So the Cover-2 was designed to stop the spread-option zone-read, eh?

I normally don't bite on the Tebow-baiting that goes on in the media. If I did, I would be posting rants all the time. However, with that said, I'm going to bite right now.

Once in a while, you hear an argument so fallacious, so flawed, so egregious, so odious, so counter-factual, so conspicuously bad that you just can't let it pass. Such was the case this week. A number of commentators, including my own dear Marshall Faulk, seem to think the disciplined and deep Tampa-Two defense is designed to stop the Spread-Option Zone Read offense.

Say wahhhhh...??? WTF?!?!?

Specifically, several dudes including Merril Hodge and Marshall Faulk seem to think the Chicago Bear defense can thump Tim Tebow and the Broncos today. That is the specific context we're talking about today.

Folks, nothing in the world could be further from the truth. The Tampa-Two is essentially the same defensive philosophy the 1970's Pittsburgh Steelers played. It is a base 4-3 defense in which the MLB drops back deep in the zone on passing plays. The two safeties split left and right and cover the side-lines. If you have a linebacker as great as Jack Lambert, Derrick Brooks, or London Fetcher, it works very well... against the passing offense.

The entire notion of the scheme is to stop the deep pass. Chuck Noll invented the defense because his chief enemies on AFC side of the fence were the Oakland Raiders. The Raiders ran an aggressive Gillman-Coryell vertical passing attack. They threw towards the end zone, not the sideline. A slightly shorter version of this defense has been employed very effectively by Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith to thump the West Coast offense.

Now, I can assure you that Tom Landry never had the Zone-Read Spread Option (ZRSO) offense in mind when he invented the 4-3. I know for a fact he never saw this thing in his entire life. I can also assure you that Chuck Noll never had the ZRSO in mind when he tweaked Landry's 4-3 to produce the Steel-Curtain defense. I can further assure you that Tony Dungy didn't have the ZRSO in mind when he (slightly) modified it for use against the WCO. I can assure you Tony never taught Lovie how the Tampa-Two could be employed to stop the Urban Meyer ZRSO.

No folks, the ZRSO is almost nothing like the deep-strike Gillman-Coryell offense. Neither is it the West Coast Offense. It is a option running assault in which the QB is the prime ball carrier. He can also throw, but he is primarily a runner. I cannot comprehend how this disciplined pass defense, in which the MLB is dropping back into coverage, can automatically be employed to defeat a running QB. This makes no sense.

On the contrary, I see the ZRSO as putting incredible pressure--breaking pressure--on a disciplined cover-2. The MLB cannot drop deep and handle the middle. If he does, the QB goes up the middle. If the MLB comes up to stuff the running QB, he throws the football over his head, jump-pass style.

This offense was designed to piss Brian Urlacher off like no other offense Brian has ever faced before. I think he is going to be one hell of a frustrated man today.

Do you need evidence instead of reason? How about the game last week? You know and I know that the Vikings run the Tampa-Two. You do know that right? Most of commentators showed how the Viking safeties were biting on the inside routes rather than going to the side-lines against the Broncos last week. These 'mistakes' resulted in several of Tim Tebow's big passes to Demaryius Thomas.

Unfortunately, these were not mistakes. They were trap plays. The Broncos were over-loading the zone, sending receivers on matched-pairs of deep 8 and 9 routes. That is a bitch for the Safety. He has to bite on one of the routes. He can't let them both go. If the QB is good, which ever choice the safety makes, he will be wrong. The QB will go to the other receiver. I am sure the Viking Safeties were coached to take the shorter 8 route, as the DCs of this league don't think much of Tim's passing abilities. That's what they did. Tim busted them on the 9 route.

Anyway, I am getting far too specific. Understand this: The Tampa-Two was designed to stop high-flying passing attacks. It was never designed to stop QB-Option running attack. Those who say it is are absolutely and completely crazy. It just 'taint not so.

The Sophomore Jinx?

