He does have a point, Jaworski is always severly critical of the Wildcat, so is Brian Billick and yet out on the field positive result after positive result. And the Wildcat has evolved, on plays now Pennington may not be on the field, he has been replaced by Patrick Cobbs, add in White, who could take the WC to the next level or simply remain the Offensive Staff's favorite toy. But a Pat White having success in the WC makes it very difficult to defend and legitimizes the Wildcat imho. http://www.thespreadoffense.com/
Funny thing about Harrison dropping back into coverage, he was supposed to rush the passer on that play. He later said it didn't feel right, so he dropped back. Re: The Wildact. If there are still people who believe it's a gimmick, they'll never be convinced otherwise IMO.
is that the only part of the article that talks about the wildcat? If there is more I would like to read it
Link added, the blogger, a retired Coach, breaks down the Spread Offense and it's subset, the Wildcat regularly. Smart guy, loves Pat White.
He has? I must have missed that game. The WC is a gimmick, I think folks like to think of it as a negative connotation rather than how it's really being used. If you only run a set a few times a game, whether you call it a gimmick, scheme, trick play, extended offense, "set we only use a few times a game", etc it still means the same thing IMO. It isn't our base offense, it's something that we use to confuse opposing defenses.
bout time you put up a picture of your son gimmick schimmick.. I'll bet those guys getting punched in the mouth by it don't see anything gimmicky about it.
The wildcat will always be referred to as a "gimmick" so long as it doesn't make up the majority of our packages, which it never will, else it will lose its purpose. That's the beauty of the play. It's not a bad thing to be called a Gimmick, thats exactly what it is. The only people who use that word negatively are the teams that don't have the personnel to use it effectively. If we could build our base offense up in terms of the receiving corp, and spreading the ball a bit more downfield (lets not get into that discussion again though please, thats just my opinion), I think the wildcat would be seriously deadly. However we're already seeing some of the "gimmick" effect even high end defensive players. Freeny was totally thrown off his rhythm with the change in snap count between Brown, White, and Pennington. I know he got at least one offsides call, maybe 2? I'm amazed we provoked that many penalties from them with it.
Not all of the TV hacks call it a gimmick...Shlereth/Gruden call it a "power running formation" praising the physicality of it...I think Hodgy does as well but I cant swear to it...as for the rest of those tools who cares what they say.
The shotgun is a package that is used by every team in the NFL during a specific situation, the teams using the WC is pretty limited and can pop up at any time. I don't see the WC being any different than using a reverse play, it's something that pops up from time to time to catch defenses off guard.
We don't use it to catch people off guard. At least in the Colts game. When Pennington comes out of the game, I don't think it's hard to predict what is coming. Smash mouth football.
I just wish Deon Sanders would pronounce it "dead" each week......because every time he does we make him eat his words Gimmicks don't save a team's season... I hope we run it 30 times against San Diego
That is a bit of a false argument L2G, because other teams do not run the WC as well as we do does not lessen it's effectiveness as an offense within an offense. Because other teams are not saying "Me Too" does not lessen it's impact, in fact it could be argued that for us it is even more of an offensive team as we are one of the few that has the horses and talent and play design to run it effectively.
What bothers me is when people say we use it to confuse defenses. Theres nothing confusing about adding an extra blocker.
As it was happening, I was sitting here cheering them. Telling the defense, here it comes, stop it if you can. In my book, not much is sweeter than a power running game... if you win
We also ran the "Fullhouse" backfield several times very well which I like. It is like a reverse wishbone using two running backs and a fullback or all three running backs. I also like Hillard in that mix. It is a really good Play Action formation because the defense is set up to stop the run. Just to be clear, the QB has no run option. As far as the Wildcat I do not really understand White's role except to line up as a WR and once every 7-10 plays get the ball in a reverse and throw a pass.
I noticed that as well but did not know what to call it, we had all 5 Rb's in on those plays, RW,RB,PC,LH, and Lou Polite.
I agree ComPadre...its one thing i sure dont have to debate anymore...The brilliance for which ronnie Runs the cat was on display for the world to see.. finally, The pundits, see it as a power formation, just like some of us have been saying for a year... The rest of the NFL will not catch up to us.... I think the only coach besides our that i see loving the formation is andy reid..it will be so interesting to see how he uses the formation, but, he aint got not ronnie brown now does he....sorry chumps.. After monday nite, and what we saw out of ronnie, anyone still not wanna sign him, or replace him with a draft pick?
I just don't know to be honest.....I deff DON'T want to give him up However I'm also of the thinking that you don't break the bank on RB's.....and the way we've been tossing around money to players, some of which was wasted money, can we really afford to? I'm on the fence on this one and as I've said before, glad it's not up to me.....this is a tough call.
Just because he hasn't had the success yet, doesn't make the statement false, Mike... If Pat White does end up having success in the Wildcat, it will open up new avenues. Teams won't be able to stack the box and look for running plays because Pat White could beat them with a pass. I disagree, Mike. I think the Wildcat is much more than a simple gimmick... It's a formation we will run as long as it's working. If the opposing defense can't stop it, we'll do it over and over. Take other plays that are considered gimmicks. A reverse or a flea-flicker won't be used more than one or two times a game because they are confusion plays, misdirections if you will. They won't be used more than once or twice a game no matter how successful they are... The Wildcat is straight up smash-mouth football. Right now, teams know we're going to run it right at them. They have no doubt. Once the passing game from the Wildcat formation opens up more, people (including you, Mike ) will stop calling it a gimmick.
Bro, I think this game the WildPat will be unveiled on the Chargers. Or at least I hope so, I was dead wrong with the Cam Wake playing last weekend but after the success Ronnie B had running the WC, the Bolts will be keyed on Ronnie, Pat White will have nice spacing to throw the ball and more than likely man to man coverages and safer type throws to make.
I think it depends on how you define "gimmick". I think most who use the term in describing the WC are implying that its a trick and not based on fundamental football principals. That couldn't be further from the truth. It is a basic power formation. The other implication of the term "gimmick" is that it won't last. I also think that is incorrect. I think it will continue to evolve but it will be here for a very long time. IMO the people who keep calling it a gimmick are really being short sighted and/or narrow minded. But that's really nothing new. At one time the forward pass, zone defenses, zone blitzes, the shotgun, the pro set, the spread, etc. were all called gimmicks by similarly thinking people. All of those are now in every single NFL play book and considered conventional football. I see no reason to believe that the WC will not follow the same path.
I'm not too sure just any ol' RB we'd draft to replace him could run the SmashCat version of the WC as good as Ronnie can. His ability in that formation definitely increases his value to the team and makes any attempt to replace him with someone younger and cheaper more risky.
We ran some WC against Indy with all 5 OBs in the game? Who was the 11th player, a WR or Fasano? How many times did we run it this way? Seems to me, most often it was RB, RW, PC, 2 TE, and 1 WR.
You dont have to tell me that Mr. C, i know there is a special skillset in running the smash that ronnie has in spades. ive said t before a million times, top 5 talent in the league at the position, with his wildcat specific skills, he has tremendous value to this organization, from a talent standpoint and also an economic one.
You've made your feelings about RB very well known on several occasions DJ, I was just more or less agreeing with ya. It may be possible to replace Ronnie the RB in the conventional set, maybe, but...extremely difficult to replace Ronnie the linchpin of the SmashCat offense.
agreed....Jaworski was irritating me when he kept referring to the "CAT" as gimmick plays. Yet almost every time they ran it it was positive. Ronnie ran the best play's to put us in a positive position. Jaworski's a bum!!!
