Re: Wildcat
The below is far from an all-inclusive review, but it should get you thinking in different ways and from different perspectives.
Anyway, a few thoughts:
There is a point of diminishing returns for the wildcat offense for most teams. As referenced by someone in an earlier post, if the wildcat is a major cog of an offense, a team needs specialists with exceptional/unique talent, and/or an OL that can obliterate the DL. Without either, as the frequency of the wildcat increases, more is put on tape, more is seen by the opponent, more is learned by the opponent – of the offense, its tendencies, and the strengths of the individual players running it. At a certain point, the tactical benefits of the formation begin to diminish.
Also, in no particular order, run the wildcat to:
1) Force the other team to review it.
If I were a coach and never gained a yard with the wildcat offense, I’d still run it at least twice a game.
I’d do it if for no other reason than to force my opponent to burn time reviewing it. I’d run it even if I only ran one play out of it. Per NCAA rules, a coach only has so much time with his players during the week. I’d make ’em burn an inordinate amount of time at a poor ROI reviewing the wildcat and all it’s options. Even if I only showed one play on tape, every coach knows there are many options that come with it. If I only showed one play, the opposing coaches would still have to ‘guess’ at what I might also have in my bag and therefore spend more of their time reviewing those options.
At an absolute minimum, the wildcat has value for the above reason.
2) Probe Weaknesses/opportunities of the opposing defense
An offense is successful in two basic ways. 1) Putting hat on hat and out-executing the opponent. 2) Taking advantage of an opponent’s mistakes. Therefore, the goal of an offense can be broken down into two essential components. 1) Minimize its own mistakes in execution, 2) Maximize the likelihood and opportunity for the opponent to make a mistake. This is why there are misdirection plays and every play has at least one counter.
Often, the first time a coach shows the wildcat in a game, it is to have the defense reveal how they plan to attack it. A wildcat play, just like almost every play, does not only have the utility of gaining yards on that particular play, but it also provides information. Information that can be exploited later, during a more pivotal part of the game. So even if the wildcat play gains no yardage, it still could be serving a purpose. If it is run and gains 8 yards, great, we got a 2’fer.
Say the wildcat is run, it gains zero yardage, and the coaches see nothing that can be exploited. So next time they add a variant (for example, add a motion, maybe a trap block, maybe a slightly different formation) to probe for something that does work or can be exploited.
But say the coaches do see something that can be exploited, if a slight variation were added or a counter-play were called. Then the coaches call the original play again, and again, and maybe again, reinforcing the defenses’ read. The coaches file this away for potential exploitation later in the game.
The above are scenarios in which the plays appear to fail to the casual fan, yet are still providing value to the coaches. If the plays are gaining yardage at a successful rate, then hey, no one should have complaints and all this ‘inside baseball’ stuff is irrelevant anyway.
The above is true for any offense, but by having the wildcat in the playbook, with little effort, you’ve potentially exponentially increased options, options that a defense must be prepared to stop.
3) Take advantage of the unprepared or inattentive.
If the defense isn’t paying attention, if the MLB or defensive signal caller isn’t too astute, if the defense is wearing down, a quick no-huddle into the wildcat with the QB spread wide can catch a defense unprepared and a quick gain can be made. This could be a quick call signaled in from the sidelines or maybe even called in the huddle before the previous play.
Or potentially, the defense is so caught up in adjusting to their wildcat responsibilities, they forget the basics. Imagine an OLB or CB quickly going through their mental rolodex of responsibilities as the offense lines up in wildcat. He’s transitioning from base offense to wildcat, and then the ball is snapped… Then the defender is immediately faced with the single back and the motioning slot running an option run right at him… in a fraction a second, he’s thinking “oh sh!t, do I have the ‘QB’ or pitchman? In base, I’m supposed to have the QB, but this ain’t base and that ain’t their QB… no wait, that’s the slot as the pitchman so that means… oh ***!, there they go… oops, sorry coach” One mistake -> BOOM, big play.
4) The obvious: Gain an ‘extra’ blocker, quicken the play
In a ‘normal’ offense, the QB receives the ball from the center, hands the ball to the RB, then removes himself from the play. In the wildcat, the QB-to-RB exchanged is removed, the QB is spread wide and occupies a DB, and NO player is removed from the play. The offense now has an extra blocker. These are obvious advantages. To determine how, where, and when to utilize these advantages is why coaches study film and probe their opponent.
So, to summarize, there’s a lot more going on in there than you might think. Give the coaches the benefit of the doubt. At least for now.
