First of all, long time lurker. Like years. Absolutely giddy about the defensive performance Saturday!

That said, I’m not the most knowledgeable about football but from my view in the stands, K State did some things to attack Hill’s cover 2 fairly successfully.

What I saw was that when they recognized the coverage as cover two consisting of a traditional two high, five low designed to toke away short passes to the middle, they started attacking the outside wide receiver screens. When the opponent stacked two receivers on the field side, our corners were up on the line showing press to the outside receiver and the remaining receiver covered by the field-side safety (fairly deep coverage) which left plenty of room for an unopposed screen pass. The corner showing press would get locked up (their receivers were really good blockers and our corners had a bit of a hard time fighting off the blocks), and by the time the safety came down to engage their man, the pass was caught and 5-10 yards would be picked up.

I also saw the opponent attack the seams by running the inside receiver up and behind the linebackers in their zone, and then slant inside the safety. They got us a few times on that play as it was clearly a softer spot in the zone.

Did anyone else see that? Is it something to be concerned about against better passing attacks?

Everything I know about play design comes from EA Sports, so I really don’t know if this was accurate. Hoping someone more knowledgeable can shed some light. I just know that on the Xbox I’d have been going back to those plays each time I saw that defensive alignment.