Eric Allen suggests defending evolved Wildcat w/Cover 2 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Eric Allen suggests defending evolved Wildcat w/Cover 2

Teams will have to play Cover 2 alot against us, they dont want to give up the big play and that is was the cover 2 is designed for. Good thing we have Pennington at QB, he can pick apart a cover2 defense, and we're loaded with quick slot type receivers that can play infront of the cb.

Teams have to stay back, they can't crowd the box as much, you have to now give even more attention to the throw in the WC.

Eric allen says it will put a stop to it though?

He doesn't address how it will shut the wildcat down, besides we should be able to gain 5 yards pretty easily if both safeties are responsible for the deep portions of the feild.
 
I think Allen is assuming White would take the wildcat snap, which i don't see. Brown is too much a threat running from there. The key is making the defense play honest instead of stacking the box. So if you have White taking Williams place coming across for an immediate handoff (or fake) then there's a threat of a deep or short pass plus he can run. Being a lefthander does that mean we put Carey on the other side of Long or leave it as it is for Brown to go off-tackle right? Also, why would a defense play cover 2 with Pennington on the field, (especially if he's under center)? I'm not understanding what situation we're going to see any Cover 2 unless White takes a wildcat snap which i don't think will happen often. This is all assuming White gets on the field regular season of course.
 
greasyObnoxious said:
quite frankly, i think playing the cover-2 against the Wildcat would turn out ot be a disaster for the defense.
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Without a doubt. The problem teams faced when playing against the wildcat last year was that there was an extra blocker because our "QB" was playing WR. So teams countered that by bringing up the safety or safeties knowing there wasn't much of a threat of a pass. Now with the threat of the pass teams are going to have to think twice about stacking the Line of scrimmage. But of course if the fins execute there is a blocker for every defender if teams play cover 2 all day.
 
He doesn't even really get into why Cover 2 is the answer or how it can defeat the Wildcat.

I have a hard time thinking that 7 in the box is going to stop an offense that runs the ball with 6 blockers and 1 decoy. That decoy doesn't even have to really be a decoy, we used formations where the second back lined up next to Ronnie instead of on the jet sweep. You could get a hat on a hat blocking and then it's the runner versus a safety that starts off lined up in Cover 2? I think the Dolphins would run the ball all day on that.

Well, I guess they would be able to with Ronnie Brown but it sort of remains to be seen if Pat White can act like a running back and gain yardage against a 7 man box.
 
I like the fact that so many teams are so concerned about stopping our Wildcat. This is good news and an effect I'm sure BP & Co. were looking for when they drafted Pat White.

There's no question that players tend to be reflections of their co-ordinators and if the focus on the WC offense takes up 10% to 20% of a DC's time and efforts ... that's less time they have to focus on any other packages & personnel we have.
 
Didn't the Wildcat do well last year against some Cover 2 teams? Why didn't they shut it down? The Ravens did with an excellent defense (disciplined players, blitzing, not 7 in box cover 2) which I think will always shut down a run oriented offense. The times I watched triple option offenses get shut down it was with that kind of aggressive (BUT DISCIPLINED!) fast defense. I would think quarters defense with the aggressive safety play would be a better Wildcat stuffer. And Pat White at WVU did execute the spread well and was fluent at getting the ball out on the bubble screen when the defense took him away as a ball carrier. Just more stuff for opposing D's to deal with. I think our base O will be much improved, which I think actually improves the Wildcat because we can run it not out of need but just to mess with the opponent's minds.
 
Allen was apparently talking about an 'evolved' wildcat in which a Vick, Young or White type would take the snaps that the Cover 2 should be used against it.
 
If whoever is running the "evolved" Wildcat can't beat a 7 man box running the ball then he may have a point.

I wonder if Vince Young can do it. He's got the size, not sure he has the speed.

The thing that makes Pat White unique to me is that doing this in college he achieved unprecedented success as far as completion percentage and TD/INT ratio go. Vince Young had great numbers but only in his final year. Pat White had great numbers for his final three years.
 
If facing cover 2 wouldn't the run aspects of Wildcat/WildPat dominate? It seemed that without facing aggressive blitzing and 8 and 9 in the box Wildcat did pretty well as a run formation.
 
a cover 2 ? really ? you need your safeties up, i'd rather have yeremiah bell making tackles than will allen, for instance..

no, i'd play a 4-3 (or 3-4, depending on the team) Man zero

the way i'd attack it, i'd make an automatic call with my safety, moving him up the line and blitzing (or a nickel back, if you feel he's a better tackler) on the side that the jet sweep is going, therefore you have better containment of the play.

The second thing i'd do, much like the ravens and chargers did, is strongly attack the A-gaps with a mike blitz. This forces ronnie brown to make a decision early in his read, when he has the ball on the basic wildcat play. If you cut down the line in two, ronnie has only 2, maybe 3 gaps to choose, instead of 5 or 6. The sam and will backers will be a lot less hesitant because of cutbacks, and will be able to go downhill instead of running around, sideline to sideline, trying to find ronnie.

so now you have the other safety, who mans up patrick cobbs, sam and will have first releaser on their respective sides, both corners match up with the WRs. It's vulnerable to passing plays, but i think man coverage against a RB's arm is fairly enough... and i'd rather use my safety for run support than deep prevention
 
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ckparrothead said:
If whoever is running the "evolved" Wildcat can't beat a 7 man box running the ball then he may have a point.

I wonder if Vince Young can do it. He's got the size, not sure he has the speed.

The thing that makes Pat White unique to me is that doing this in college he achieved unprecedented success as far as completion percentage and TD/INT ratio go. Vince Young had great numbers but only in his final year. Pat White had great numbers for his final three years.
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40 time wise Young runs basically the same speed as White. 4.57 to 4.55
 
As vince wilfork showed last year in game 2 against him. By having a 325 DT penerating on every down and a OLB on the 2nd rb penerating shut it down.
 
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