The "2" in cover 2 comes from the two safeties that are responsible for the two deep zones, or "halves," starting at about 13 yards from the line of scrimmage. The philosophy behind the Cover 2 is to reduce the number of defenders that are needed to stop the deep pass threat, thus leaving more defenders closer to the line of scrimmage.

The cover 2 flag football defense formation shifts to zone coverage with a single designated rusher. Two defensemen line up toward the outside of the field at around five yards back from the line of scrimmage. They’re in charge of guarding the outsides of the field, ensuring their sideline is covered and nobody sneaks past them for a catch.

The Cover 2 play is the standard-bearer of zone defenses. The Cover 2 Zone defense allows you to evenly spread your defenders across all the zones of the defensive secondary. Splitting the deep part of your defensive secondary with the two deep zones enables you to keep a lot of support underneath.

The Cover 2 Defense is a zone defensive scheme that teams can run both out of a base package and out of sub-packages such as the nickel and the dime. Four defenders will be rushing the quarterback, while the remaining seven will drop back into coverage -- with the exception of blitzing plays.

The two deep defenders in cover 2 defenses should cover large zones that are deeper than the five front defenders. Essentially, the safety’s job should be to cut the field in half, with one safety playing a large zone on the deep right side of the field and the other safety covering the entire deep left side of the field.