One of the more popular thematic elements to the 2020 NFL season was the idea of defenses using two-high safety looks. After Vic Fangio and others used those structures to slow down the Los Angeles Rams back in 2018, more and more teams started incorporating those elements into their play-calling. It set in motion a series of events that saw one of Fangio’s coaches, Brandon Staley, make his way to Los Angeles to coach with Sean McVay, as the offensive-minded head coach looked for a way to retort.
We saw some of those retorts here in Week 1 of the 2021 NFL season.
Now, the ideas of how to beat Cover-2 or other coverages in the two-high family are not necessarily new. After all, the coverage was not invented in the past few years. A wonderful book, one I refer to often, is titled “Attacking Coverages With the Passing Game” by Steve Axman. You can order it on Amazon today, there is even a Kindle edition, and if you’re reading this piece, chances are it is something that might interest you.
In that book, written back in 2007, Axman walks readers through concepts to attack two-high coverages, one of which will be featured prominently in this piece: Ohio, or as Axman terms it “quick-game inside-receiver speed-out.”
But with more teams utilizing two-high structures, we might see more route concepts called with an eye towards beating these coverages. Here are some examples of how offenses looked to accomplish that in Week 1.