A lot is being written right now about whether or not Sam Bradford will experiance the sophmore jinx in 2011. I'll give you my short answer and I will give you a longer answer. The short answer is: It can't be avoided, but it won't be as bad you think, and it probably won't last long. Now I will give you a longer answer unpacking that conclusion.

There are a number of factors conspiring against Sam's 2nd tour of duty in the league:

1. Pat Shurmur has moved on to Cleveland
2. Josh McDaniels in the new Ram-OC.
3. This means moving from the West Coast Offense to the NFL Spread.
4. There will be new rookie receivers to play with.
5. There will be new offensive guards to play with.
6. We have this little labor strife over the collective bargaining agreement going on right now. As a result of this fact, here may not be any OTAs or Mini-Camp. If so, Josh McDaniels will have precious little time to install his new system.
7. If worse comes to worse, and the lockout wears long, it could delete all of training camp and the first few games.

As far as the Rams' specific problems are concerned, I don't think things are nearly as bad as some portray them. When people say that there is a great deal of difference between the WCO and the NFL Spread, they are quite correct. Still, what is the value and importance of that fact? I think it is fairly low. I don't think this is particularly important point.

Sam was in the WCO for exactly one year. He was in the Spread for most of his high school and college years. The pertinent question is this: How different is Josh McDaniel's Spread from Bob Stoops's Spread? In truth, I do not know the answer to that question. I suppose assesments would vary. I can only tell you that they look somewhat similar to me. I can't tell you how much difference there is in language and terminology under the hood, in the playbook.

Until proven otherwise, I still believe that moving to Josh McDaniels's Spread will be more like a home-comming at Oklahoma than learning an entirely new system. In 2010, Sam was learning an entirely different system. In 2011, I don't think so. I think he'll be learning a slightly different variety of a system he already knows well.

However, all our vets will be learning a new system... That could spell some trouble. The brand new receivers and guards will create some initial problems in timing and cohesian, but if we chose our people well, this should pay big dividends a few games down the road in 2011... assuming there is a 2011.

There are adverse circumstances facing Sam, the whole roster, and everyone else in the league this year. We could throw in the media people also. Everyone is in danger of being compromised by the labor strife and lockout looming on the horizon. That's why both parties involved better compromise soon and sign that new CBA.

Andrew Brandt of the National Football Post seems to believe these problems are not so bad as I think they are. He claims that negotiations always saunter along at a lazy pace until the drop-dead date looms large. When the deal has to get done, it gets done. He says he was a party to a hundred different negotiations and the deal never got done until it had to be finished. That's just how the game is played. He seems to believe that we will have a new CBA in March.

Now on the other hand, you have the absolutely fabulous "in a state of war" rhetoric thrown around by DeMaurice Smith, the boss of the player's union. This sort of rhetoric only seems to strengthen rumors I heard early-on about DeMaurice Smith being a wrecklass adventurer on quest to prove himself stronger than Upshaw in fiery crucible of battle. Right now, DeMaurice Smith does resemble those remarks. He's also making Roger Goodell look pretty damn good. Trust me, you don't want to do that to your opponent.

Let us hope they will resolve all this bullshit so the millionairs can contine being paid by the billionaires.

Anyway... I hope I have made my point. Given the confligration of events coming together in 2011, a sophmore slump of some kind probably cannot be avoid. The worst factors in this function aren't even under Rams' control. These things have to be settled at the league level.

I also don't expect the sophmore slump to be that bad, or last that long. A move to the NFL spread may hurt offensive cohesian in the first couple of weeks, but it will help Sam and the whole offense perform a lot better down the road.

The Rams, The Browns, Pat Shurmur and Josh McDaniels

If you are tracking the comings and goings of coaches in this early off-season {for teams not in the playoffs} you may be aware that Pat Shurmur is looking like the likely HC of the Cleveland Browns. The Dawg Pound doesn't seem to thrilled about it. I wish I could give you guys some cold comfort, but it would sound more like a cold slap.

Sheeesh... It used to be that only a Super Bowl winning OC/DC, or a national championship College Coach would qualify as a new HC in the NFL. That's how Coach Spags got his job. Whatever happened to that high-achievement requirement?

