Two Tough

Think of these as the Five Commandments of Tampa Two.

1. The front four must be able to rush the quarterback, because that allows the linebackers freedom. "If you get four men who can rush the passer, you can play Cover Two, Tampa Two, all day," says Jack Ham, Pittsburgh's Hall of Fame outside linebacker. "But you can't play it without a pass rush. It's a zone defense, and there are lots of holes if the quarterback can sit back and wait." The Steelers applied the rush with Joe Greene and L.C. Greenwood, the Buccaneers with Warren Sapp and Simeon Rice; the Bears are doing it with Tommie Harris, Alex Brown and a deep posse of solid defensive linemen. (Here Carroll adds, "Any defense works a lot better when you pressure the quarterback.")

2. The middle linebacker must be able and willing to drop deep into coverage, filling the crossing zone between the safeties and leaving the glamour plays to the outside linebackers or the nickelback. "My primary purpose in that defense," says Urlacher, "is to run back to the huddle and congratulate somebody for making a play while I was running down the field with the tight end."

In truth, Urlacher has redefined the role played by Lambert, Del Rio and Tampa Bay's Shelton Quarles. At 6'4" and 258 pounds but with the speed of a running back (he was a college safety at New Mexico), Urlacher sits on the line of scrimmage longer than most Tampa Two middle linebackers, allowing him to read running plays before bailing out. Yet he is still able to drop 30 yards into coverage and disrupt pass plays. "He's a freak," says Chicago quarterback Rex Grossman. "Trust me, I play against him every day, and I test him. You can't throw over him in the middle."

3. The outside linebackers must be smart and athletic enough to cover receivers in the middle zone or rally to runs at the line of scrimmage. "You're not looking for your old-fashioned linebacker who makes tackles in a phone booth," says Dungy. "You're looking for an open-field tackler and athlete." They also have to jam tight ends and slot receivers to keep them from releasing into the middle zone vacated by the dropping middle linebacker.

4. The cornerbacks must be physical enough to jam wideouts at the line and also tackle ballcarriers. In Tampa Two the corners are not expected to run down the field with receivers but rather to disrupt them and pass them along to the safeties. "One of the big reasons Tampa Two developed was to take pressure off the corners in terms of coverage," says ESPN analyst and former NFL quarterback Ron Jaworski.

Yet disruption is vital. "Our job is to get our hands on the receiver and knock him off his route," says Bears cornerback Charles Tillman. "That little bit of a bump can change the whole play." Mel Blount, the Steelers' 6'3", 205-pound Hall of Famer, was the prototype in the '70s. It's hard to imagine a more perfect Tampa Two corner.

5. The safeties must be smart and quick enough to break properly on balls in the air and physical enough to create--and survive--violent collisions with wide receivers or backs after running as much as 25 yards from a deep starting position. "This defense is the reason you see so many penalties on safeties like [the Broncos'] John Lynch," says Ham. "They're out there to create collisions."

IV HOW TO BEAT TAMPA TWO

Two ways. First, with the running game. "You've got to be able to run the football against it because there are two defenders [the safeties] that are 15 yards off the line of scrimmage," says Al Saunders, the Redskins' associate head coach. "If you can't run the ball, you're in for a long afternoon." If you can run the ball, the defense is forced to bring a safety closer to the line of scrimmage, sitting in a gap and helping tackle ballcarriers. From this position the safety cannot play Tampa Two.