The Wildcat Formation is nothing but a trend in the NFL and will only be around until the defense figures out how to stop it effectively and consistantly. The Wildcat took off like a wildfire because nobody had prepared for it and then more and more teams started doing it. Let's all think back to any trend we have ever encountered and thought about the life of these trends. First, not a lot of people know about it and they act like it's great. After a while more and more people find out about it through the grape vines and everyone ends up getting it sooner or later. After awhile its allure starts to wear off after everyone gets used to it and then it just slowly goes away and gets shuffled out by a new trend. That is the trend lifestyle and we have all experienced it in our life. That is unless the thing breaks out of being a trend and has some staying power, that which the Wildcat does not.
Why? Think about it for a minute. The Wildcat isn't anything new. How many times do we see college teams run the same style of plays that encompass the playbook that is the Wildcat? College analysts don't sit around arguing about the Wildcat formation. I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about the Wildcat in the college ranks anyway. Why? People run it already. Vince Young ran it in Texas. Tim Tebow runs it in Florida. It's not even a Wildcat. I don't even know what the Wildcat is. If having a running back in the backfield is called the Wildcat, why is it then having a running quarterback in shotgun formation with a running back next to him called shotgun formation? College teams run it all the time, this new and innovative "formation". Now for college teams is the spread formation, which will have staying power in the college ranks.
The Steelers don't run the Wildcat. The Cardinals don't run the Wildcat. The only team that really ran the Wildcat last year was the Dolphins and they got ousted in the first round by Baltimore's sound defense. It's a great way to try to throw a cog in the defense, but eventually more and more teams will be able to hammer out the issues and stop the Wildcat. The great teams already can. Not to mention the great teams don't need to try to run this gimmick offense. With trends, there are the people who are above the trends and don't give in to the temptation, and then there were the guys who never got in on the trend and got left behind. You know, the kids who were too cool to play Pokemon or bring Pogs to school because they didn't care either way, and then the kids who show up one day with his Game Boy at recess weeks after everyone else started doing something else. The great teams don't need to run the spread, and some of the bad teams probably should but don't for unknown reasons. I'm looking at you Oakland.
You know why this offense won't stay? Because a team is only going to run the formation so many times during a game for one. The day that I see a team like the Dolphins line up with Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams in the backfield more than fifty percent of the time is the day I will actually consider the staying power of the Wildcat. If a team runs about 70 plays a game, how many of those are devoted to the Wildcat formation? Ten? Fifteen? I'll give up ten-fifteen gimmick run plays a game and focus on stopping the pass game. This formation is based upon misdirection and decision making by the psuedo QB/RB/whoever's getting the snap. You have to have your defensive ends play football 101 and stay home as well as your linebackers.
Going back to college, you see schools all the time that run these gimmick style offenses like Navy or like Texas Tech, two extremes for a football and all with Navy doing nothing but run and Texas Tech doing nothing but pass, and that is all they do. Navy will have maybe ten pass plays called while Tech will have maybe ten run plays called all game long. Those aren't gimmick offenses, that is their offense and that is the strategy and the mindset that they have. Nebraska is an option-based team and that is all they run. You do not see teams like these in the NFL. You don't have an option-based NFL team. The closest way to label a team in the NFL is by maybe the spread offense or the West-coast offense, and that is a total maybe. You will see the Pats and the Colts line up with four wide receivers but the strategy changes game by game. Maybe one game the deep ball is there, maybe one game they focus on doing a lot more screens and short passes. If you play Texas Tech or Nebraska in college, you know what your going to get, the strategy may change here and there, but it isn't the drastic change that NFL teams make in game.
The reason why the Wildcat will not have staying power is because a team won't devote their entire offense to running it. It's too risky, and I will guarantee that the Wildcat will become less and less popular as the season goes along when teams see that they can't beat the great teams using it. Nobody is beating the Steelers by running the Wildcat, they are too good of a defense to get tricked and get forced out of position, two things the Wildcat needs to happen to be succesful. Average teams will get beat by it, but the more and more that teams see it, the more and more they will get accustomed to it, and won't get tricked and get found out of position. Good coaches don't get caught up in these new, sexy trends, they stay by their own philosophies. That's why they are good coaches and why you always see the same teams in the playoffs every year.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Pop-Culture and History
I'm a historian. I like to study the past. I like knowing where something came from. I like to know what forefathers paved the way for the stuff we have today. I like to know why certain people have certain influences. I like this kind of stuff. I also like pop-culture, more-so sports, music, and movies/TV shows to be exact. That's where my two loves cross paths.