I fully understand why Mike Holmgren would be enamored with Shurmur's offensive game plan. It is the closest thing to Bill Walsh's original system currently flying in the NFL. Holmgren and Shurmur would be of one mind on many subjects. They are clearly from the same school of thought. Still... don't you consider this a reach, Mike?

Readers of this blog will know that I am thrilled to be done with Shurmur. I've been after his scalp for some time. I didn't get it, but this is next best thing to being there. I have never been a fan of the WCO. I like Gillman-Coryell. It's the replacement part of the equation that bothers me.

Unless you track the Rams, you probably won't know that the name Josh McDaniels is being circulated as the front-runner in the Rams' quest for a new OC. These are words that hit like a steel ax handle to the face. Do you want to talk about a massive disturbance in the force as if billions of souls suddenly cried out in terror and were silenced?

Josh McDaniels has been on my shit-list for some two years now. Recently he became a figure of some ambivalence.

How do I hate him? Let me count the ways. I hate the coaching tree he comes from. Bellichick has no coaching tree. He has a twig of failures. McDaniels replaced Shanahan. That in itself is a bad thing. He did an all-out systematic demolition job on the Denver Broncos, leaving the team in ruins. He traded away my favorite passing combo in Cutler-Marshall. He fired a great defensive coordinator in Dick Nolan for no better reason than the fact that he desired a "Patriot way" guy on his staff.

How do I love the guy? Well... love is a very strong word that really shouldn't... I let McDaniels off the hook (slightly) when he drafted Tim Tebow. Any guy who likes Tebow as a QB can't be all bad. Not all bad, but 90% bad. Well... maybe not 90%... 85%. McDaniels also loves the Spread offense, which happens to be a particular passion of mine. This also happens to be Sam Bradford's strong point. Also, when push comes to shove, you must admit that the little bastard calls a mean game. There is a quirky play-calling genius locked in there somewhere.

You are reading the blog of a man who is literally ripped to shreds at the moment. I am eaten up wih internal controversy.

On the one hand, I don't want any infection of the Patriot-way virus near my team. This absolute bullshit hasn't worked for anyone, anywhere other than Bellichick in New England. It has destroyed much more than it has created. I don't want a failed coach off the Bellichick coaching twig to enter our staff. I don't want the little bastard to subvert Coach Spagnuolo's position as HC either.

On the other hand, this is an opportunity for my Rams to move to the Spread offense. That's something I've been advocating for more than a year now. This is a way to make Sam more productive. This is a way to introduce aggressive play-calling back into our team's repertoire. I have some confidence that McDaniels would not call stupid plays in key situations, or put our offense to sleep with a conservative running game when we need to score and put it away.

They often say that you *_DO_* want to be the man who first a guy immediately after he gets fired. Usually, once a coach's Man-Card has been revoked, he gets up off the carpet fighting twice as hard as he did before. This means you get his very best shot. Witness the job Linehan has done in Detroit for good evidence. A wiser, double-motivated McDaniels could be good for us.

It may be GM Billy Devaney is considering a move to the spread, but he is unwilling to trust a disgraced college coach like Mike Leach with the job. I think this unfortunate, because Leach is a legit offensive genius. At the same time, I can understand why Devaney would gravitate to a version of the Spread that has been proven effective inside the NFL. This case does have some real merit.

Ultimately, I am very ambivalent about all of this.

Some quick thoughts about Ram-fan anger at Pat Shurmur

I've been doing some much focused reading on-line during the past 48 hours. The focus has been this: Just what precisely are Ram-fans saying about Pat Shurmur? I would generalize our conversations by saying the following:

• Pat Shurmur doesn't know how to call a game
• He's way to conservative.
• We ran too much
• We didn't run enough
• Way too much dink-n-dunk passing
• He has a tendency to call bad plays in key situations
• We could have scored more points.
• We need to unleash Sam and throw it deep.

9 out of 10 blogs and posts say these things over and over:

Before I analyze this, I want you to know my organizational politics. I hated Pat Shurmur last year. I was the leader of the Comanche scalping party during the off-season of 2010. I was going to personally scalp Shurmur and hang his hair on wigwam post. Needless to say, we did not get it done. I would still like to see a change here, and I am still calling for his scalp.

