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Different Offenses


LooGie
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I'm just curious what types of offenses there are, and what sets them apart from the rest.

 

What exactly is a "west-coast offense"?

 

Dont wanna hear about that "Vick-Coast offense" either :D

 

1265644[/snapback]

 

 

 

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I'm just curious what types of offenses there are, and what sets them apart from the rest.

 

What exactly is a "west-coast offense"?

 

1265644[/snapback]

 

 

 

For a short question, you sure are gonna get a long-ass answer.

 

To start with, I'm not gonna get into older or primarily college-based offenses (the veer, the wishbone, the spread, spread-option, etc), I'll just focus on the basic NFL offense:

 

Generally, the basic "pro set" is 5 OL in a non-offset line (T G C G T) with a TE, a split end, and a flanker (SE and FL are what are generally referred to as "wide receivers", the difference being the flanker can line up off the line of scrimmage while the SE has to be on it). A QB is lined up under center, and a RB and a FB are lined up behind him, either in a split backfield or an I formation (or an offset I, or one can go in motion, etc).

 

The Sid Gillman offensive theory was to get the ball upfield - the field was divided into 5 zones - sidelines to hash marks, hash mark to numbers, numbers to numbers, numbers to hash marks, hash marks to sidelines - and a receiver would run a "vertical" type pattern in each of those. Mike Martz and Joe Gibbs run a variant of this offense with a few wrinkles in it.

 

The West Coast offense was developed in Cincinnatti (!) by Bill Walsh. He had been given a lemon in athletic, weak-armed QB Virgil Carter, and had to build a better mousetrap to take advantage of what skills Carter brought to the table. So instead of focusing on the vertical game, which Carter didn't really have the arm strength to do well in, he started running short "horizontal" patterns (patterns going from sideline-to-sideline as opposed to up the field) with lots of crossing routes and such. A "pure" WCO also will focus less on a traditional run game - it tries to get its backs and WRs out in space using short quick-hitches and screens as opposed to the traditional handoff. Probably the closest to a "true" WCO being run these days is Holmgren in Seattle. To me, the short passing game that the original WCO has become so hybridized and adapted in so many different ways that the term is meaningless.

 

Other forms of offense are basically just quirks in sets - the one-back offense (one RB and either 3 WR and one TE or 2 WR and 2 TE), etc. The easy breakdown is that there are two basic passing theories - horizontal and vertical.

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Reid runs a short passing offense, highly dependent on screens and short, horizontal patterns. McNabb isn't quite your prototypical WCO QB, as he has issues with accuracy (he's generally been at about 57%, whereas most WCOs shoot for 60+%).

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