Patriots and the Cover 3 Defense

[mayoclinic]

The Patriots signed the best man to man coverage corner in the league (and if you factor in the current rules, possibly of all time) using any sort of zone scheme would just be wasting the talents of Revis, like Tampa did last year.

I'm expecting very aggressive press man across the board - make it hard for receivers to even get off the LOS.

I agree.

A couple of good reads from Matt Bowen (a very good defensive analyst and former NFL DB):

How the New England Patriots Can Maximize Darrelle Revis' Elite Coverage Skills

Patriots' Secondary Additions Prove Bill Belichick's Ability to Adapt

I expect the Pats to play mostly man coverage, with Cover 1, Cover 3 and Cover 7. They will also use a lot of disguise, playing a Cover 2 and then dropping a robber down. Some of Bowen's comments:

Cover 1 (or any single-high-safety defense) should be at the top of the call sheet every week for the Patriots defense after picking up Revis and Browner via free agency, but there is always room to get creative and use game plan-specific schemes when you have corners who can win in man coverage.

I expect the Patriots to use man pressure often with the amount of depth they have at the cornerback position. Look for five- and six-man pressure schemes out of both nickel and dime packages.

But what about playing some combination man, or Cover 7?

This gives the Patriots the ability to “set some traps” in the secondary and disguise their pre-snap alignments while also bringing pressure with five or six defensive backs on the field.

And with a talent like Revis, the Patriots can roll their coverages, eliminate a slot receiver (bracket) and play man trail (2-Man) away from the cornerback in Cover 7.

Yes, please.

 

[PP2]

This is not really a thread about a base D being cover 3 like Carrol. This thread is about the Pats using more cover 3 then they have in the past. Which has been minimal at best.

Looking at the players we have.

If Ryan moves to safety we use a lot of cover 2 with split zone safety help(Forgive me if I am screwing these terms up).

But looking at the Chung signing. Keeping him in the box(Collins I think works with cover 3 as well) while using press coverage on the outsides with McC in centre field is a viable cover 3 D.

My post is about using cover 3 more then we had in past. Obviously Bill mixes coverages up, and disguises D more then most. I am just trying to get at if cover 3 can now be thrown in that mix?

Sorry if this is a rambling post.

It's not a rambling post. It's an interesting discussion that I wish we would have more of on this forum.. more pure football and less drama, less TMZ.

I really don't see why we would be using more cover 3 as we pretty much have the best man cover in Revis, and Browner can hold his own pretty good.

In fact, I would expect to see far more cover 1 than anything else. Maybe even rarely a cover 2, but any more than that and we are failing to take advantage of the man to man skills that we have in the backfield now, the likes of which we haven't had in a very long time.

 

[PP2]

The biggest difference between Seattle's cover 3 and what I personally would do with the Pats' personnel is ironically the one common player between the two secondaries. Browner doesn't profile as the kind of guy you'd typically expect to be doing press bail into a deep third, and it showed at times. Ideally, I think the Pats put a safety behind him at all times, knowing that he's going to get beat deep sometimes but that his disruption on most plays should make up for that.

Press bail is still a variation of zone which I don't think we will play, because you bail to your area of responsibility.

Browner will most certainly press/bump and depending on the option he is defending, either go into trail on bracket coverage, or simply reroute. I see us playing more cover 1 and 7 than anything else (cover 1 being the majority). In cover 7, Browner would be in fist (his ideal tech) with McCourty rolled over on top. Revis will be in solo on the other side or wherever the #1 aligns, with the SS rolled up or in slice tech (bracket) on the slot or the Y (IMO).

 

[mayoclinic]

I see us playing more cover 1 and 7 than anything else (cover 1 being the majority). In cover 7, Browner would be in fist (his ideal tech) with McCourty rolled over on top. Revis will be in solo on the other side or wherever the #1 aligns, with the SS rolled up or in slice tech (bracket) on the slot or the Y (IMO).

I see a lot of this, too.