With that said, there seems to be a misplaced focus of anger among most Ram-fans. Specifically, they seem to think the problem is that Shurmur is not running the West Coast Offense (WCO) properly. In the year 2009, that was absolutely true. In the year 2010... well... let's just say that Shurmur is running a version of the WCO that is reasonably close to the one Walsh himself ran in SF back in 1981. Walsh ran slightly deeper routes than Shurmur did in 2010, but not that much deeper. Add 3 to 6 yards of depth to each pattern and there you have it: Walsh's offense in 1981.

For the record, we should do a quick review of 2009. In 2009 the Rams were a run-first and run-second team. We threw only as a matter of last resort. If you compare Marc Bulger's numbers last season with Sam Bradford's numbers this season, the difference is like night and day. For instance, Marc Bulger threw for a total 1469 yards and 5 touchdowns, finishing 29^th in the league. Sam threw for 3,512 and 18 touchdowns, finishing 12^th in the league. That isn't entire Marc's fault, as I have said many times.

In 2010, the Rams' ran a pass-first offense. Just about all the patterns were horizontal. Very few were vertical. The throws were short, not long. We played a dink-n-dunk, nickel & dime, ball-control short passing game. Small-ball was the name of the game in 2010. By the end of the season, Ram fans were fed up with it.

You and I may well be fed up with it, but one thing we can't say (with truth) is that Shurmur is running the WCO incorrectly. No, he is indeed running the scheme. The WCO is a horizontal, ball-control passing offense. The name of the game is dink-n-dunk, nickle & dime, small-ball. It can be run better, but he is certainly running a version of the system. This is what you get when you run the WCO. When you order a taco, you get a taco. You shouldn't expect a T-Bone.

Young folks today are under the misapprehension that the big-play circus Andy Reid is running with the Eagles is the ultimate example of the West Coast Offense. Perish the thought! Reid may be using WCO terminology in his playbook, but the big-play circus he is running has little or nothing to do with the offense Bill Walsh invented for the Bengals and perfected with the 49ers. The Eagles do not run the WCO. The Rams do.

As you well know, our results in 2010 were far better than in 2009. We scored 289 points vis-a-vis 175 points. We won 7 games, not 1. This is why I shut up for most of the season and stopped swinging on Shurmur's nuts like Tarzan. I started again when Shurmur made key strategic blunders in crucial moments down the stretch. I am not talking about Bradford errors. I'm speaking of putting the offense to sleep with a conservative running game in key moments when we could have slain our enemy by putting points on the board. This happened several times down the stretch.

Two points have to be made clearly:

1. We can fire Shurmur, or let him move to Cleveland (whichever comes first), but unless we take advantage of this critical moment to dump the WCO, we are going to continue to dink-n-dunk. This is what you get with the WCO. When you order a taco, you get a taco. Don't expect a Porterhouse T-Bone.

2. Sam was clearly more effective in the shotgun with receivers spread wide. He was even more effective in a quick-time offense with 3 receivers, a tight end, and a running back next to him. This is what we call the NFL-Spread. It is a version of the College Spread, modified for better protection and support of a better running game in the NFL environment. Most of us were calling for this scheme by the end of the season. I want to remind you that before the 2010 season began, I was advocating a move to this system. Anyone who has watched Oklahoma football over the past 5 or 6 years knows why Sam is more effective in this scheme. Its home for him.

This is why I continue to say that we need to reach out to Mike Leach, one of the few legit Spread-Geniuses currently unemployed on the open market. He's ready to interview tomorrow. Let's get him in and hire him.

