So you now know how Cover 2 works in Madden NFL 17, we go through how to beat it.
One of the ways to beat Cover 2 is by attempting to isolate one of the deep safeties on your receivers with a 2-man route combination. You want to stop the defense from hiding the Cover 2’s fragilities. One of the ways to do that is by utilizing at least one slot receiver to spread the defenders and force the middle linebacker to cover more ground if he wants to defend the deep middle. Importantly, you want to force the rest of the underneath defenders to cover their own zones so they can’t drop deep or convert to man on a receiver. A few of my favorite 2 man route combos against Cover 2 are any play that has either 2 posts routes running in the same direction or at least one post route being run by the slot or outside receiver.
Another play of note against Cover 2 is Shotgun Doubles Offset -Pa Deep Shot which has the slot receiver now running the post route. Have somebody running an underneath route again and it basically has the same effect as the play before.
Also, when you’re facing a guy who likes to blitz within the Cover 2, flood routes – specifically out of bunch sets – are really effective. Because it can expose the vacant middle of the field most Cover 2 blitzes create and you play a 2 man route game towards the sidelines with the flat corner and throw to whoever he doesn’t cover where getting the ball out quick is more the priority.
Cover 2 has its uses but you can blow the game wide open if you know your opponent is about to run it.
Hopefully you can apply what we showed you to your own game. Next up is Cover 3 defenses, so stay tuned.