I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that we won't see any wildcat in the pre-season. The main reason being that we play each of our pre-season opponents (Jags, Panthers, Saints, Bucs) again in the regular season. We don't want to give them any reps against the wildcat. There's a chance we could use some of the stuff that there is already extensive film on. But I would tend to think that seeing it on film, and lining up against it in a game situation are worlds apart. We can practice the wildcat behind closed doors for the rest of the pre-season against our own defense. Our opponents likely won't be able to simulate the things they will face when they face us during the season. Advantage us. I expect it to be pretty vanilla from now until week 1. Thoughts?
I agree some what. I think we are going to see it a little in the preseason. Just because we are trying new things and we need to test them in game situations. But I think the earliest we see anyone of those teams is week 7 so I think they are going to have a bunch of film on the wildcat anyway even if we dont use it in the preseason
agree. no significant WildCat until regular season opens. Pat White already knows how to run the system. why show our hand in a preseason game? let Pat get the feel of some of the conventional offense from under center or run out of the spread a few plays, nothing complicated, nothing revealing, just enough to allow him to adjust to the size & speed of the NFL.
The shotgun play where there was motion with Pat White at QB is probably as close as we will see. Or the very vanilla things we did last year.
I agree that we are unlikely to see the WC in the preseason. And we did not see a WC play against the Jags. We saw White in the shotgun handoff the ball on an end around.
I'm going to agree with Gish on this one. I dont see us using any wildcat this preseason, unless its something we've already displayed. Why bother showing off the new wrinkles to it in the meaningless games of the preseason. Lets keep it to ourselves in practice, and hope for a couple of great surprise games like the one against the pats last year when we unveiled it. The element of surprise, and the unknown is the wildcats greatest feature.
They didn't show anything at all last year either,Gish.It was a total surprise to all of us. Now that teams "know" we will be running it.No need for us to show our cards.It will all be behind closed doors I feel.
The thing is that running it has absolutely no advantage. It's not like getting "game reps" because you only run each play maybe once a game, and the biggest advantage to that play is the element of surprise.
If you're referring to the play where the announcers claimed Davone Bess was in the backfield... he wasn't. They made a mistake. Bess began the play in the slot to the right, and worked his way back to the RT to block. Ricky and Polite were in the backfield. I watched that play over and over to be sure, but it's pretty obvious that the guy with dreadlocks was in the slot, and not in the backfield. Is that the play you're talking about?
I've watched that game 3 times now, and I didn't see one Wildcat play. If it were up to me, I wouldn't run it until the regular season, unless I had some double-secret wrinkle to take advantage of teams scouting our preseason games. Besides... I'd rather the Phins spend their time working to improve blocking for the base running game.
AS I remember, all the reports out of TC have said they don't even practice the WC in public view. They only do WC in the bubble, where it can't be filmed. So why would they show it on TV in a meaningless preseason game?
I agree Gish with all the points you mentioned. I also think we need more reps in our base offense. We know we can run the wildcat, but we need to get better running up the middle from a base formation for instance.
I think just the basic plays will be ran and thats just to get pat white used to doing it in gametime.
It was just a regular shotgun play with motion. He was going to rollout and throw but no-one was open so he ran if I remember correctly. It wasn't really the Wildcat the way we know it, just a spread offense play.
Well to be fair we only used the same plays we used last season. Everyones feeling that we wouldnt use anything new was pretty accurate.
I know I was just giving Gish a hard time. I didn't think we would see any wildcat plays at all but was glad to see a couple of them.
I didnt think we would see that CP pass out of the wildcat thats for sure. I figured we MAY see Ronnie a few times but nothing flashy.
Well the CP pass I think was kind of a reminder to the rest of the league. Look how bad that exact play made the Texans D look last year. Get teams to think about that long pass play and then come up with something completely different. It should be a fun year on offense.
Not only is there little to lose running last years Wildcat, but against teams like Carolina, we actually may have somthing to gain. With game film of plays run from the basic formation readily available to all teams, and considering the fact we never faced Carolina last year, it could prove difficult in determining how prepared teams such as the Panthers are in defending it, and perhaps to some degree disadvantaged by that. I think its fair to assume, they wanted to see how Carolina would respond, and thus provide some revealing insight of their ability to contain it. Based upon what they institute in defense of it, may help in how we prepare for them later this season.
This is a very good post and mirrors what Coach had to say after the game. I was disappointed that for the second time Chad failed to lead Patrick with his pass. That was a touchdown for Cobbs if the pass had more power.
I agree... definitely would have been a TD. You know, with the miracles of modern medicine, we might be able to create a Frankenstein-like hybrid QB with Pennington's brains and Henne's arms. Call him 'Frankenpennyhenne'... I'm sure Gish could whip up a mock-up in Photoshop to show us what he might look like... jus' sayin'...