Just to give Shurmur and even break, I should say the following things:

• It’s tough to call for vertical shots down field when you have two poor guards and no vertical-threat receivers. You have neither the pass protection nor the hands down field necessary to make the play work.
• If Shurmur had called for more vertical shots, our sack & hit totals would have been higher. Sam might not have finished the season healthy, and we are all very happy that Sam finished the season healthy. Keeping Sam healthy through all 16 games this season was substantial achievement.
• Shurmur called two key vertical shots downfield during the game in Seattle, and Denario Alexander dropped both passes. This happened many other times during 2010 with many other receivers. Basically, none of our guys proved they could go downfield and catch the deep ball in 2010. Alexander is actually the best of our deep receivers right now.
• There are allegations that our offensive conservatism comes from the top. Some think HC Steve Spagnuolo set a “go slow, go safe” policy at the start of the season. Ostensibly, his policy never changed. While this is plausible, I do not know if it is true or not. I never heard any official source proclaim that Spagnuolo wanted a 'go safe go slow' policy at any point during the 2010 season. If you know of such a report, drop me a line with a URL.
• The ball-control nature of the WCO did help our defense quite substantially. The WCO usually produces good time of possession numbers. 12 play drives give your own defense time to reorganize and adjust as well as rest. WCO offenses usually help out their defenses. If we had taken hard vertical shots all the time, we might have scored a bit more, but we would have put our defense on the field quite a bit faster.

Ultimately, I am really pulling for the hiring of Mike Leach in 2011. Those who fear that it will set Sam Back should remember that the Leach’s spread isn’t all that different from the Bob Stoops spread Sam ran in Oklahoma. It will be more like a return home than a new scheme.

In praise of the Spread

I hope you all were watching the NFL Network yesterday evening. Around 6:00pm they were showing the NFL's Top 10 Innovations. I had seen the documentary last year, but this was the first time since then. I found it intensely annoying. It's not that it was a bad piece. It's not that the list was out of whack. It's not the guest commentators on the show. Rather, I was pissed at the tremendous two-faced duplicity of the many voices we hear on the NFL Network. This documentary exposed the tremendous Janus face of the commentators on the NFL Network.

Let's begin the case for conviction with the list of the top 10 innovations:

1. The Zone Blitz
2. The West Coast Offense
3. The 4-3 defense
4. The Shotgun formation
5. The 46 defense
6. The No-Huddle Offense
7. The 3-4 Defense
8. The Run-N-Shoot offense
9. The Tampa-2 defense
10. The Wildcat formation

The innovations are evenly split between offense and defense, five each. If we remove the defensive innovations, what does this list look like.

1. The West Coast Offense
2. The Shotgun
3. The No-Huddle
4. The Run-N-Shoot
5. The Wildcat

When you put them all together, what do you have? The Spread-Option offense Flordia has been running for 4 years. Tim Tebow has been the exclusive premier pilot of this scheme for the past 3 seasons. Some would say all four.

I won't have to explain that statement to anyone who knows football. A knowledgeable football fan might already know this. Other knowledgeable football fans might suddenly have the "AH-HA!" experience and put it all together for the first time. For the sake of those who do not understand, allow me to illuminate you further.

What is the key hallmark of each of these innovations?

1. The West Coast Offense: Dink-n-dunk, nickle-n-dime short passes. It is a ball-control passing attack. The emphasis is on the short pass substituting for the run. You don't run through the brick wall. You let your running backs take 4 or 5 strides, catch the ball and run with it. There is a strong tendency to script play sequences and for receivers to run adaptive routes.
2. The Shotgun: The quarterback lines up 5-7 yards behind the center and takes a long snap. This avoids the drop back, and gives the QB better immediate view of the defense.
3. The No-Huddle: The offense runs without a huddle, calling plays at the line of scrimmage, largely predicated on the defensive formations. The offense moves at double-time or faster. The defense is not allowed to make situational substitutions.
4. The Run-N-Shoot: The quarterback lines up under center most of the time with one back behind him. He has 4 WR in a balanced formation, and no TE. The receivers run flexible and adaptive routs based on what coverage they see. The notion is to stretch the defense vertically and horizontally and make them defense a 60 yard box.
5. The Wildcat: A running back lines up in the shotgun behind the center with two running backs lined up on the wings of the OL. One RB goes in motion across the field. The RB who takes the snap has the option to run the ball himself, or hand off to the motion RB, or the jet RB. This is the old single-wing formation with an option running attack.

