Safety Zones in Cover 2 Zone

[rhombic21]

Can somebody else take a look at this and tell me if I'm off here. It seems like the safeties in Cover 2 zone drop WAY too wide. They drop all the way to the numbers. Shouldn't they be staying inside the vertical threat, to maintain leverage between themselves and the ball. As it is now, pretty much anything between the hashes is wide open against cover 2 (any variety), regardless of safety ratings.

I use OU a lot online. I'm coming to realize that I simply cannot play man defense ever, and have to be extremely careful when I come with a zone blitz, because my corners are rated so low. Since both of my safeties are rated very high, and my front 7 is all very fast, I thought it made sense to try and play Cover 2 Zone. But the safeties seem to be dropping way wrong. Against teams with speed at WR, it makes it virtually impossible to play cover 2, because I end up having to defend the entire area between the hashes with the MLB, and since my DL gets less than adequate pressure, end up trying to sprint back and cover Harvin or Maclin running a deep post, while at the same time coming up to stop short crossing routes.

I tried hot routing them to play inside, but it didn't really make a difference. Actually, it doesn't seem to matter what you do with that adjustment, they drop to the same areas everytime regardless.

I can't manual control one of the Safeties because the short zones are messed up, so I pretty much have to play with a linebacker.

[rhombic21]

Video: http://files.filefront.com/Cover+2+Z.../fileinfo.html

[AuburnAlumni]

You are correct sir.

In a true Cover 2, the Safeties are not suppose to split that wide for the exact reason you posted.

Deep Posts, and Streaks by the Slot receivers become WIDE OPEN in the middle of the field, especially with the ridiculous speed cheats they implemented this year for guys like Harvin and Maclin.

Yet another in a laundry list of Defensive downgrades to allow 10 year old Little Timmy to slice and dice his opponents to ribbons.

[rhombic21]

I went and checked and they do the same thing on '08, but there were far fewer plays with posts patterns, which is why I'm guessing it wasn't as big of an issue.

[rhombic21]

Also, just to note for anybody. That video is on AA with default slider settings (mimic online play). The safeties involved are rated 96 (FS) and 90 (SS) OVR, with respective zone coverage ratings of 95 and 86.

[scarlet_knights]

Quote: Originally Posted by AuburnAlumni

Deep Posts, and Streaks by the Slot receivers become WIDE OPEN in the middle of the field, especially with the ridiculous speed cheats they implemented this year for guys like Harvin and Maclin. Yet another in a laundry list of Defensive downgrades to allow 10 year old Little Timmy to slice and dice his opponents to ribbons.

I agree with this. Did they [EA] honestly think we wouldn't notice. I find ways to remedy this, but the CPU is just hopeless. It's not even fun playing against them a lot of the time.

[UnderRatedCoast]

yep, they should be staying around the hashmarks. Only suggestion I have is to play cover 2 buc. It leaves the MLB in the deep middle third, but he starts closer to the LOS so as to not be far enough downfield that it seems like you're playing a quarters defensive set.

[Coach Bindel]

They programmed the Safeties like that because the Mike LB is supposed to have the Middle Third. However, many people control him manually to stop the short game, thus leaving the middle of the field wide open.

The only reason I run Cover 2 is because I think my opponent is either going to run or throw in the flats. Other than that, I run Cover 3.

And that's it.