Now that the front end has been thoroughly covered we can move to the back end of Al Golden’s defense and discuss the coverages he employed. Also there’s the question of whether these coverages are as effective at the NFL level and whether Golden will have to make some changes with the Bengals compared to what he did with the Irish.
Cover 1
Golden’s defense played Cover 1 over 50% at Notre Dame according to Sports Info Solutions.
That doesn’t mean his defense wasn’t multiple. There are multiple forms of Cover 1. There’s also a difference between man-to-man and man-match coverage, so it feels disingenuous to just say that he ran a ton of Cover 1 at Notre Dame.
The first variation of Cover 1 is probably the easiest to understand and that’s playing with a 5-man rush and no underneath defender.
Five players rush the quarterback, one guy is playing deep post safety, and then everyone else is in man coverage. Watch how it plays out below:
— Walter (@Pff_Walter) January 29, 2025
The player that is in man coverage on the running back is going to green dog, which means that he’s going to rush the passer if the back stays in to block which was discussed in the previous article.
The key to playing man defense in Cover 1 is leverage. Every coordinator has rules for when the cornerback will play with inside leverage versus outside leverage. Generally, the man coverage players on the outside are going to play with inside leverage so they can play with help from the sideline. The inside players generally play with outside leverage so that they can try to funnel everything to the safety in the middle of the field. This can change because of the splits from the wide receivers.
The key to playing post safety in Cover 1 is to have a feel for the route distribution while maintaining eyes on the quarterback. Generally the post safety will move with the quarterbacks upfield shoulder. The first movement of that shoulder gets the safety to begin working that way. If the quarterback works to the opposite direction, then the safety will open up and run to that direction. Once the non-throwing hand is removed from the ball, the safety should break on the throw.
The safety (No. 0) plays his man coverage with inside leverage for some reason but it works. Whether he had a beat on this offense, knew a tendency from a film review, or was just gambling it paid off. The goal of this concept is for the pass rush to get home. If the pass rushers fail, then this coverage will eventually break down. It’s tough to play man defense for longer than a few seconds, especially with only one deep safety.
Another common Cover 1 call is to use a hole or rat defender underneath:
Everything is the same on this play, the only addition is the underneath defender there to help on shallow to intermediate in breakers. The rules on that underneath rat or hole defender change sometimes based on calls. Here he’s playing vision zone coverage so he’s reading the quarterback and working on string based off of where he’s pointing his shoulder and eyes.
This is also an example of the outside cornerbacks playing outside leverage, rather than inside leverage because the offense is in a condensed set.
— Walter (@Pff_Walter) January 29, 2025
The linebacker in man coverage on the back once again green dogged, which is something Golden liked to do. Otherwise everyone plays outside leverage trying to stop out breaking routes and force the receivers into their help. One of the defenders fails at doing so which is the gamble of playing man coverage. Great work from the post safety to cover for him and get in position to make a play. It’s an overthrow from the quarterback and it ends in an interception because he put himself in that position.
Another way to play this would be to play one robber or lurk:
The main difference between 1 robber and 1 hole is that the underneath zone play is coming from depth. This allows him to take away intermediate routes better and to better read the route distribution.
— Walter (@Pff_Walter) January 29, 2025
Watch how the robber muddies up the read for the quarterback here causing him to then progress to the backside dig. This is why you would run 1 robber rather than 1 hole so that you can throw a wrench into these intermediate routes. It ends in an interception as the corner to the bottom does an exceptional job of playing his leverage and not allowing the receiver to win on an in breaking route.
It’s been shown in these clips a bit with the green dogs but it’s interesting to see Golden essentially run 5-man pressures while still getting to 1 hole or 1 robber in the back end. He’d do so with peels and green dogs but here’s another example of him sending a blitzer, keeping two zone defenders, and then just having a plan if the back leaks out.
— Walter (@Pff_Walter) January 29, 2025
As discussed in the front end article, that is a peel pressure. The end man to the side of the back peels with the running back when he is fast to the flat. That actually opens up the lane more for the safety to get through as he’s probably not considered in the pass protection plan.
Another example as he sends the nickel corner on a blitz and still plays Cover 1:
— Walter (@Pff_Walter) January 29, 2025
It’s not common to send one of the few guys on the team who can excel in man coverage on a blitz and then still play man on the back end, but Golden does it and drops a linebacker into the hole.
Golden would also double up on his robber or his hole defender at times to have even more players in the intermediate area of the field.
— Walter (@Pff_Walter) January 29, 2025
This generally on paper is actually supposed to be a 3-man rush, but Golden once again doesn’t force a player to stay put when the back is in protection so he can get four players rushing the quarterback. By the time the back leaks out he’s uncovered but the play is dead.
Here is a 3-man rush when they run a double hole Cover 1 concept. The middle of the field is taken away, but the nickel loses on an out breaking route so it does not matter.
Lastly, Golden would get to some man match stuff with his Cover 1. This generally was an adjustment for him when the Irish would see a lot of shallow crossing routes. The main difference is now the low zone defender is going to be in communication with the man defenders about cutting crossing routes and exchanging responsibilities.
Watch the hole defender here in comparison to the previous examples. He’s not putting his eyes on the quarterback, he’s immediately looking to the shallow route coming his way. He then takes that route and the man who was initially defending that route turns and becomes the hole defender. It’s poetry in motion. Finished up with an excellent play by the post safety to read the quarterback and get all the way outside of the numbers to make a play on the throw.