There is just one bit of confusion that needs to be cleared up: The classic Run-N-Shoot was executed with Warren Moon under center at almost all times. The Oilers also called plays in the huddle. It became the RedGun when Jerry Glanville decided Chris Miller should line up in the shotgun most of the time, run without a huddle, and call plays at the line.

The commentators were absolutely clear that the Run-N-Shoot is still in the league. They even tagged the Patriots with running this offense. Clear associations exist with the Bengals of 1988, the Bills of the 1990s, the Patriots of today, the Colts of today, the Steelers of today, the Cardinals of yesterday, and current world champion Saints. I would tell you that all these teams are using the Spread, but they simply substitute a Tight End for 1 receiver with much greater frequency. They use the TE to chip the blind-side DE. The Florida Gators did that also.

So where is the duplicity? All of these things are labeled the NFL's Top 10 innovations. It is reasonable to say this because they are in use every Sunday by nearly every team. All of these things have become ubiquitous. They also happen to be the components out of which the Spread is assembled. The Spread is allegedly a college offense, not a legitimate pro offense, and one which causes great difficulties for young quarterbacks coming into the NFL. The Shotgun Zebra is everywhere you look in the NFL. Everybody is doing it, but because you mask it in West Coast terminology, nobody accepts the fact that this is a slightly modified Spread.

Spread kids have been using the NFL's Top 10 innovations for years! They are using the same elements of offense we see every Sunday in the NFL! They have run offenses very similar to those run by the Patriots, Steelers, Colts, Cardinals, and Saints!?!?!?! These are a bunch of our recent Super Bowl teams.

Just the other day, I heard Petros and Money complaining, with respect to the overtime rules, that the NFL likes to posture itself in a highly elitist stance. They do not wish to adopt the college rules for overtime because that may bust the 3 hour window, but more importantly, they do not want to be seen as copying the innovation of the NCAA rules committee. This could potentially damage the NFL's elitist posture.

I want to tell all the voices on the NFL Network the following: You can't have it both ways. If the list above constitutes the NFL's Top 10 innovations, then Spread QBs are using your offensive innovations, and they are a lot more NFL ready than you say they are. They are using a fully-authentic NFL offensive scheme. You just don't want to admit it because of your elitist posture.

On the other hand, if the list above does not contain the NFL's Top 10 Innovations, you better shoot Steve Sabol and burn the digital masters of that documentary.

I want to throw a shout-out to Bill Devaney and Steve Spagnuolo: Why do we not adopt the modified version of the Spread that these recent Super Bowl teams are using? It allows a mobile and athletic QB to run when he has too, as in the Wildcat. It confronts the defense with 4 spread-out receivers (make one a blindside TE and let him chip). They run adaptive routes as in the West Coast and the Run-N-Shoot. You hit'em where they ain't. The QB lines up the shotgun, a formation Don Banks of Sports Illustrated can see no downside in. You can control the ball by throwing short as in the West Coast.

Mike Leach did all of this at Texas Tech. I have a good idea! How about if we fire Pat Shurmer and sign Mike Leach as our new offensive coordinator. Michael Vick and Tim Tebow will prosper under his administration. We will also score a hell of a lot more than 10.9 points per game.

Time to dump the West Coast Offense in St. Louis

It is time for the Rams to dump the West Coast Offense and adopt a more spread-like offense. Our experiment with the West Coast Offense has been a complete and unmitigated catastrophe. I don't mean maybe either.

The West Coast allegedly came to St. Louis in the form of Scott Linehan on January 19th of 2006. He was fired after game 4 of the 2008 regular season. Linehan will be forever known as the man who destroyed the Greatest Show on Turf. He destroyed it by getting rid of the Martz offense, which was little more a collection of plays custom tailored to the exact strengths of our offensive players. Linehan jammed our players into his edition of the West Coast system, a complex ball-control passing system based on flexible and adaptive routes. The players, particularly Torry Holt, Issac Bruce and Marc Bulger absolutely hated the system. They made a lot of mistakes. They were used to running exact routes, tailored to their strengths, and they loved it.

