed badly this year, probably because of his lack of football IQ. The Bears allowed Ian Scott and Alfonso Boone to leave as well and signed a big time cover two guy, Darwin Walker, to replace them. Smith also shafted Alex Brown by giving his job to Mark Anderson, who desoite his gaudy rookie numbers should have been used as a specialist once again.
The cover two defense and the Lovie Smith's inability to adapt, whether it be in-season or in-game, have brought upon the downfall of the Bears. The latter probably is the bigger culprit, but i just cant help but look at the Cover Two as a problem. One of the biggest Cover Two guys in existence, Monte Kiffin, has already come to grips with the problems of the Cover Two and from what i heard has said that it needs to be readily evolved and mixed in with less reguarity thanks to the extensive knowledge coaches have about it and the holes within it.
While this blog isn't as descriptive and thorough as i would like it to be, i have run out of time. please leave comments regarding your comments on the cover two and whether you look at it the same way i do.
Chittown Call Luvy To The Sideline Whisper In His Ear That Hester Is A Very Good Athlete n He Might Just Be Your Answer To Quarterback Position.Let Him Chunk The Ball Some n See! By The Way My Saints Are Catching Up Lol
The cover two hasn't worked for the Bears "d". The Bears "d" is having an off year, because it will work for some teams. Maybe the curse of the Super Bowl loser is the problem and the Bears will be good next year. You never know.
I've watched several games and you will notice that the Bears do in fact use the Cover 2. But the truth be known they only use it roughly 25-30% of the game. The rest of the time you will see that they employ a man to man coverage and this year especially have blitzed with more regularity. As far as why they haven't quite measured up to all the pre season hype, there are several factors on both sides of the ball.
On offense when you use 3 quarterbacks compared to the one last year, which by the way was Rex Grossman. With all the people out there on his case , he posted a lot better numbers than everyone combined this year. The o-line is getting dare we say OLD. The front office needs to get some more big uglies in there. Moose hasn't quite caught on to the notion of actually catching the ball. I guess he dropped that with all the passes he has dropped this year. Mark Bradley who last year when not hurt was catching TDs has hardly seen what a football field looks like this year because the coaches have tried to get Hester the ball on offense, which last time I checked has scored once in 13 games on offense. And the biggest problem on offense was trading away Thomas Jones instead of fumble and injury prone Cedric Benson. Way to go on that call Angelo.
On Defense, we must start at the top and look at the difference in Coordinators. Rivera was much better in the locker room than Babich. I believe the players have kind have shown that on the field this year. I don't think that they have the same intensity. Move Alex Brown back to starter and put Mark Anderson back on the b
I never denied that the Bears use the cover , i merely stated that they basicaly run the Tampa 2, whether Lovie and Babich want to admit or not. Obviously they dont use it all of the time, but the fact of the matter is that it is their base defense. They do switch in and out of it, but their bread and butter is the cover 2.
On the topic of Rivera and Babich, i think Babich's problems lie in his assesment of his personel. Last year the Bears did not blitz all that much. The front four, which was better last year(probably because Anderson was used in a much more efficent manner), was among the best in the game. That hasn't changed this year. What has changed is that the linebackers blitz a lot more than they have in recent memory. The problem with that is that the Bears linebackers, particularly Urlacher, suck at blitzing, especially up the middle, which oddly enough is where Babich insists on sending them. Rivera, or whoever really ran the defense last year, came to grips with that. Babich hasn not.
Thats what frustrates me most. In Urlacher, the Bears have perhaps the best cover 2 LB of all time, but if say, they were to go to a 3-4 defense, which I love, Urlacher wouldn't be as good. The Bears are at a dilemma, but i have a solution. Resign Briggs, move him to the middle and put Urlacher on the outside. Then play Jamar Williams a bit more. I really like the kid and Jamar, Brian and Lance could be the best unit in the league. Just some food for thought.
I am college kid out of chicago and love Chicago sports aka a huge homer. My writing may contradict this, but i do care and know about sports outside of Chicago, although I may never blog about it.
