Is the Wildcat offense almost over?

[AceLeroy]

I think it is coming to an end soon.

Some have already figured out a way to stop it and it is only a matter of time before everyone else looks at enough film to follow suit.

Everyone remembers the Dolphins blasting the Patriots with it in their first meeting last year , then later that year NE beat the Dolphins and held the wildcat to 3.1 yards per carry.

Skip ahead to this year. The last 2 weeks the Saints and the Jets both shut down the wildcat by blitzing from the secondary whenever the fish lined up in the wildcat.

The Jets even held them to 15 yards on 5 plays in the WC.

I have wondered , how would the old Joe Lee Dunn defense do vs. the wildcat?? That seems like just what the Jets did to shut it down. Whenever You see the other team line up in it , you bring a heavy blitz and blow up these plays before they have a chance to develope.

Now I am not suggesting rehiring JLD , just that some of his philosophy could work to stop the wc formation.

 

[therightway]

With UAT, if Ingram does not throw the ball you can defend it. It all depends on the personel. You can load the box and make them throw it. I would love to have 1 on1 match ups with a RB throwing the ball.

 

[lazlow]

GT says "hell no"......~30 post mortem.

with the right personnel you can run the *!@$%@% ND box and the st. louis rams can't do **** about it.

 

[SLUdog]

and I'll run the "Wildcat" on most college Ds all day long.

 

[Todd4State]

that's why when we run the wildcat in the next couple of years, we need to make sure that either Relf or Bumphis are at the "QB" position. Because they can actually throw the ball.

That's what made it so effective at Arkansas to start with- McFadden could throw the ball as well as run it.

 

[Buford T. Justice]

The wildcat gives you an extra blocker in the running game. Now teams are committing an extra defender to offset that. But if the wildcat back can throw then we have problems. I think they will work with Bumphis on this in the spring.

A lot of these wildcat packages (Ronnie Brown at Miami for example) don't have the passing threat.

 

[ckDOG]

that's why when we run the wildcat in the next couple of years, we need to make sure that either Relf or Bumphis are at the "QB" position. Because they can actually throw the ball.

That's what made it so effective at Arkansas to start with- McFadden could throw the ball as well as run it.

I'll preface this by stating I'm a moron with it comes to the x's and o's on offense - I could be way off base here. But, don't we run the "wildcat" fairly often? Most people start referring to an offense as "wildcat" when the ball is snapped to the RB. The logic behind that formation, as you've mentioned, is that direct snapping to a RB (who preferably can pass as well) forces the defense to respect 11 players on offense rather than 10 when a QB stands around and watches after the ball is handed off. This creates match-up problems that lead to big plays.

But, I'm thinking we really do that more often than people realize - we only snap it to a QB - so, it gets less hype/attention. The QBs in our system are, by preference, QBs that can run and throw. It is intended to achieve a similar result as direct snapping to a RB that the defense has to respect as running/passing threat (i.e. McFadden).. We don't do it well all the time due to the talent limitations of our QBs, but by design, we have a QB handling the ball that the defense respects (hopefully) as a threat to run, throw, or block.

Mullen obviously understands the advantages gained when the defense has to respect all 11 offensive players via a "wildcat" formation and has attempted to blend this in to an entire offensive philosophy. But, instead of letting a RB direct the traffic, he's decided to use the dual-threat QB. Even though a RB could be capable at passing, why risk letting him do it when a QB could achieve the same purpose? A QB that can run and throw is the smarter play. I think direct snaps to a RB every now and again for a change of pace are nice, but the real upside is in a dual threat QB that can force the defense to play 11 on 11 on most plays rather than only a handful when snapping to a RB.

That being said, Cam Newton, come on down....