Cover 2 is one of the most well-known coverage shells in football. It’s been around for almost forever. For much of the 90’s and early 2000’s it was ubiquitous at every level of football from high school all the way up to the NFL. However, its popularity has plummeted over the years, as offenses have found multiple ways to exploit it.

Cover 2 requires the outside cornerbacks to play the flats and pass off any deeper routes to the safeties. Unfortunately, receivers have been getting bigger and faster every year, and safeties haven’t been able to keep up. There is currently a massive dearth of safety talent all across the NFL today, and it’s simply unfair to ask safeties to cover outside receivers down the field without any other help. It’s also a waste of an outside cornerback’s talents to play them only as a flat defender.

Although Cover 2 is declining in popularity in today’s NFL, teams still occasionally use it as a situational coverage shell. On Sunday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers decided to roll out with a Cover 2 variation called Tampa 2 on a third down and sixteen situation, with the Panthers deep in Buccaneers territory.

The Panthers dialed up the perfect play to beat this coverage, with Kelvin Benjamin running the corner route from the outside wide receiver alignment.

Notice the movement of the strong safety. Immediately after the snap, quarterback Cam Newton sees the safety move out of the box to his deep half responsibility.

Newton immediately diagnoses the defense as a Cover 2, and decides to attack the opposite side of the field, where he knows Kelvin Benjamin is running a corner (also called a seven) route.

The outside cornerback passes off Benjamin to the safety far too early on this play. He needs to further sink into his zone to take away Benjamin as an easy target.

With Benjamin passed off to the deep safety, all Benjamin has to do now is stay in front of the safety and use his bigger frame to box out the smaller defensive back. Newton escapes the pass rush and throws an excellent pass to Benjamin, who uses his size to go up and get an easy touchdown catch.

The Carolina Panthers’ offense is still very flawed. They can’t effectively run the ball, and also struggle in pass protection. Despite these issues, it’s still nice to see them punish an opposing defense for making a poor play call. Easy opportunities to score points like this are rare in the NFL, and I’m glad the Panthers were able to take advantage.

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All GIFs and images courtesy of NFL.com