I have had this on my brain for a bit, but I guess now is a good a time as any to bring this issue up. After a loss people are more inclined to debate and inspect areas of a team for reasons “why”. So here’s a “why” for you to mull over. I must say that I do not believe whole heartedly in either side of the argument, just that I think it needs to be examined. Is the Wild Cat a Help or a Hindrance? Many on this board and pundits alike often refer to a benefit of the Wild Cat being the time the defense has to spend time practicing to defense these plays. Yes this is true, but how come no one ever asks how much time the offense; particularly the Miami Dolphins must spend practicing the plays for the Wild Cat? I often feel as though people (in general, and I am guilty of it too) just assume the offense knows how to run the play. They have to practice the plays just the same as the defense, maybe even more so given the different formations involved. These plays are not average, run of the mill plays as we saw today. Halfback throwbacks and “slash” quarterbacks launching bombs and running quarterback leads takes practice for all involved. So how much time do the Dolphins devote to practicing these plays? Seriously. If the offense practices the Wild Cat for one period a day during practice, that will add to 20 minutes a week. What if they add two periods for one day? Well that makes 25 minutes and so on as you can do the math. You only have so many snaps at practice to install plays for the week. As most know, it isn’t the same plays every week in practice. Granted some plays and packages will be there every week in both the passing and rushing attacks. But, there will also be a good number of plays that must be installed as well which the team will not practice every week. These plays must be installed and run as well, which is what most teams use all of their allotted practice time in such periods for. Yes we will use 7 on 7’s etc. but install is install for a reason. That’s where you’ll grind those plays and have to do them again and again. The Dolphins must take away time to practice these Wild Cat plays every week. There is no way these guys won’t practice these plays and then whip them out in a game; too many intricacies to do that in my opinion. Here is another avenue to think about. The Wild Cat must also be placed on the chart the quarterback has on his wrist. There are also only so many plays that can be placed on these instruments before they become too cumbersome to find within the confines of the play clock. If not, you could bet you next week’s paycheck that coaches would have that arm carrying a play chart the size of the NY state telephone book – filled with information. Well now you must take plays off of that sheet to make room for the Wild Cat plays as well. This limits your regular playbook somewhat, and that matters. It may be 5 plays, but they are still important. What if they take away 3 pass plays and 2 running plays? Those plays may have been more dependable to repeat during the game than some Wild Cat plays. The halfback throwback pass can’t be run 3 times in a game like a belly running play can. The defense will get wise to the uniqueness of the play. I’m not advocating either side, I just think this is worth examining, as to my knowledge it has yet to be.
I think it's a bit of a hindrance, at least this season, in the fact that it takes touches away from Ronnie Brown. Ronnie has proven that he excels when he gets 20+ touches per game, with White supposedly the new WC QB, that limits what Ronnie can do and doesn't let him build the type of rhythm that he needs to be effective. I have said numerous times that I don't believe the WC is going to be as effective as it was last year, we were able to catch teams off-guard last season, that just isn't the case this year. Teams have had a full year to gameplan for it and any wrinkle that we may throw in, we aren't going to be catching anyone off-guard this year.
I like running it now and then but I love just pounding the ball, and thats one thing they totally forgot to do at times and especially early on today. Find the hot Rb and stick with him for a while and especially if the score is close. Back to the wildcat though. Had White put some air under that throw or take a little mustard off of it, the wildcat would have looked pretty good in the arsenal and well worth the time taken to work on it.
It's turning into an excuse for the coaching staff to get cute but it burned them today. It was embarrassing watching them try all these trick plays and having them blow up in their faces.
nothing you said was wrong. But it's only our first game. The wildcat doesn't have to be looked at like a gimmick formation, it can simply be used as a normal formation that works well when executed right. Every play on offense can score a touchdown. It's really just a matter of execution. If every player on the offense wins their battle against their opposing player on defense, its a touchdown. That doesnt change just cause its a wildcat play.
I like the Wildcat. I'm on record here as saying I'd like to keep it, but I also agree with those here who think it should be run sparingly. I think it's a great change-of-pace formation. With that being said, I want to add that Pat White doesn't need to be a part of it. He needs to sit and learn, IMHO. If he were being used as a WR or RB in other formations, then I might feel differently. However, bringing him into a game 'cold' to play WC QB (or even run the spread option, which he did once today) 2-4 times a game isn't going to be very effective. He isn't going to be in any kind of game rhythm, and it's going to hurt the rhythm of the base offense. I thought that was pretty evident today. They also need to put a leash on Dan Henning. The Wildcat was a stroke of genius last season. It really was. However, Mr. Henning needs to stop trying to make lightning strike twice with all the trickery. It was really frustrating to watch today. I was livid. The offense needs to just work on the base stuff and get their mojo working as a unit. Perhaps then they can have a little fun with the formations. The offense today just looked like they were throwing crap against the wall, hoping something would stick.
