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.

What to expect from the Rams offense in 2009

So, the Rams have said two things about there offense for 2009. First, everything is going to be built around Steven Jackson. Second, we are going to have a West Coast Style offense, featuring short passes. One fellow at work immediately tried to declare a contradiction here. I see none.

First, let's get something straight: The West Coast offense is not about the Quarterback. The West Coast Offense is about your running back. In every famous implementation of the West Coast offense, there has been a medium-power back with good hands, who takes swing passes, dump offs, shallow crosses, skinny posts, and quick slants. He is the workhorse. He gets the yards and the points. He makes the chains move. This running back is the absolute key to the West Coast offense.

Do I have any examples? How about Roger Craig, Rickie Waters, Edgar Bennett, Dorsey Leavens, Michael Westbrook, Icky Woods, and a guy named Terrel Davis. Do you recognize these names? QBs like Montana, Young and Farve may have won MVP awards for their work in this scheme, but it is the West Coast back that drags the football team to victory.

The second thing you have to understand is that the West Coast in not a high-flying or high scoring aerial circus attack. You throw east and west, not north and south. It is the continuation of the run by other means. You use a short pass like a long hand-off, and you allow your running back to pick through a stretched field. You use this short passing game to setup the long pass.

When the offense is played correctly, the wide receivers often sprint for the endzone. This forces the Corners and Safeties to run deep in coverage. Then, when the QB dumps the ball of to a fellow like Craig or Leavens or Davis, you force the secondary to sprint back to the line of scrimmage and make a tackle against a larger and more powerful back who has a head of steam. After doing this some 12 or 14 times, the Corners are tired and bruised. This is when you go deep.

There are several other important aspects to this offense which you should know. First, there are four pass catching routes that constitute the bread n' butter of this scheme. They are:

1. Quick slant
2. Shallow cross
3. Swing pass
4. Dump off

There are other plays such as the flanker screen, the screen pass and the naked bootleg, but these are less often seen. What is truly critical to know about pass routes in the West Coast is that all the receivers are supposed to run adaptive option routes. They are supposed to adjust depth and pattern to hit weaknesses in the defense. Success here is predicated on the Wide Receiver's ability to read a defense correctly and find the weak spot in the zone. Often times, receivers are coached to find that seam and simple "Sit down" in that spot. The QB is trained to look for his squatting receiver and pitch it to him quick.

The system of adaptive option routes is brutally difficult to cover when the QB and the WRs are good. Ronnie Lott described a conversation he had with George Siefert in 1981 where the two of them were eyeballing what the offense was doing. Both Lott and Siefert admitted they were glad they didn't have to play against that offense. It is difficult to be everywhere at once. When the offense is committed to hitting you where you ain't on every play, you are in for a rough ride.

The problem is that you need smart receivers who can read a defense according to rules, and you need a smart Quarterback who will read the defense according to those rules. They need to read the same way and come to the same conclusions. If they don't read accurately and in sync, the quarterback throws one way and the receiver runs another. In the best case scenario, the result is an incomplete pass. In the worst case scenario, you have an interception return for a touchdown. Just ask Brett Farve.

Bill Walsh used to say that you needed to keep the same QB and WR crew together for three years in the West Coast before it would begin to bear fruit. This is because it takes time for these guys to get the hang of the adaptive option routes, establish communication, and get a good predictive feel of each other.

It should be noted that Coach Scott Linehan attempted to implement something like the West Coast back in 2006. Bulger & Holt really didn't like it. Bulger made a lot of mistakes. Because he was a weak willed coach, Linehan seemed to give up on it. Now here we go again. For Bulger this is year 3 in the West Coast. However, he has not been with this crew of receivers--whoever that turns out to be--for 3 years. We would expect mistakes and problems as a result of this. However, he should just dump off the ball to Steven Jackson as much as possible.

Steven Jackson is the main reason to be excited about this offense. I already recounted the one and only time I ever saw us use the West Coast (2006 vs 49ers in St. Louis) and Jackson performed perfectly in the role of Roger Craig. He was spot on. You want to talk about a guy with more than medium power, medium speed, and medium hands? Jackson has all that. He is an almost perfect type of West Coast back. He can beat the hell out a lot of defensive backs, opening the deeper passing lanes. He should be able to control the ball and the clock if we pass it too him more than we hand it to him.

