What is a cover 4 defense?

Answer 1

The Cover 3 Defense includes any defense with 3 deep coverage zones. The most standard defensive Cover 3 is when a team uses 2 cornerbacks and 1 safety to cover the 3 deep zones. Zone defenses divide the field up into areas, or "zones" and each coverage player is responsible for any receiver in his zone. Each cornerback would be responsible for an outside deep 1/3 of the field, while the Free Safety is responsible for the middle 1/3 of the field. "Deep" zones usually begin at 12-14 yards. Underneath zones will be covered by outside linebackers and inside linebackers - most commonly 2 outside "Flat" zones and 2 inside "Hook/Curl" zones.

Another example of a Cover 3 defense is the Tampa 2 Coverage, established by NFL head coach Tony Dungy a few years back. The idea is to shut down any deep passes by dropping the safeties further down the field, then moving the middle line backer down to act as a safety as well. each covers a third of the field. the defense should not expect any hail maries from this coverage. Offensively, this coverage is one of the easiest coverages to react on. This reason being, since the middle line backer drops deep into the coverage, that leaves the other two linebackers having to cover that portion of the field in halves. Since the safeties are so far back, the linebackers are tempted to cover the middle area of the field, giving the illusion that all is covered. The quick dump to a receiver, tight end, or even a back is very much exposed in this coverage, giving the player a good 5+ yards. Also, wide open is verts. Sure, there are 3 safeties down field, but no matter what the coverage, the safeties get confused when they are outnumbered. If recievers are stacked outside and they go for the vert, expect a big play to be the outcome.

Answer 2

The team or person trying to prevent the offense from scoring. Almost all sports the defense does not have possestion of the ball. Baseball is an exception. In baseball the defence is the team in the feid that uses the ball to prevent the batting team from scoring.

Answer 3

The question is flawed, all defensive play calls involve some kind of coverage responsibilities. No one sends 11 players on a blitz. Any coach who called one as anything other than a rare gimmick would be out or work shortly. It is possible that someone speaking informally meant that some particular defense was one that favored more men in coverage than blitzing, but the term 'cover defense' conveys almost no meaningful information. Is it possible that the term you heard was "Cover 2", or "Cover 3"? The number after the word cover here gives the term meaning in that it indicates the number of players with deep responsibility in that play call. It could further have even more meaning if the context of "Cover 2" was meant to refer to a specific offensive scheme of zone heavy defense employed by Tony Dungy and some other defensive coordinators in the NFL. Their "Cover 2" uses two deep safeties, divides the underneath area into 5 short zones of responsibility, and relies on the base defensive line to pressure the quarterback. The defense emphasizes execution rather than scheme or playcalling wrinkles, and has been the cornerstone of several outstanding defensive teams, most notably the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs under Dungy did so much to popularize the offense that it is more commonly called the "Tampa 2", though that term may also refer to a specific wrinkle in the cover 2 where the middle linebacker takes a depper drop than the other underneath defenders in order to cover one of the defense's areas of weakness. Almost every defense in the NFL includes some plays with Cover 2 and Tampa 2 principles. They simply don't use them virtually full time as Dungy's defenses do.