greywolf: I respect your opinion but respectfully do not agree about the Wildcat. I agree with your assessment that anything that puts Thornton and Hayes on the field together in positions to be utilized is a good thing.
I don’t like the Wildcat though. It’s not like I saw it for the first time when we ran it with Sherrifs last year. I actually thought it wasn’t a horrible move with Sherrifs, until I realized that we weren’t going to let Sherrifs actually throw. He threw, what, two passes out of that last year? At that point, he just became a slow RB, which was tactically even more puzzling.
The Wildcat totally concedes the pass, which allows the defenders to know exactly what is going to happen, and ultimately where the ball will start, and most likely stay. The advantages of the spread are effectively conceded by using the Wildcat because the edges are no longer threats. The defenders can all focus on the center of the formation.
I have a similar but lesser concern about the jet sweeps in general. That motion develops very slowly, and while I’ve not analyzed the tape, it seems we have very little variation in purpose for the sweeper.
I am not in favor of any formation that takes the only passing threat (QB) away. We don’t have a dominant enough offensive line, or good enough athletes to completely remove the element of surprise.
I’d like to use Thornton and Hayes together in a 1980s styled pro-set backfield. I’ve often thought that’s the best formation if one really does have multiple offensive weapons out of the backfield.