It also should be noted that the 49ers scored more TDs in the redzone on the naked bootleg than any other single play. With a mobile southpaw like Steve Young or Michael Vick, this play is almost unstoppable at the goal line. You start all the motion flowing right with a fake Packer Sweep, then the QB comes back against the flow with no blocker in front with the option to pass or run. Usually, there is only one defender in the zone (the backside safety or linebacker). You put this one defender in a no win situation. If he fades back to cover the TE, the quarterback waltzes into the Endzone. If he charges up to take the QB, the QB pitches the ball to the TE and you have a touchdown. The only hope is that he can stay in the middle and jump high enough to knock the pass down. It doesn't happen very often.

Bulger would look kind of funny running the naked bootleg.

The next factor is what I like to call the Wyche Wrinkle. Sam Wyche invented the K-Gun. Forget what Marv Levy and Jim Kelly say. Wyche decided to put Boomer Esiason into the shotgun, and run the West Coast at a quick time pace. He did this all game long. The Bengals would be in their 2-minute offense for three out of four drives. I sure hope we do this. This was a devastating offense. When you run adaptive routes at a quick-time pace from the shotgun, you will wear out a pass rush. They will be sucking air like a moefoe. This is a deadly attack, and I would love to see the Rams run it this year.

The next factor is what I call the Shanahan Slant. Shanahan added two things to the West Coast. First, he perfected a very simple running attack. Second, he scripted his first 15 plays from scrimmage. Since the pass routes were adaptive anyhow, you need not worry about running the wrong play in the wrong down and distance situation, as you execute the script.

Shanahan's running attack is adaptive, just like the rest of the West Coast. It relies on zone blocking. What is zone blocking? It is the simplest possible blocking scheme in the world for an offensive line. You give each man a zone to block. Whosoever is in your zone, this is the man you bury. Easy right? It doesn't really matter what the Baltimore Ravens do with their chaos front. When the ball is snapped, each defender will be in some one's zone. Offensive linemen like this scheme. It is so simple a caveman can do it, but it is also pretty close to fool-proof.

Zone blocking schemes are often called elephants on parade by defenders, as a derogatory comment. Why? Because they usually slant to the left or the right. They try to get the motion of the line going right or left. The running back also begins his run in that direction, but then cuts back in the other direction. He starts down hill with the flow, and makes one scheduled cutback. It's up to him to beat the guys in front of him. Most defenders will be pushed out of the way, and headed in the other direction. Most running backs like this scheme. We'll see how Steven Jackson likes it.

Finally, all of this short shit, dink 'n dunk, nickle 'n dime, continuation of the run by other means, ball-control passing leads defenses to ignore the long-ball. They usually defend a 40 yards box against a good West Coast team. The 40 yard box is divided into a red zone (up to 20 yards from the line of scrimmage) and a yellow zone (20-40 yards from the line of scrimmage). Defenses presume that almost all the action is going to take place in the red zone. They play hard man-on-press coverage in this zone. They guard the yellow zone with a soft zone coverage. They will concede the pass in this zone, if the receiver is willing to loose a few teeth. The soft zone is notorious for producing massive hits and major collisions. They ignore most receivers past this 40 yard box. They believe you have no intention of going long.

If this is the case, and you have no intention of going long, you are in for a frustrating day. If the enemy has good talented folks on defense, you are going to get the hell beaten out of you. It is absolutely imperative that you make a defense pay for playing a strict 40 yard box against you. You do that by throwing a 45 yard plus bomb effectively. You must burn them deep each and every time the opportunity presents itself. The bomb is now a necessary supplement to the West Coast. You must throw the bomb, or you cannot force a defense out of its 40 yard box.

