Wildcat Offense (From 8/17/09)

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.