FMB Monsta’s Cover 2 Invert: How and Why It Worked
What’s up guys, I’m Holden and I decided to do another strategical write-up, this time on FMB Monsta’s 46 Normal Cover 2 Invert defense and how he likes to run it. The setup that he runs the majority of the time is extremely simple and if you are a player that is more conservative on defense rather than running some of the more popular blitzes that have been seen throughout the year then this could be a good base defense for you.
So I’ve got the original play art above so you can see the original setup. The play is setup just like a normal Cover 2 in terms of zones, except in this case the two outside cornerbacks drop to play the deep halves on either side of the field rather than the safeties. This means it then becomes the outside linebacker and strong safeties responsibility to cover the flats while the free safety drops down and plays the “mid read” hook zone that is normally played by the middle linebacker in most formations. Now on to the way Monsta likes to set it up.
So as you can see in the graphic above, he ends up dropping 8 into coverage while rushing 3 to generate passive pressure that can sometimes get kind of glitchy out of 46 this year. His coverage scheme is that he likes to go double flats on both sides of the field, meaning he has both a hard flat and cloud flat on each side, while he users the underneath middle of the field and leaves everything else the same. The two outside corners still drop back and play deep, which takes away a popular concept to beat Cover 2 which is hitting a receiver on the sideline between the flat zone and the deep safety. He also leaves the free safety on his mid read, which is a very versatile zone that can act as a third deep zone down the middle if a route were to try and get vertical in the seam. This setup allows for his user defender in the orange circle to lurk over the shallow middle and play very aggressively to try and muddy up reads for his opponent. Simple yet super effective!
The picture above is taken from the Round of 16 matchup between Monsta and Joke. Joke runs a bench concept on the right which you can see is taken away by the combination of the double flat zones, while Monsta users the tight end running a shallow in route. The HB leaks out into the flat off of a check and release which is covered by the hard flat on that side of the field, and the solo receiver to the right is initially covered by the cloud flat dropping into the area. The receiver actually ends up running a deep dig over the middle, but by that time Monsta is able to pass off the shallow crossing route to his flat zones and peel back around to cover the dig route. Joke ends up having nobody open and scrambles for a tough 2 yards.
I think that the reason as to why he had so much success with this setup is that he forced people to attack the middle of the field in a game where the ”meta” was very heavily predicated on flooding the sidelines with plays like Corner Strike and Bench. By making people have to abandon a concept that many top players built their offense around this year, it forced them into uncomfortable situations on offense which is where the defense thrives. I think it is very interesting how the initial thought when making an offense uncomfortable is generally to apply heavy pressure and not let them breathe, but Monsta was able to come up with a different way to do this just by persistently having zone assignments that consistently defended against the popular offensive concepts.
I hope you guys enjoyed this short breakdown and that I was able to help someone out there on the defensive side of the ball. These concepts can be carried over so definitely do some experimenting and make it your own if you feel like it. If you read through and got to this point then I greatly appreciate it, much love guys!
