Much has been made in recent weeks about Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler’s heavy emphasis on running a Cover 2 defense, and with good reason, as the team has clearly been working on the scheme in practice and in preseason games. Friday night revealed that the Steelers safeties still have plenty of work to do before they can be successful as key components to a Cover 2 defense.
I’ll start with an example from early in the game just to clearly demonstrate to you what a Cover 2 cornerback’s responsibilities are.Jacksonville Jaguars’ first possession and first pass of the game is a play-action rollout with Julius Thomas coming across the formation to the shallow flat area.