So if I were running our West Coast, the Rams would do the following:

1. Script the first 15 plays. These 15 plays would be executed no matter what.
2. Throw the ball to Steven Jackson 3 times for each 2 times we hand it to him.
3. Zone block on running plays, slanting right or left. Jackson will begin his run in this direction, and then cut back.
4. When passing, the focus is on short routes not more than 20 yards from scrimmage. Expect the quick slant, the shallow cross, the skinny post, the swing pass, and the dump off. Flanker screens are also good.
5. The receivers and the QB must read the defense and predict the same adaptive option route in each situation.
6. Receivers will be instructed to find the deadspot in the zone and "Sit Down". This means turning to face the QB and present their hands indicating "I'm open, hit me!"
7. Run the no-huddle offense several times per game from the shotgun.
8. Maybe we'll run a few naked bootlegs to the right from the 2 or 3 yard line.

Mike Vick to the Rams? Part 2

So guess what? Jamie Dukes of the NFL Network just reignited the rumors about Michael Vick going to the Rams. In a lengthy discussion with Solomon Wilcots about Michael Vick's future, Dukes stated that he believes Vick makes sense for the Rams because:

1. The Rams don't have a backup
2. The Rams have a questionable situation with Marc Bulger.
3. Vick is weapon who can help... presumably a lot
4. Rams general manager Billy Devaney is the guy who drafted Vick at the Falcons

I hate to sound snarky, but how much to you think Devaney regretted making that selection when Dogfight-Gate went down in Atlanta some two years ago? I really don't intend that to be a snarky zinger. I mean this as a serious question. There is no reason to suppose that Devaney is still in love with Vick, if he ever was. I was always under the impression that Vick was chosen by Coach Dan Reeves. In his many interviews with NFL Films, Reeves has always made it sound that way. Further, when the Titanic hit the iceberg in Atlanta, you have to suppose Devaney was second guessing himself (kicking himself in the ass) for drafting Vick.

No slight is intended to Dukes. Do you know that Jamie Dukes is my favorite analyst in the NFL network? I think Dukes almost always has the most accurate take on just about every subject. If he were a QB, he'd have a completion rate of about 93%. Of course, I like Solomon Wilcots also. He's a hell of an analyst. He is an L.A. kid who grew up a fan of the Rams, so we have something in common there.

Because Dukes said it, I actually sat up on my couch suddenly listened like hell. This is not the sort of guy who would drop a bullshit rumor. Wilcots rejected the argument claiming that Vick will not be welcomed by any team where he might create controversy. Only teams with a stable QB situation will welcome Vick to the club. This would eliminate St. Louis, as Bulger is questionable.

Well, after considering this for an hour now, let me tell you what I think:

1. Spagnuolo is entirely focused on building team character.
2. Team character, perseverance, integrity, and courage has been a persistent problem for the Rams, with a brief respite during the glory of the team Dick Vermeil built.
3. Vick may be a reformed man. He may have a humble and contrite spirit. He may be ready to go bigger than ever because of this attitude adjustment. Still, bringing him in would send precisely the wrong message to the team. It would say that almost anything will be tolerated if you can help us on the field.
4. This is how you develop bad character problems. This kind of message causes a team to spiral out of control
5. I think that the team with the worst QB situation in the NFL is the most likely team to sign Vick.
6. I think Vick's greatest incentive is to sign with the team having the worst QB problems in the NFL. This is how you become a starter again quickly. This is how you get a nice sized contract. I am not talking about a giant contract either, but one large enough to get out of bankruptcy.
7. If you think the Rams have the worst QB situation in NFL, you're on crack. We're not even close to the bottom.
8. Denver, Buffalo, Oakland, Minnesota, Tampa, and San Francisco are all far worse off than the St. Louis Rams.
9. I remind you that Bulger made it to two Pro Bowls under Mike Martz, and was considered the franchise savior after... we let Warner go. Don't make me cry. Bulger also lit the Pro Bowl with 5 TDs and was elected the MVP by the winning side. Of course, nobody cares about this.
10. I have said repeatedly that Bulger has been killed by our formerly dreadful line. I can't count the times he has been hit in the face on a blitz up the middle on a quick 3 step drop. Why do you think the first priority was to grab an expensive free-agent center like Jason Brown? Because we had to stop the blitz up the middle. Why do you think we drafted Jason Smith with the #2 pick in the entire draft? Because we had to lock down either the right or left tackle.
11. Hopefully, our line will be substantially better this year, and Bulger will return to form.
12. If not, we will select Tim Tebow next year. We'll get a franchise QB and great character also.

