Tomlin takes over, schools Steelers on Cover-2 techniques
LATROBE – The coach working with the Steelers’ cornerbacks Monday at Saint Vincent College began the position workout session by saying the drill work will be something the players will work on extensively for the next two weeks.
He showed them the proper way to use their arms to re-route wide receivers at the line of scrimmage. Then he showed them how to shuffle their feet to shadow the receiver before passing him on to another defender, all while staying in position to quickly move and tackle a running back in the flat.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was working hard on showing the cornerbacks the proper techniques used to play a Cover-2 defense.
“We’re going to build this but we’re not going to build it all today,” Tomlin told the cornerbacks as they broke up for a team portion of the practice.
A former defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator, Tomlin is expected to put his stamp on the Steelers’ defense because Dick LeBeau resigned at the end of the 2014 season.
Monday might have been that first step.
“I try to be what they need me to be,” Tomlin said of his extra work with the cornerbacks. “You better wear multiple hats when you do my job and I embrace that.”
With the resignation of LeBeau and retirement of safety Troy Polamalu, this would seem to be the perfect time for Tomlin to make the Steelers more reliant on the Cover-2, the defense he ran with both Minnesota and Tampa Bay.
Nobody is saying the Steelers are ready to be a Cover-2 team out of their 3-4 defense, but it’s starting to appear that way.
“We’ve always run it as a mixup,” said veteran Steelers safety Will Allen, who was drafted by Tampa Bay in 2004 when Tomlin was the defensive backs coach there.
“Who knows how much more we’ll run it or what we will do. We’ll see what happens. We’ve always kind of run it, even with LeBeau, but it depends on how much more we want to do with it. You have to work on certain techniques and things, like we do with all of our coverages.”
The Steelers have typically run a three-deep or even four quarters coverage out of their 3-4 defense, dropping three or four defenders into deep zones.
In the Cover-2, the defense counts on stopping the run and generating a pass rush with its front seven. Both safeties take a deep half of the field in pass coverage, while the cornerbacks and linebackers play short zones.
It doesn’t necessarily require cornerbacks with great pass coverage skills, since they are playing zone defense instead of man-to-man. But the linebackers should be good in coverage, which inside linebackers Lawrence Timmons and Ryan Shazier excel at doing.
“We’ve got to be able to cover,” Timmons said. “All of the tight ends now are 4.4, 4.5 guys (in the 40-yard dash). We’ve got to be able to run.”
The Cover-2 defense became vogue in the 1970s when it was run by the great Steelers teams of that era, which relied on their excellent defensive line to generate pressure.
It’s where Tony Dungy learned the defense as a reserve safety, later moving on to become the Steelers’ defensive coordinator. He took the defense with him to Tampa Bay – where he gave Tomlin his first NFL coaching job. The defensive style, despite having its roots in Pittsburgh, became known as the Tampa-2.
Tomlin used Allen, who was getting a veteran’s day off from practice, and coaching intern Dexter Jackson, a former Super Bowl MVP safety with Tampa Bay, to demonstrate what he wanted from the cornerbacks.
Jackson, like Allen, has plenty of experience playing the Cover-2.
“Everybody can learn from him,” Allen said of Jackson. “He played 11 years in the league. That’s hard to do.”
In order to make that kind of transition, the Steelers will need to utilize the defensive scheme more often in their preseason games.
Under LeBeau, the Steelers didn’t use many blitzes in the preseason. But this preseason might be different.
“We can’t just not get our reps in and then all of a sudden throw it in there,” Timmons said. “We need more than mental preparation.”
The idea is to improve a defense that ranked 18th in the league last year.
“”It’s good for us to learn new techniques and new things to help hone our game,” Allen said.
In addition to Allen, linebacker James Harrison and tight end Matt Spaeth were given the day off. … Safety Ross Ventrone suffered a lower leg injury and had to be helped off the field after he and receiver Eli Rogers collided while going for a pass over the middle. … Rookie tight end Cameron Clear left practice early because of complications from the heat. The heat index reached 112. … The players are off today before returning to the practice field Wednesday.