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After last nights (this mornings) Monday night game I decided to investigate this seemingly effective formation...
"The Wildcat is an offensive formation that focuses on changes at the skill positions thusly:
The quarterback lines up as a flanker (aka wide receiver), the halfback lines up as the quarterback, and there is a fullback or other tailback in motion from a split out position just before the play begins.
The wildcat is confusing to a defense because so many things can happen as the play unfolds: You can hand the ball to the guy in motion, or that guy can go to the weak side and throw a block. The quarterback (at receiver) himself may throw a block or go out for a pass.
It also very effective due to the blocking matchups. Miami is running it with an unbalanced offensive line (which Cleveland runs alot out of most formations.) That unbalanced line takes the left tackle and plays him on the right side inside of the tight end. This fortifies the other side of the line so as to make the play asymmetrical as the motion begins with the split-wide halfback left to right. (Or the same scenario only right to left and you have two tackles on the left side instead, etc.)
In all, the Wildcat formation is effective because it is impossible for the defense to know who to block until it is too late. The play begins with a man running side to side. Does he get the ball? Is it just a play action? Is it a fake handoff and then a run up the gut by the halfback?
So far, when the wildcat formation has been stopped at the NFL level, it seems the defense got lucky on blocking and took a correct guess at where the ball would go before the play.
An effective defensive countermeasure to the Wildcat formation may exist in the brain of some defensive coordinator somewhere, but it's also possible that NFL teams don't practice it because no one ever runs a play out of a wildcat formation (until now)..."
Personally I love it and it makes the game much more exciting.
So - is it a 'gadget play (as Grudin says) or has it got a place in the NFL?
"The Wildcat is an offensive formation that focuses on changes at the skill positions thusly:
The quarterback lines up as a flanker (aka wide receiver), the halfback lines up as the quarterback, and there is a fullback or other tailback in motion from a split out position just before the play begins.
The wildcat is confusing to a defense because so many things can happen as the play unfolds: You can hand the ball to the guy in motion, or that guy can go to the weak side and throw a block. The quarterback (at receiver) himself may throw a block or go out for a pass.
It also very effective due to the blocking matchups. Miami is running it with an unbalanced offensive line (which Cleveland runs alot out of most formations.) That unbalanced line takes the left tackle and plays him on the right side inside of the tight end. This fortifies the other side of the line so as to make the play asymmetrical as the motion begins with the split-wide halfback left to right. (Or the same scenario only right to left and you have two tackles on the left side instead, etc.)
In all, the Wildcat formation is effective because it is impossible for the defense to know who to block until it is too late. The play begins with a man running side to side. Does he get the ball? Is it just a play action? Is it a fake handoff and then a run up the gut by the halfback?
So far, when the wildcat formation has been stopped at the NFL level, it seems the defense got lucky on blocking and took a correct guess at where the ball would go before the play.
An effective defensive countermeasure to the Wildcat formation may exist in the brain of some defensive coordinator somewhere, but it's also possible that NFL teams don't practice it because no one ever runs a play out of a wildcat formation (until now)..."
Personally I love it and it makes the game much more exciting.
So - is it a 'gadget play (as Grudin says) or has it got a place in the NFL?
And, since you said it's not been run by a SB winner yet, I meant it has just been around one season. Give it time. Some team that uses it as part of their package could win a SB in the future. It is too soon to use that as a reason to temper one's enthusiasm for the WC.
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