What about Farve in Minnesota? I wish Brett well, however, if he comes back this time, his Ironman streak is toast. As I said, the Vikings have a far worse situation than the Rams. The Vikings would be better served if they got Vick.

Now, what if the Rams acquired Michael Vick? What happens then? Well, there would be a controversy. Some fans would be irate. Some would want to start him immediately. It would divide the locker room. Bulger would probably fail in this situation. For Vick, this could potentially be an ideal situation. He can't wear number 7, but he would have a powerful running back behind him. He would have the West Coast Offensive he once talked about wanting to run. He would have a revamped offensive line that would be strong enough to give the scrambler sufficient protection to avoid a sack.

Setting aside the vicious locker room politics this would create, the Rams would also have a guy who could potentially run the West Coast well. Vick always believed that he could be the second coming of Steve Young. He's left handed. He has an arm just as strong as Young. He can run even better than Young could. That is saying a hell of a lot, but it is true.

To be quite frank with you, Bill Walsh's offense doesn't work so well anymore. This is why nobody plays it in the pure form these days. Today, no NFL defense concedes the short pass. The quick slant, the shallow cross, and the dump off are all contested plays these days. To make the West Coast work, you must throw the ball deep and get the big play. Defenses cannot be allowed to guard a 40 yard box against you. To break the 40 yard box defense, you must throw it deeper than 40 yards. The deep pass is now a necessary addition to the West Coast. Bulger can do this. So can Michael Vick.

However, to make the 49er offense really, really, really dynamic, you have to have a QB who can run. The 49er offense was never more powerful, never to be feared more, never more dynamic than under Steve Young. If you covered his short guys with a 40 yard box, he went deep. If you covered his short and his deep guys, he simply took off and ran with the balll... 65 yards to the end zone.

There is a serious school of thought out there that thinks only Vick has a prayer of doing what Young did. Vick is the only mobile south-paw who can throw. Like Young, he stood accused of being a throwing tailback. Like Young, he might breath some new life in an aging system that doesn't work so well anymore without dynamic talent.

I must admit, that vision of the 1992 San Francisco offense up and running in St. Louis are passing through my head. However, I think it will be another mobile Southpaw named Tebow who will do this eventually.

So what do I ultimately think? I think the Rams are not going to do it. If they do do this, they better cut or trade Bulger. That won't happen because Bulger has a giant contract. It would be a massive salary cap hit to cut him, and no team will take that contract. It is cheaper to keep him, and not on the bench. The Rams have cash flow problems that aren't helped any by recession, inheritance taxes, and rumors that they are going to move back to Los Angeles. The money factor makes any move at QB extremely unlikely this year.

This is why Spagnuolo already met with Bulger and assured him that he is the starting QB in St. Louis in 2009. He has no reason to fear for his job.

The NFL's Top 10 myths

As I said before I love the Top 10 series.  I usually agree with most of the list.  I may feel this guy or that thing is a bit over or under-rated, but I agree with the list as a whole.  The experts interviewed are usually frank about the controveries, so disagreements & arguments are covered well.

Never, never, never in my life have a I so vehemently diagreed with a program as I did with the Top 10 Myths.  That list was mostly bullshit.  The top two (2) so-called myths were absolute and complete bullshit.  They were controversial points on film.  The experts interviewed for the program vehemently disputed these points.  Some were for it.  Some were against it.

For the purpose of this Blog entry, I want to focus on the #1 so-called myth:  The Prevent Defense prevents you from winning.  This saying has been an axiom for years now.  Just about all NFL fans feel this way.  Most veteran defenders feel this way also.  How in fucking hell did Sabol and company managed to identify this great hueristic truth as a myth?

I want to clarify exactly why this is not a myth.  I also want to explore why this may have been a case of unqualified confusion.

What is the Prevent Defense?

The PD is a special defensive package and strategy that some head coaches and defensive coordinaters have favored through time.  When you get a big lead, say 14 to 17 points, you change your defensive formation and objectives.  