Linehan's solution was to get rid of Issac Bruce, try to unload Torry Holt, and stick with Bulger because of his cap number. That failed miserably.

Two years ago, the Rams drafted #2 overall, signifying that we were the 2nd worst team in football. Two years ago we did the same thing. This year are drafting number 1, signifying that we are the worst team in professional football. As I have stated many times on this blog, we are the worst team in professional football for 1 reason: We finished dead last in scoring. This indicates we have the worst offense in the league. So much for the West Coast in St. Louis.

Make no mistake, a large reason for our lack of point production is the West Coast Offensive system. The West Coast is outdated, outmoded and obsolete. It does not work well anymore. As coach Brian Billick says, nobody plays the West Coast offense as Walsh once did. Everybody has absorbed some components of the system, but nobody plays it as the 49ers did. This is because your can't play it as the 49ers did and enjoy success.

The 49er offense worked for a brief period of time and for just two historical reasons. In 1981 we were only 3 years removed from the 1978 rules changes which opened up the passing game. Teams were absolutely bomb-happy. Defenses were deathly afraid of the bomb. Second, we were only really 1 year removed from the epoch of the Steel Curtain defense. Everybody was still emulating the Steeler model of defense. This system was very much like the Tampa-2, dropping safeties back deep to stop big plays. They used their big and bad 4 down linemen to attack the quarterback, without much recourse to the blitz.

The epoch of 1981 to 1990 was just about perfect for dink-n-dunk scheme that Mr. Walsh invented. Most defenses would surrender the short pass to you, not believing that you could march down the field on a collection of mistake-free short passes. To his credit, Bill Belichick was
one of the first guys to realize that this program was lethal if left unchecked.

Belichick's response to the West Coast was simple and beautiful. He decided he would only defend 40 yards of ground from the line of scrimmage. He knew most of the action would occur in the first 15-20 yards from scrimmage. He called this first 20 yards the redzone. This turf would be defended with a hard man-on press coverage. The next 20 yards was called the yellow zone, and it was defended with a soft-zone coverage; a scheme notorious for generating vicious hits. His linebackers were instructed to smother running backs (like Roger Craig) circling out of the backfield. He knew full well that the 49ers had no thought of going deep down the field on a typical play. He understood Joe Montana did not have the arm to throw the football 50 yards down field with accuracy.

When confronted with the Belichick-Box, the only solution is for the Quarterback to (A) Run with the football (B) wait for the deep pass to open up. For a receiver to clear coverage more than 40 yards down field in full pads, more than 5 seconds of good pass-protection is needed. This was tough to come by as Lawrence Taylor and Leonard Marshall were rushing from the same or different sides of the line. Montana tried to hold the ball for more than 5 seconds in the NFC championship game of 1990/1991. Leonard Marshall effectively terminated his career with the 49ers on that day.

The Belichick Box defeats the West Coast offense. It is now the default defensive position for all teams about to play West Coast opponent. If you don't have an All-Pro offensive line, you won't break the box. If you don't have a super-mobile QB, you won't break the box. If you don't have world-class sprinters at the WR position, you won't break the box. This is why the West Coast Offense doesn't work anymore. Too much talent is required to defeat a relatively simple defensive scheme.

Guess what? The dirty little secret the NFL keeps in the closet is that a modified version of the Spread Offense is now the king of all passing attacks in Pro Football. This is the system the New England Patriots have been running since 2007. This is the system that allowed Tom Brady to break the touchdown record with 51. This is the system Ben Rothlisberger has been working in for the past two years. Both participants in this year's Super Bowl also use plenty of spread in their weekly play list.

The Spread Offense has aspects of the West Coast and aspects of the Air Coryell offense embedded with in it. This is a pass-first offense, where you establish the passing game, and then run later. You control the football and gain the lead by passing. Unlike these schemes, it is run out of the Shotgun. You line up with 3, 4 and even 5 wide receivers. Unlike these schemes, it almost always employs the quick-time, or no-huddle offense. Many plays are called at the line of scrimmage. The Spread most resembles what used to be called the Run-N-Shoot offense.

