NFL Week 3 thread presented by Spergon Wynn

Maybe introduce her to rugby?

I miss major colleges running the wishbone. So fun to watch.

 

I’m not expert, but defensive players are so much quicker relatively than they used to be it wouldn’t be as successful as it used to be. If it would work, someone would be doing it.

 

John McKay and others figured out how to stop it and it died a quick death. 3 DLs, 4 LBs. Three of the LBs were each assigned to one of the RBs. Plus an extra LB in case one of them got blocked.
The Wishbone only worked against overmatched teams -- i.e. Oklahoma vs. Iowa State. UCLA, under Pepper Rodgers, was rushing for 600 yards a game. It got about a buck fifty against USC. Rodgers left, Terry Donahue took over and scrapped the Wishbone. Among other things he said, playing in L.A., you have to be entertaining. Throwing the ball around is entertaining. Running it up the middle is not.
Gimmicks only work until somebody figures out the gimmick, which usually is very quickly.

 

Which is why QB X has redefines the position is always bullshit. Fran Tarkenton ran in 1968. Bobby Douglas ran for 900 plus yards in a 14 game season. Tarkenton is in the HOF because he ran around enough to throw an accurate ball. Douglas is in my file cabinet as a football card. If you can’t drop back and throw, you have a shirt shelf life as an NFL QB. Because you may be 6-5 245 as a QB. But the guys hitting you are 6-6 310.

 

Texas apparently faced 30 overmatched teams in a row in 1968-70.

 

Way back in the early oughts, Bill Belichick said that if an NFL team ran a single wing, it'd kick hell out of its opponent for that game, then lose all the rest till they ditched it. I also remember that back in the late '60s the Chiefs had a game with the Raiders with Len Dawson and their backup hurt. So Hank Stram had them run the original T formation with the backup just handing off. They ran for over 200 yards and won going away. Never did it again, though.

 

Bigger, stronger, faster wins out, too. Until you go up against somebody who is just as big, just as strong, just as fast ... and figured how to beat the gimmick.

 

That is what happened with the Wildcat, which has many of the same principles. Things like that can work in an emergency or against a specific opponent, but trying them regularly doesn't work out so well.

The Steelers provided an example of it last season. After they lost Roethlisberger for the season, they used a good bit of Wildcat in a victory over the Bengals. It looked great, but it helped that they were running it against such an awful opponent. They tried to keep it in the game plan the following week against the Ravens and the results were disastrous.

 

That’s an imagination problem (as opposed to an imaginary problem). Ninety-nine percent of wildcat plays are the running back tucking and running off the direct snap. The only way it’s effective is if you do more than just that guy running the ball.

 

There was a game a few years ago where Vick and Dunn ran out of a double sidecar and tore up the other team for about 300 yards on the ground. Then it never happened again.

Kaepernick destroyed Green Bay in a playoff game running the ball. Mathews literally had his back turned to the ball on plays they were so twisted up.

But stuff like that only lasts one week.

The difference with the Ravens is right now they have the Texas QB running the option against North Texas State many weeks. When Jackson slows down, it's over.