1. You rush 3 men.  

2. You drop 8 men into pass coverage

3. The 8 men in coverage play a soft-zone.

4. You make sure two of those 8 men and super-deep.  All the way back in the end-zone, perhaps.

5. You try to guard the sidelines and prevent ball carriers from getting out of bounds.

6. You never allow a deep pass.

7. You concede 6, 7 or 8 yard gains in the middle of the field.

8. You hit hard and tackle immediately.

9. You force the enemy to creep down field with the clock running

10. You inflict punishment, and try to create a turn-over.

This is the strategy of the Prevent Defense.  Conceptually, it all seems very sound.  Although it had been seen before, it was deployed massively in the aftermath of the 1978 rules changes.  Those rule changes created an offensive explosion, especially in Pittsburg, Dallas, and San Diego.  Even the Rams began to throw the ball deep in 1980 with Vince Ferragamo.  Before this we were a ground chuck offense.

In those days, teams were deathly afraid of the bomb, especially at the end of the game.  The bomb in the 4th quarter was feared because it could quickly bring you back from a sizable deficit.  Let's not forget how the Rams were defeated by the Steelers in 4th quarter of Super Bowl XIV.  Two big 60-prevent-slot-hook-and-goes to John Stallworth won the game for the Steelers.  Stallworth should have been the MVP.

Ergo, the prevent defense was praised in the late 1970s and early 1980s as a very wise, sound and conservative defensive package for the deep 4th quarter.  Typically, teams with a lead would play this package in the last 5 to 7 minutes of the game... if they had a good lead.

But history takes its turns.  A funny little thing happened in 1981 which shot the prevent defense to fucking hell, and some rationalist/anti-empircal fans and coaches still haven't noticed it to this day.  That funny little thing was called the 49er West Coast Offense.

I have found that most people don't understand the West Coast Offense at all.  It is completely misunderstood and mischaracterized by almost everyone as a high-flying and high-scoring offense.  Well... it may be efficient and high scoring (sometimes) but high-flying it ain't.  Especially not in the begining of time when Bill Walsh invented it and Joe Montana was running it.

The West Coast Offense is a piece of pure trickeration.  The objective is to fake the pass on almost every play.  Most of the time, you send two recievers deep to the endzone.  The QB looks deep.  The defense reads the QB and reacts.  The QB checks down to a running back (like Roger Craig, Tom Rathman, Edger Bennett, Dorsey Levens or Michael Westbrook).  The pass covers 4 to 8 total yards in the air.  The running back makes the catch at the line of scrimmage near the sideline.  It looks more like a latteral than a pass, even though it is a forward pass.  The running back runs through a stretched defensive field.  The back can almost always get 4 to 8 yards on such a play.  You use the short pass just like a long hand-off.  You use the short passing game just like the run.  Every play is a delayed hand off.  Every play is a draw.  Every play is a screen pass.  There were three questions to be answered by Walsh in this experiment.  Can the short pass completely replace the running attack?  Can we control the ball and march to a score consistently this way?  Can the short pass setup the long pass?

Basically, Walsh and Montana were able to answer Yes, Yes, and Maybe to those three questions.  It was a revolutionary offense for the mad-bomber era.  The 49ers controlled the ball by passing.  You couldn't sack Joe because he didn't hold the ball long.  He wanted to go short anyhow.  You didn't bother to stop the sort pass, because you wanted to prevent the bomb.  Nobody seemed to notice that Joe had no notion at all of going deep. The deep pattern was just there for deception.  25 yards was a deep pass for Joe Montana.  The 49ers beat up a defense making them run back in coverage and run forward to tackle the running back.  They kept their defense off the field too.  Everything worked.

There was another thing that nobody noticed:  The West Coast Offense utterly destroys the Prevent Defense.  The West Coast Offense is absolutely designed to take that which the Prevent Defense was absolutely designed to concede.  Therefore you put fullness against emptiness.  You telligraph a fastball to a fastball hitter.  It is like a penis penetrating a vagina.  The two were made for each other.  The Prevent Defense is pure pussy for the West Coast Offense.  The stupiest fucking thing any coach could ever attempt to do is run a Prevent Defense against the West Coast Offense for the last 7 minutes of the game.  That is enough time for 2 touchdowns.

