I know what the wildcat is, but what are the ins and outs of it? Is it a viable core offense? How do you stop it? How does allow this relate to the Miami Dolphins, especially in 09 with Brown and the other guy, with Pennington wide out?
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lol Ricky Williams -
Samphin Κακό σκυλί ψόφο δεν έχει
It's essentially a halfback read-option play where the "Triggerman" (the guy receiving the shotgun snap) has to read the defense and decide whether he will run with the ball or hand it off to the "Wildcat" (the guy starting in the slot and is in motion near the Triggerman at the same time as the snap).
Initially, Miami's 2009 version also included an unbalanced offensive line, with the left tackle lining up next to the right tackle along with a Tight End on that side. The formation itself caused mass confusion for the defense (especially New England who was the firt to see this offense in a pro game). And allowed both the Triggerman (Ronnie Brown) and the Wildcat (Ricky Williams) more blockers on the right side to run behind, or for the Triggerman to cut back, if the defense overloaded the right side in response to the offensive overload, or for the Triggerman to pass it, either to the QB who typically lined up as a wide receiver in the formation, or to a tight end who ran a simple bleed out route to the weak side that has been vacated by the defense.
2010 and beyond the Wildcat was set up essentially the same, with the exception of the overloaded o-line. Usually, Miami ran it with a traditional offensive line set up and changed up the QB/WR line up amongst differing positions (sometimes it was a QB, sometimes a RB or WR). To be honest, I never quite did understand or had it explained to me why Miami went away from the unbalanced line, but it seemed to correlate with the lack of success that came with running the formation over time.
To answer your lat question, I am of the opinion that THAT specific formation probably can't be run with success over a long period of time, however, I do believe that THAT formation did help usher in the pro version of the Pistol offense that is run by many teams currently. The Seahawks, Redskins, Forty-Niners and more run a lot of their plays out of a QB Read-Option attack (as opposed to the RB-read Option that the Wildcat is) which allows them to incorporate a more traditional passing game into the playbook.
My opinion on this offense is that it can be sustained longer, however, just like the Wildcat, the key to defending it is stopping the Triggerman of the Pistol Offense. In the newer version, this is the QB. The Ravens did a good job in The Superbowl of doing that by assigning players to Colin Kaepernick on every play. Essentially, they were going to force him to either throw, or hand the ball off to someone else and force them to beat them. It was a great strategy that I assume will be employed more this season and probably make those teams rely on a more traditional offensive game plan going forward. But I do think it is here to stay for awhile and certain elements of the read-option are here to stay forever.
Hope this helps.
Also, feel free to add in or correct any errors I may have stated in explaining. I tried to go for the tree tops version of the base offensive set so of those who want to get into the little nuances...shut it!Disgustipate, Silverphin, Clemsonpanther and 4 others like this. -
[video=youtube;KR76aoKghM8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR76aoKghM8[/video]
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On the plane ride home from Arizona. -
PhinFan1968 To 2020, and BEYOND! Club Member
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVKed_04vYE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D01fWkHekY
Pretty cool compilation of Ronnie in his prime.
Loved watching him truck people! He had great burst speed and vision. His hands were also above average...just sad his injuries got the best of him. He easily could have been one of the greats if not for injuriesTone_E, unluckyluciano and PhinFan1968 like this. -
Pat White was drafted in 09 with the idea of a more legitimate passing threat than ronnie brown, operate more like the pistol offenses run kaepernick and rg3 now, but it never panned out.
We had a very good run blocking O line in 08-09 which helped us run the wildcat down defenses throats. Sometimes there were three RBs (brown, williams, cobb), a fullback (polite) two TEs (fasano and haynos or a tackle eligible in unbalanced line), and no QB or WR on the field at all! -
I'm wondering why we haven't seen any of the teams with a "running QB" also employ the wildcat into their playbook. By adding the RB in the jet or wildcat role on some plays it would add another dimension which would pressure the width of the field. Any thoughts on why we haven't seen this from SF, Washington or Seattle?
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Larryfinfan 17-0...Priceless Club Member
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Samphin Κακό σκυλί ψόφο δεν έχει
Larryfinfan likes this. -
They also ended up taking the Jet Sweep portion out at one point with Ronnie Brown hurt and Ricky Williams as the trigger guy, which I think was a pretty curious decision as well.
I'm not sure there is an "option" there, I'm pretty sure it was just straight called plays with the same formation and pre-snap motions. They did end up experimenting with actual read option stuff, both the Pat White experiment and out of "wildcat" style personnel packages but I don't think it was the Wildcat proper. -
PhinFan1968 To 2020, and BEYOND! Club Member
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Samphin Κακό σκυλί ψόφο δεν έχει
Also, I don't know if anyone has ever asked Sparano or Lee why they switched from the unbalanced line which seemed to work so much better. I am still curious what the reasoning was behind that. -
Teams with bigger quarterbacks are already going to have heavy short yardage packages, and there are a lot of other misdirection elements you can use besides just a Jet sweep. -
I think my terminology may have been screwed up, I think it's accurate to call the Wildcat an option play(as in there are multiple potential ball carriers and built-in misdirection) but it isn't a read option like above. -
Samphin Κακό σκυλί ψόφο δεν έχει