The Tampa-2 Is Dying
September 10th, 2010
Joe came across an interesting piece on Yahoo! Sports that suggests the West Coast offense is dying.
As a result, the Tampa-2 defense is dying.
Farrar notes that the Tampa-2 defense was devised specifically to stop the West Coast offense. With the West Coast offense fading, so too is the Tampa-2.
Elements of the Cover 2 can be traced back to the Steel Curtain defenses that helped the Pittsburgh Steelers win four Super Bowls in the 1970s. The idea took off when Tony Dungy (who played on two of those championship teams) was hired as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1996. Dungy and defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin (who worked together in Minnesota from 1992-94) implemented the scheme and developed a variant called the Tampa 2, in which the middle linebacker would drop into deeper coverage, and the outside linebackers would be directed to watch for intermediate hook-and-seam routes. In the meantime, cornerbacks would re-route outside receivers to the intermediate halves played by the outside linebackers.The Cover 3 defense: by losing a safety up top, a 4-4 stack allows for deep coverage, better run defense, and versatility in the middle of the defense. The strong safety can read as a force defender, provide a run fill inside, or take a flat in coverage.But as Kiffin has said, “Cover 2 became a lot better when we had better players.” That’s true of any scheme, more so with the Cover/Tampa 2. When the Bucs were killing offenses with it, they had potential Hall of Famers in their front seven (tackle Warren Sapp and linebacker Derrick Brooks) whose talents were especially suited to these schemes. Many teams that played copycat without the same talent failed. Dungy’s 2006 Indianapolis Colts team won the Super Bowl despite having one of the worst run defenses of the modern era. That’s another problem with the Cover 2; run support from your safeties can be tough to find without breaking out of the box. Even the post-Dungy Colts are augmenting the front four by going with more blitz looks.
So could it be that when Ronde Barber joked the Bucs were going to play a “Tampa-2.1” defense, and Raheem Morris stated he would be trying different things, that in fact the Bucs were not going back to the future but trying to be innovative in an effort to adjust to the ever-changing schemes of the NFL?
September 10th, 2010 at 7:23 am
Steve? Oh Steve…….. your take on this please.
September 10th, 2010 at 8:38 am
Lets see how that cover 2.1 Raheemie defense works with a mediocre team this week. it certainly gave up big yardage during preseason. And speaking of Barber, lets see how many times he gets burnt on Sunday. barber didn’t do jack last year and he is another year older.
September 10th, 2010 at 10:04 am
There you are again T2, Barber did not have a great year, but he did not have a bad year either. You should change your name to “Anti Tampa 2”.
September 10th, 2010 at 10:05 am
Oh yeah…Preseason is preseason Tampa 2, it means nothing.
September 10th, 2010 at 10:29 am
The Tampa Two will never die because it is basic and sound against everything. The problem is you have to have specific personel to be a great cover two defense. I think Raheem is wise to mix it up and add different looks and blitzes though, becuase every QB is so use to playing against the cover two, that it becomes second nature to them. Mixing things up to confuse QBs is required and Monte wasn’t evolving like he needed to. I think Rah has the right idea.
September 10th, 2010 at 10:50 am
@tampa2
Two things:
1) In the preseason games, you had rookies on hte Defensive Line that had never played in live game situations, so of course they gave up yards. However, each outing improved, which is why this season looks a little more promising. You watch, if the Bucs come out and win 3-1 in the first quarter, people will change their tunes and start predicting more wins for the season.
2) Last year, Barber wasn’t the same Barber that got 3-4 interceptions per year, but his presence was a much needed one. Without even going into his leadership role, I firmly believe his time playing last year and this year is showing the other CBs how to get the job done. He’s unselfishly coaching them along to make them better. Why?
“Because when I retire, I want to watch good Buccaneers football…” as he said in an interview a week or so ago.
On top of that, he still had 69 Total tackles and 2 fumble recoveries…not stellar, but not horrible either.
The point of him being here is having experience while the Bucs find and train his replacement.
September 10th, 2010 at 10:54 am
@Jdouble
I couldn’t agree more. I always felt like the T-2 did not blitz enough. It was because of this that when they did, it looked unpracticed and was unsuccessful.
Monte was a genius, but with men, as we get older we get more stuck in our ways of doing things instead of evolving. There comes a point when we say, “I’ve been like this for years, I’m not changing for anyone.”
I think Monte had reached that point, and that’s why things were taking a downturn…that and his refusal to cut loose of overaged veterans (or Allens refusal…whoever was responsible).
September 10th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
@Peter Dutcher. LOL “if the Bucs come out and win 3-1 in the first quarter, people will change their tunes and start predicting more wins for the season.” For the ones predicting only 2 wins they would have to change their predictions.
@tampa2 Says. We did not see the Tampa 2.1 in preseason. All you do is run a generic version. Teams do not want to put their actual plays on film to be studied. Also most of the young men playing are now selling used cars.