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Wildcat Split Stats from 2008

Discussion in 'Miami Dolphins Forum' started by GISH, Oct 10, 2009.

  1. GISH

    GISH ~mUST wARN oTHERS~

    19,893
    9,750
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    Nov 23, 2007
    Over Yonder
    I'm tired of hearing "experts" on TV saying that if you stop the Wildcat, you stop the Dolphins. The analysts act as if our main rushing attack is the Wildcat. I've even heard it stated that our success paasing last year was skewed by the Wildcat stats. To me, this proves that none of the TV experts watch any of the games, or even do research of any kind before opening their mouths.

    I decided to compile a database of each Wildcat play because I couldn't find a site that separated out the Wildcat into its own category.

    What I did was, I went through each game play-by-play and marked down the following statistics...


    • Total Plays
    • Total Runs
    • Wildcat Runs
    • Wildcat Passes
    • Wildcat TDs
    • Total Yards
    • Wildcat Yards
    • Yardage gained on each carry, and who carried it
    All of this information is stored in an Excel spreadsheet. Each week of the 2008 season has its own sheet, as displayed below.

    [​IMG]



    After accumulating all of the stats from the entire season. I made another sheet and crunched the numbers for the entire season. The results are shown below.


    [​IMG]

    As you can see, we only used the Wildcat 8.82% of the time. It accounted for 17% of our rushes, and 9.97% of our total yards gained offensively on the season.

    So I say to all the critics....if you stop the Wildcat, you've done 10% of your job. You better be ready for the other 90% of Dolphins football.

    If you want a copy of the entire spreadsheet, you can download it with this link....http://www.4shared.com/file/139963491/c3bfdee6/Wildcat_Game_Log.html

    I'll be compiling the 2009 edition very soon.
     
  2. cnc66

    cnc66 wiley veteran, bad spelur Luxury Box

    31,582
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    Nov 23, 2007
    nice work Gish.. thanks!
     
    GISH likes this.
  3. Frumundah Finnatic

    Frumundah Finnatic U Mad Miami?

    39,245
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    Dec 2, 2007
    Miami FL
    LIES!:shifty:
     
  4. Pennington's Rocket Arm

    Pennington's Rocket Arm New Member

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    Dec 21, 2008
    stopping 10% of an offense is kind of a big deal, though. it doesn't sound like much, but it's a very important element. especially when that 10% average nearly 7 yards per play. that WILL make a big impact.
     
  5. 54Fins

    54Fins "In Gase we trust"

    4,464
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    Nov 29, 2007
    over there
    Damn good,Gish,
    Thanks for the effort you put forth in breaking this down for all of us...

    :up:
     
    GISH likes this.
  6. GISH

    GISH ~mUST wARN oTHERS~

    19,893
    9,750
    113
    Nov 23, 2007
    Over Yonder
    Ok, lets break it down. Of the 15 games we used the Wildcat, here's how we did, using the 10% mark as the deciding factor.

    Less than 10% of our total yards:
    Week 7 - BAL - 1.11% - Loss
    Week 8 - BUF - 9.5% - Win
    Week 9 - DEN - (-1.47%) - Win
    Week 12 - NE - 6.38% - Loss
    Week 13 - STL - 1.48% - Win
    Week 14 - BUF - 1.69% - Win
    Week 15 - SF - 6.45% - Win
    WILDCARD - BAL - 2.54% - Loss

    TOTAL 5-3


    More than 10% of our total yards:

    Week 3 - NE - 25.81% - Win
    Week 5 - SD - 12.31% - Win
    Week 6 - HOU - 20.81% - Loss
    Week 10 - SEA - 22.16% - Win
    Week 11 - OAK - 13.61% - Win
    Week 16 - KC - 14.14% - Win
    Week 17 - NYJ - 17.24% - Win

    TOTAL 6-1



    So does stopping the wildcat (or not using it) have a direct impact whether we win? I don't think so. We won 5 games where the wildcat had very little impact. Baltimore accounted for 2 of our 3 losses where the wildcat was less than 10% of our offense. But wildcat or not, Baltimore was going to shut us down. The wildcat was just one of many things we could not do against them. Our other loss came at the hands of the Patriots. Their way of stopping the wildcat was to make the game a shootout. However, they couldn't stop our base offense.

    I don't think it's accurate to say we live and die by the wildcat. Claiming that we "have to trick our opponents" to win, is an ignorant comment. No one calls Peyton Manning cheap, gimmicky, or disrespectful for using playaction and audibles to confuse the defense. Manning is actually highly respected for doing that. But for some reason, the public perception around Miami is that we used tricks to win, and that isn't worthy of respect. And I say just Miami because the media seems to be drooling over the Eagles opportunities to use the wildcat.

    Long live the truth!
     
    Larry Little and cnc66 like this.

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