Interestingly enough, the Spread is considered a very QB and Wide Receiver friendly offense. It is flexible and adaptable to the strengths of your players. It is considered simple enough to implement in the short college season with relatively young and inexperienced players.

If this is a Copycat League, teams should emulate success, and anti-imitate failure. One of the most stubbornly run biased teams in the league has been my Rams, and we are officially the worst team in football. The most run biased team in Football is the Jets. They barely made the playoffs at 9-7. The Colts are dead last in rushing (#32) and yet they are the favorite to win this year's Super Bowl.

What does all this tell you?

1. 1-15 up to 9-7 is the victory range for run biased teams.
2. 9-7 up to 16-0 is the victory range for Spread teams.
   
3. Dump the Run First approach.
4. Adopt the Pass First approach.
5. Do not force players into a ridged and complex system like the West Coast.
6. Adopt a simple and flexible passing scheme like the Spread.
7. Tailor the system to fit the strengths of the players, as Mike Martz did.
   

So why make Tim Tebow line up behind the center?

Reports are begining to flow in from Senior Bowl practice sessions. Tim Tebow is having a rough outing with the default NFL offense. This means lining up under center, taking the snap, doing a 3, 4 or 5 step drop-back and throw. The battle does not go well. They say he is struggling.

Specifically, they say he has had a few problems with the center exchange, and he is having difficulties with accuracy when throwing from the drop back position. Throwing in the NFL is about threading the needle. It is about getting the football through a tiny window of time and space so it reaches your man, and doesn't get intercepted. Tim didn't have much problem with this in college, and against NFL caliber defensive players in the SEC. The new variable causing the problem is the drop-back. Reading whilst dropping is a skill every NFL QB needs to learn. His long throwing motion is expected to be an issue in the NFL, but so far this is not causal in his current problems.

So I have a couple of simple questions for you? Why do you want to line Touchdown Tim up under center anyway? Is it just because you are an old-fashioned West-Coast hard-ass? Let me let you in on a dirty little secret that the NFL likes to keep in the closet. The New England Patriots have been running a slightly modified spread offense since 2007. It worked great until they (a) lost Tom Brady with a serious knee injury, and (b) lost Jabbar Gaffney who was their 4th reciever. According to some sources, Tom Brady lined-up 76% of the time in the shotgun in 2009. The Patriots controlled the ball by passing.

Let me inform you of another dirty little secret that everybody seems to know about: The Wildcat, our current state of the art running system, is played from the shotgun also.

So let me ask you a question in the spirit of Air Coryell and The Greatest Show on Turf: Why don't we taylor our system to maximize the production of this dynamic player? Why are we so set on running this outdated and outmoded system known as the West-Coast offense? I have despaired of the idea that we are ever going to get this boring piece of shit offense working with the Rams. Why shouldn't we use motion and formation to exploit the playmakers we have, and the playmakers we can have? Why shouldn't we construct mismatches? Why shouldn't we overwhelm defenses by putting our strength against their weakness? Why shouldn't we taylor our offense to suite the strengths of the players we have?

I personally would love to see us fire OC Pat Shurmer and replace him with a fellow like Mike Leach. I would love to see us work out of the gun, and wing the football all over the frickin' place. I wouldn't mind seeing Tebow execute a few Wildcat plays. Certainly this approach would be vastly superior to what we did in 2009, which was to field one of the worst offensive units the NFL has ever seen.

Update:

It would appear that some of Tim Tebow's difficulties revolve around strep throat. It seems that Tim was hospitalized for this malady on Monday night. His fever has been as high as 103f. Having just gotten through a really bad cold myself {I was immuno compromised after my knee surgery} I can tell you that a fever that high walks hand-in-hand with shivers and cold sweats. I can hardly imagine doing anything that physical while suffering that kind of fever.

In short, I am willing to disregard the practice performance reports we are hearing.

In other news, it appears that Dexter McCluster has been interviewed by the Rams. I am very happy about this.