Chalk Talk: Explaining the Wildcat

Something that went largely unreported, and really unnoticed last week against Seattle, was that our team employed a new version of the Wildcat package that had not been seen or used previously. I thought it might be useful to take a look at the package in more depth, because it has progressed beyond a simple formation into an entire package to itself, with unique identifiers within each formation.

Wildcat 1.0

Let's take a look at the first iteration of the package first. This is the "classic" formation that most closely resembles what we saw Darren McFadden run at Arkansas.



There's a couple of telltale "keys" that identify that yes, this is indeed the Wildcat package on the field.

1. Ronnie Brown - In this package, Ronnie Brown is lined up at QB. That's obviously the basics for the entire package.
2. Goal Line Personnel - For all intents and purposes, the personnel on the field mirrors a goal line, or "big", set. There's 3 RBs and 2 TEs, at least in the base formation. We have seen other players in this set (Davone Bess for Ricky Williams, Patrick Cobbs at the David Martin spot, Greg Camarillo in the Patrick Cobbs Spot).
3. Ricky in Motion - One of the hallmarks of this formation, and likely one of the toughest to pull off, is the pre motion. Ricky Williams will go into motion, and just before he crosses in front of Ronnie Brown Samson Satele hikes the ball. As a former Center, I fully respect the timing between these three players - one mistake and it could be disastrous.
4. Unbalanced Line - The line is unbalanced to the right. This sets up the primary play sets from this formation, namely the speed sweep to Ricky, or the secondary off tackle run by Ronnie. Because the line is unbalanced, pretty much all of our running power is centered in the triangle you see between David Martin, Jake Long, and Vernon Carey. Long and Carey are two of our better blockers, so putting them both together creates a focal point. The idea is that they can create a huge lane, which we saw in the New England game. The drawback is that there's really not a lot of opportunity for cutbacks. That's why we saw the formation killed at Denver.

This formation has been successful for us, but as the course of the season has worn on it's become less and less reliable. In Denver it was ran for negative yards. The reasons for the success and failure are largely the same - it places a lot of focus on the right-hand side of the line. If teams can shut down the primary plays, the secondary plays don't always work. Most teams have shut it down by focusing on Ronnie Brown; he is not a quarterback by trade, and thus can be flustered under pressure, particularly when being asked to do things like throw the ball down field.

Wildcat 2.0

After the Denver game, our coaches went back to the drawing board a little bit, before unveiling the Wildcat "2.0" against Seattle last week.



This formation is quite different from the original formation that was used previously. Ronnie is still at QB, and Chad Pennington is still split out wide as a WR, but that's really where the synergy ends.

• Triple Stack - The 3 RBs (Cobbs, Brown, and Williams) are all stacked side-by-side in the backfield.
• Balanced Line - The line, previously unbalanced, is now in standard formation, with Jake Long manning his normal LT position. With the line back to being balanced, the defense can no longer overload to one side of the formation, as they have to respect plays designed to go to both the left and the right.

For all intents and purposes, this is really a 2 RB shotgun formation, a package that a lot of pro and college teams use. In fact, I believe this is the formation the Atlanta Falcons implemented for their former QB, Michael Vick. Ronnie is just as fast as Vick, and probably more accurate, so it makes sense to visit this formation as the next step in the Wildcat package.

The primary play direction sets Ricky up with a power run right (this was the play he scored on), with a secondary option look for Ronnie Brown and Patrick Cobbs (this was the play that Brown scored on). Don't kid yourself - there will be an option out of this formation from Brown to Cobbs, perhaps as soon as tomorrow.

And that's really all there is to it - you can see both formations involve the same base personnel, so now defenses have to prepare for not just one or two series of plays, but several formations that have historically proved capable of big plays. In other words, preparation for the Wildcat just doubled, based on last week. I wouldn't expect to see much of the original, v 1.0, tomorrow - but I'm pretty sure we'll see v 2.0, and maybe even a v 3.0, during tomorrow's game.

 

Anthony Fasano.

 

No worries. He only scored a touchdown out of this formation earlier this year.

 

I think Ginn will probably eventually find his way onto the field in this formation, though I don't know if it will be in either of the versions we've seen thus far. He's got the speed to be efficient within either formation, that's for sure, but up to this point the coaches haven't trusted him enough to do anything in it. He has a decent enough arm, so some type of reverse or even reverse pass certainly isn't out of the question.

 

Fixed.

Yeah, I've seen them lined up both ways ... I've also seen Camarillo where Cobbs is. Cobbs was in the slot when he caught the TD on the reverse fleaflicker.

Also fixed.

I can use Photoshop, but I can't count very well. Nice catch.

One thing that I didn't mention, is that you can easily flip the plays in the second version. The first version has plays that are all designed to go one way, there's no real way to flip them. In the second one, we could easily see Cobbs take a handoff to the left on the sweep, just like we saw Ricky do last week goign to the right.