But wait, isn't the goal to make the offense complete passes in the center of the field?  Don't we guard the sidelines?  You just fucking try it against these guys!  You just try to keep Craig and Rathman in-bounds when they catch the ball near the sidelines and know they have to get out of bounds to stop the clock.  For the Prevent theorists, life a beautiful theory, ruined by an ugly fact.  The fact of the matter is that very few teams had the sort of linebackers and corners you need to power-slam these kinds of athletes immediately in this situation (remember we're in the prevent).  The Giants and the Bears were two such teams in the 1980s.  The Cowboys were such a team in 1990s.

I don't know how many times my Rams lost to the 49ers in the 1980s when we had a lead on them with 4 or 5 minutes to go.  It happened at least 6 or 7 times.  It happened specifically because Coach John Robinson was a major advocate of the Prevent Defense (it worked at USC, didn't it?) and he loved to run it in the last 5 to 7 minutes of the game.  The Rams might be leading 19-13 with 4 minutes left.  We were willing to concede a field goal, but we didn't want to give up the 7. The 49ers were frustrated.  We bottled Joe all game long.  Then suddenly, after 56 minutes of frustration, Joe gets hot.  He completes everything he throws to Craig, Francis, Franks, Jones, and Rice.  The prevent defense concedes 4 to 8 yards every play.  With horses like Roger Craig, Tom Rathman, and Jerry Rice, they stretch that figure to 12 or 13 yards per play.  They score with 21 seconds left.  We can't comeback running the football with Eric Dickerson.  The situation was too pressure-packed for Jim Everett.  It goes down in the record books as another 2 minute drive for Joe Cool.  

Nope!  Not true!  John Robinson just served up some pure pussy to Bill Walsh.  Bill enjoyed it well.  The West Coast Offense utterly destroys the Prevent Defense.

We Ram-fans weren't the only ones victemized by this stupidity.  The 1983 Redskins almost lost the NFC championship to the 49ers in a very similar fashion.  After inflicting a defensive thumping on Montana through 3 quarters, they thought he was dead.  They went to the Prevent, and Joe got really hot.  They were lucky they profitted from some dastardly-bad calls against the 49ers.  They were lucky Rigg-o could run out the clock for them.  The Diesel won that game.  There were many, many other cases like this.

This is when the chorus began to rise from fans and coaches alike.  This is when we began to chant "The Prevent Defense only prevents you from winning." This only got louder as guys like Wyche, Holmgren, Shanahan, Green, and Gruden started coaching.  I'll tell you now:  All these guys loved it when Marty Schottenheimer ran the Prevent.  This why Marty Schottenheimer never won a single playoff game... except for the two Joe Montana QB'd for him in Kansas City.

Let's face the facts folks:  Nobody plays the West Coast as Walsh once did.  That scheme has evolved out of necessity.  The old methodology doesn't work now.  Defensive Coordinators now know they have to stop the creeping death.  They know they have to challange the short passing game.  They are certain it is leathal if left untreated.  Still, the West Coast is a part of every single one of the 32 offensive playbooks in the NFL now.  Every team has adopted the most successful aspects of this gameplan.  Almost every team uses it (at least a little) each and every Sunday.

If the DC goes to a Prevent, the enemy OC is happy to reply with the West Coast.  The West Coast dominates the Prevent.  Every single year we see several games where some stupid DC tried to go to the Prevent way to early.  In reply, the enemy OC quickly deploys the West Coast.  The result is a come-from-behind victory for the team that profitted from the stupidity of the Prevent. 

This is why we still say the Prevent Defense only prevents you from winning.  The so-called myth is not a myth, and I don't give a fuck if my favorite coach Dick Vermeil takes the other side.  I will remind you that Super Bowl XXXIV was closer than it had to be, and we weren't exactly playing a pure prevent.

There is only one situation where you should ever play the Prevent.  This is in the final 15 seconds of the game when you have a lead greater than 3 points.  Never, never, never use it any sooner than this.