Here’s more of a robber type of example:
— Walter (@Pff_Walter) January 29, 2025
Again, the difference being that the underneath defender is not playing zone coverage with vision on the quarterback, he is taking a shallow route and exchanging responsibilities with another player.
Man Coverage In College Vs the NFL
It’s worth having a discussion about how much man coverage Golden is going to play at the NFL level compared to what he did at Notre Dame.
Golden was playing Cover 1 on more than 50% of plays last season. He broke the box plot. That’s just not really feasible at the NFL level. Even if he ends up pushing for the most man coverage ran this season, it’s going to have to get lower. The Lions ran the most Cover 1 this season at 37%.
Tight man coverage is just not as viable in the NFL for a few reasons.
The first being that the rules in college are different. Defenders are allowed to be more physical in college. They don’t have the illegal contact rules of the NFL so defenders can grab, push, and bully receivers in a way the NFL hasn’t allowed since the turn of the century.
The second reason is that the quarterbacks and wide receivers in college are not as good. They just can’t make all of the throws or punish man coverage in the same way that NFL teams can. That goes for the pressures too. Good quarterbacks should beat blitzes similar to how Joe Burrow torches the blitz. There’s a safety in playing zone coverage and allowing your defenders to be smart athletes, rather than asking them to keep up with guys when they can’t lay a finger on them without drawing a flag.
Coach Golden should know this as he spent a long time in both college and the NFL and it should be expected that he will dial back the man coverage calls. The Bengals should still see an uptick in their Cover 1 percentage, which was about middle of the pack at 19%, but it won’t get near the 50+ percent that Golden was using in South Bend.
Zone Coverages
With so much time spent on his man coverage and Cover 1, Golden’s zone coverages are a bit more meat and potatoes. They’re used as a change-up for his Cover 1 calls and it’s almost always spot drop vision zone coverage.
He can get to his coverages in fun ways like this 3 double buzz variation but the goal is to put eyes on the quarterback, gain depth, and then rally and tackle when the ball is thrown.
This is some of the fun of using three safeties. When there’s three guys you can trust with dropping into the post safety role, you can get to your coverages in interesting ways.
Cover 3 was his most common zone coverage call but he would get to quarters and Cover 2 as well to play some split field zone coverages.
Here he’s holding a man look pre-snap to make the offense think that he’s calling some variation of Cover 1, but at the snap they move into Tampa 2.
The issue is the pressure doesn’t get to the quarterback and he has too much time. His quarters looks were really just country Cover 4 with everyone dropping to their spot and playing vision on the quarterback as well.
There’s four deep defenders and three underneath defenders. The Irish force the throw underneath and then come down and make the play.
Golden used his zone coverage as a change-up but also as a way to play a safe coverage when he wanted to play safe. There’s nothing safe about playing man coverage, but there is safety in having everyone drop deep and then rally and tackle.
Fire Zones
Where things get interesting is when he would use fire zones as a change-up. A fire zone is more of a zone match coverage and the key is that 5 defenders are sent after the quarterback.
This takes away some of the safety of the spot drop zone with seven in coverage, but adds the reward of having a greater chance at getting to the quarterback. This three deep, three underneath fire zone was his most common fire zone. It’s like playing Cover 3 but you’re removing one player from the underneath coverage and blitzing them.
This one is a little bit more match heavy on the back end but you can see how the pressure from the extra blitzer can create an errant throw.
There were a couple very interesting reps of a quarter quarter half fire zone. Not something that was run more than a handful of times over the course of an entire season but a great concept that confused the offense and led to a touchdown on one particular example.
Again these aren’t safe calls like those traditional zone coverages in the last section, but they’re a good change-up and a way for Golden to still rush 5 at the quarterback.
Hot Pressures
Something that has become a little bit more popular in recent years with Brian Flores and others is the hot pressure. A hot pressure is similar to a fire zone except now the defense sends six players after the quarterback and only puts five in coverage.
There are three deep defenders and only two underneath on this play. The goal here is to make the quarterback feel the pressure and make a mistake. It’s a tiny bit safer than Cover 0, but it’s about the least safe way someone could play a zone defense.
Another example and the goal here is to get the ball out quick, force a mistake from a quarterback, or to get a sack. It’s not something Golden was calling all that often but it’s worth discussing for his repertoire of change ups. Also worth noting that both his fire zones and hot pressures were mostly three deep defenders. He was not a coach who ran much of the quarters stuff that happens in both college and the NFL.
Final Thoughts
Golden did a tremendous job at Notre Dame. Being able to play that much Cover 1 and be extremely effectively in the process is impressive.
It’s even more impressive when you consider that he lost his best corner and a majority of his defensive line during the season. Being able to teach is something that translates and it seems as if the Notre Dame defense was taught very well. Golden also showed that he was a great teacher when he was in charge of the linebacker unit in Cincinnati.
More than scheme or anything else, his ability to get the most out of guys could be incredible for a Bengals defense that has struggled to develop talent despite making acquisitions. His scheme will have to change some with the move to the NFL level but if he’s able to bring the same development, instruction, and discipline to this defense, then the Bengals are in good hands.
