Despite a Super Bowl that featured two teams running the Tampa Two defense, offenses have started to catch up with the scheme.
The defense, which came to prominence with the great Steeler teams in the 1970s, only uses the front four to pressure the quarterback while dropping five underneath defenders and two deep safeties into coverage.
Tony Dungy tweaked the scheme by having the middle linebacker take a deeper drop down the middle of the field, creating a hybrid three-deep coverage. This simple, but effective defense catapulted the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from doormats to contenders as they finished in the top 10 in total defense for 10 consecutive years. After watching this defense dominate for so long, other teams have started to incorporate its principles into their game plans. Most of the league runs some form of Tampa Two during a game.
But offenses have started to catch up with the scheme and the statistics bear that out. Well-established Tampa Two teams Indianapolis, Chicago and Tampa Bay each finished in the top 10 in scoring defense and total defense in 2005, but only the Bears remained that high in '06.
SI.com - Writers - Bucky Brooks: Five defensive trends in NFL - Wednesday May 30, 2007 1:03PM
05-31-2007, 06:00 AM
The Tampa Two Defense 
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