My only concern is that Pat White is still Raw, and he doesnt have the size to run it up the gut when needed. Having Ronnie run for a 4-5 yard gain in the middle helps open up that outside. If Pat cant get 4 yards then the defense knows where to go. Now if that pass to Ginn would have been on target then we all would be calling for more wildcat lol
Hey the turnovers killed us today which is painfully obvious, we were on the verge of tying the game before the half and that turn over killed us, it was a 10 point swing. You can't turn the ball over and we did 4 times, we should have been blown out of this game. d-1
The WC lets us: 1) The wildcat lets us get our best players on the field. 2) It gives a chance to make explosive plays. Honestly, we don't have the personnel on offense to make explosive plays out of our base offense/standard formations. Everyone points out that the WC will never work like it did against Patriots in week 3. Well of course not, If you could consistently get that type of production, every team in the NFL would run every play. Also people forget that during the last game of the regular season, the Jets game, a HUGE game for us, Ronnie in the wildcat missed a wide open TE for a TD. That would have been a huge play. What are our chances of getting a TE wide open for a TD if we line up with base personnel in I formation? Almost zero. The WC makes the defense think instead of just going out and playing aggressively and instinctively. Also it creates a greater opportunity for the defense to make a mental mistake, and thus give us the big play. Innovation comes out of desperation. If you can hang 48 points on someone with your base offense you don't run the WC. We used the WC when we were 0-2 coming into the Pats game. We were desperate. It worked. I am fine with them using the WC. It wasn't like our base offense was tearing up the field against Atlanta, and they switched to calling wildcat plays and we lost the game because of it. Lets give the coaching staff some time. It was one game. The WC wasn't the problem in the ATL game. I think the WC helps this team. I don't feel as if it hinders it.
Well, today the way it was thrown in there, it simply broke up any rhythem we were establishing. I think what's happening is Henning is too eager to run WC: its as if he's just waiting to see a favorable setup on D so he can put it in.
Seems like the two drives we used it was a hindrance. That said though, Ginn was wide open for a TD on the one play. So in essence, if White executes then it was a big help.
The hindrance is Dan Henning as OC and Sparano's unwillingness to open things up. You can't expect much from 3 freakin plays....you have to stick with it or don't expect much. I lay this on the coaching staff. They're the ones who decided to make a run for it this season with Penny at the helm, knowing his limitations. It's up to them to add some punch to this offense to offset what we can't get from Pennington. They didn't even come close... More wildcat or hand Penny the clip board and lets move on into the rebuild mode that we should actually be in right now.
not only is white cold and not into game mode for 1 or 2 plays off the bench....but by taking penny out....it breaks his game mode and (could) through him out of synic
Lose it, it takes OL atleast 3-4 games and sometimes to truely gel or trust each other. The single wing stunts this development.
The wildcat was put in to help with the deficiencies of our offense .Our basic offense hasn't improved since last season thus more of the wildcat.When we fail to be successful with the wild cat there is only one direction to go and that is back to our basic"small football" offense that has shown very little creativity in the past 2 seasons. I honestly think it's a matter of player personnel and play calling that is our co-number one problems with this offense and the wild cat would not have even been considered if our offense was marginally competent.
I would like to see some passes thrown further than 15 yards past the line of scrimmage out of a base offense. For cryin' out loud challenge the D.
I think its a huge help. Teams that play us have to spend half their time getting ready for the Wildcat, nd we may or may not run it. The more they have to rework their keys and reads just for the WC the less time they spend on our base.
I think it's a benefit, but I'd prefer to see it more in situations where we're grinding gears and not really getting a game going. Use it as a make or break momentum shifter. Don't throw it in in the middle of a successful drive. From everything I've seen of the WC plays we had last year, and this last game, it seems like a big gamble to me. You're either going to go big, or get off the field with it. And to do that when we're already mounting a successful drive just seems counter-intuitive to me. But that's just an average fan's opinion.
The flip side to the above is our offense line loses practice reps and game reps to the WCrap. Until we can run effectively out of our base offense, it's smoke and mirrors. BTW:Anybody watch the Raiders/Charger game? In the first half especially the first quarter the Raiders ol just handed the Chargers an arsewhupping. right up the middle.
I think it is a hindrance brother. We try to use it too much and force it to succeed, rather then wait and see what the defense is showing then improvise as to how the wildcat could succeed. I am ready to scrap the wildcat, and play running the ball with success game. Let Chad pick his spots to call plays when he sees great possibilities. We need some freshness to the offense.