See, I don't care that I'm living in the now. I would rather listen to The Who over any band that had a hit this year. I may enjoy listening to Shinedown or Kings of Leon but I'll take The Who. It's not because they are perceived to be such a great band, it's because they are, simply, that good. I like substance. I like searching for substance. I like abusing those substances (puns intended). I like searching for good music, good movies, good TV, good sports players. I like learning about them. I like to dissect why they are perceived as good, and this brings me to my next point.
Throughout all of this digging through different time periods, I have formed a good background of knowledge in the pop-culture regime. So then, when someone claims that they have been influence by Nirvana or 2Pac, upon listening to their stuff I should be able to notice those influences. It's just like when someone says that they were influenced by Brett Favre on the football field. If I watch you play and see you're like a statue in the pocket, I would scream foul on your claims of being influenced by Brett Favre. Anyway, that's what I like the most: being able to understand the references made by people when they jot down their heroes. If I had never heard The Beatles before I would be doing nothing more than blankly nodding my head towards a TV screen upon watching an interview of some band saying they were influence by The Beatles. But because I know a decent amount of The Beatles, I can understand why they would be influenced by them.
It's more than just knowing of someone or something that's great. It blows my mind sometimes when someone speaks about great movies and includes movies that have been assimilated into greatness even though they have never seen them. Just because the general consensus of people think that something's great doesn't mean that it is great, or that you have to think it's great. If I wanted to know a bland list of great movies or music I would read one. If you were to write out a top 5 of greatest players in the history of the NBA and included Wilt Chamberlain, you better be ready to defend that statement (especially against me), and just because he is thought of to be one of the greatest of all time doesn't cut it.
It also drives me wild when others don't do this sort of thing. I hate narrow-mindedness. Maybe narrow-mindedness isn't accurately describing it, but it will have to do. If you claim to love rap music but haven't listened to anything pre DMX or Ja-Rule, I can't take you seriously. A more accurate description of your love for rap music would be that you love the Lil Wayne era of rap (also, anyone who lists Lil Wayne in any favorites list loses credibility with me instantly because there's no way anyone can justify having Lil Wayne as their favorite rapper, I will shoot holes through any argument you bring forth). If your going to be a fan of a genre of music, why wouldn't you be a fan of the greatest stuff that genre has produced? I would much rather watch Hoosiers or The Karate Kid over any sports movie made since Varsity Blues came out. I would also much rather watch Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction over any movie that has come out this year (or last year, or the last two years, or three...). In the entertainment of today, people are mesmerized by flashy sights and loud noises and the preference for flash supplants the preference for substance. I'd much rather sit through the entire Godfather trilogy back-to back-to back than watch the new Terminator movie no matter how many times I've watched the Godfather flicks.
What I'm saying in my rumbled, jumbled, redundant thought process is that people who haven't listened to genuine old-school (at least twenty years, please) musical acts or bands that were forefathers for musical acts of today drive me crazy. At least know that The Ramones were looked at as the first punk rock group. People who haven't watched movies that are great movies, not great indie flicks, not great cult flicks, but movies that really are perceived to be great and included on greatest movies lists (like the aforementioned Godfather for instance, which really is a good fuckin' movie) drive me crazy. It's not like you gotta travel back to Gone With The Wind times either. People who decide to include Joe Namath on greatest quarterbacks of all time with no real jurisdiction drive me nuts. Matter of fact, anyone who doesn't get paid to discuss sports drives me nuts. There are only about three people who I can have a serious sports conversation with. One of them is my brother and I don't know the other two. I follow sports too religiously. Sorry, I don't care if I sound like a jackass but it's true. I will have forgotten more about sports in this year than anyone I know will learn about sports in their lifetime. Just please, at least know that Elgin Baylor paved the way for Michael Jordan.
I like having conversations in which I can either A) learn new things about a subject I didn't know about or B) have an interesting back-and-forth stimulating debate with someone (except anyone claiming Lil Wayne is great, I don't care how cultivating the argument is) that makes me revalue my own thoughts and opinions. Come on people, It's not like I'm saying you can't enjoy Transformers 2 (or even Lil Wayne), and I'm not saying everyone must conform and think The Beatles, The Godfather, The Wire, and Brett Favre are the greatest in their respective genres and categories. Just get a little historical knowledge and background and perspective. At least you could justify why you think 2Pac is the greatest rapper of all-time despite not having heard a single song off anything other than his Greatest Hits album.
See, I don't care that I'm living in the now. I would rather listen to The Who over any band that had a hit this year. I may enjoy listening to Shinedown or Kings of Leon but I'll take The Who. It's not because they are perceived to be such a great band, it's because they are, simply, that good. I like substance. I like searching for substance. I like abusing those substances (puns intended). I like searching for good music, good movies, good TV, good sports players. I like learning about them. I like to dissect why they are perceived as good, and this brings me to my next point.
Throughout all of this digging through different time periods, I have formed a good background of knowledge in the pop-culture regime. So then, when someone claims that they have been influence by Nirvana or 2Pac, upon listening to their stuff I should be able to notice those influences. It's just like when someone says that they were influenced by Brett Favre on the football field. If I watch you play and see you're like a statue in the pocket, I would scream foul on your claims of being influenced by Brett Favre. Anyway, that's what I like the most: being able to understand the references made by people when they jot down their heroes. If I had never heard The Beatles before I would be doing nothing more than blankly nodding my head towards a TV screen upon watching an interview of some band saying they were influence by The Beatles. But because I know a decent amount of The Beatles, I can understand why they would be influenced by them.
It's more than just knowing of someone or something that's great. It blows my mind sometimes when someone speaks about great movies and includes movies that have been assimilated into greatness even though they have never seen them. Just because the general consensus of people think that something's great doesn't mean that it is great, or that you have to think it's great. If I wanted to know a bland list of great movies or music I would read one. If you were to write out a top 5 of greatest players in the history of the NBA and included Wilt Chamberlain, you better be ready to defend that statement (especially against me), and just because he is thought of to be one of the greatest of all time doesn't cut it.
It also drives me wild when others don't do this sort of thing. I hate narrow-mindedness. Maybe narrow-mindedness isn't accurately describing it, but it will have to do. If you claim to love rap music but haven't listened to anything pre DMX or Ja-Rule, I can't take you seriously. A more accurate description of your love for rap music would be that you love the Lil Wayne era of rap (also, anyone who lists Lil Wayne in any favorites list loses credibility with me instantly because there's no way anyone can justify having Lil Wayne as their favorite rapper, I will shoot holes through any argument you bring forth). If your going to be a fan of a genre of music, why wouldn't you be a fan of the greatest stuff that genre has produced? I would much rather watch Hoosiers or The Karate Kid over any sports movie made since Varsity Blues came out. I would also much rather watch Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction over any movie that has come out this year (or last year, or the last two years, or three...). In the entertainment of today, people are mesmerized by flashy sights and loud noises and the preference for flash supplants the preference for substance. I'd much rather sit through the entire Godfather trilogy back-to back-to back than watch the new Terminator movie no matter how many times I've watched the Godfather flicks.
What I'm saying in my rumbled, jumbled, redundant thought process is that people who haven't listened to genuine old-school (at least twenty years, please) musical acts or bands that were forefathers for musical acts of today drive me crazy. At least know that The Ramones were looked at as the first punk rock group. People who haven't watched movies that are great movies, not great indie flicks, not great cult flicks, but movies that really are perceived to be great and included on greatest movies lists (like the aforementioned Godfather for instance, which really is a good fuckin' movie) drive me crazy. It's not like you gotta travel back to Gone With The Wind times either. People who decide to include Joe Namath on greatest quarterbacks of all time with no real jurisdiction drive me nuts. Matter of fact, anyone who doesn't get paid to discuss sports drives me nuts. There are only about three people who I can have a serious sports conversation with. One of them is my brother and I don't know the other two. I follow sports too religiously. Sorry, I don't care if I sound like a jackass but it's true. I will have forgotten more about sports in this year than anyone I know will learn about sports in their lifetime. Just please, at least know that Elgin Baylor paved the way for Michael Jordan.
I like having conversations in which I can either A) learn new things about a subject I didn't know about or B) have an interesting back-and-forth stimulating debate with someone (except anyone claiming Lil Wayne is great, I don't care how cultivating the argument is) that makes me revalue my own thoughts and opinions. Come on people, It's not like I'm saying you can't enjoy Transformers 2 (or even Lil Wayne), and I'm not saying everyone must conform and think The Beatles, The Godfather, The Wire, and Brett Favre are the greatest in their respective genres and categories. Just get a little historical knowledge and background and perspective. At least you could justify why you think 2Pac is the greatest rapper of all-time despite not having heard a single song off anything other than his Greatest Hits album.
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