The Secret To The West Coast Offense

[gh]

While I've watched tons of football through the years, I don't partake at the same x's and o's level I do track. Don't worry much about all the technical details; just let it unfold and enjoy it as it happens.

So maybe this has been said before, but Joe Montana said something at the Walsh memorial yesterday that gave insight into the WCO that I'd never heard/considered before. And that's the psychological edge it gave the offense because the defense didn't understand (in an overall sense wehat was happening to them).

What Montana said (and I'm probably simplifying it a bit too much) was that if a defense gives up 4y on a running play, they're really chagrin and dig in harder. But if they give up 4y on a dinky pass play, they're all chest-bumping and thinking "yeah, we showed them!" And it doesn't bother them enough, and it keeps happening over and over, and the sticks are moving down the field even though the defense has a feeling of success. Sounds like, at least in the early days, they just didn't get it.

And, of course give a Jerry Rice enough 4y slants in a game, and several of them are going a loooooonnnnngggg way after the catch.

[tafnut]

The WCO, when run correctly, dazzles the defense with too many options to cover them all. The HUGE weakness of the WCO is that you need a very smart, very accurate passer. Any strong-armed QB that ran the system in college will be at a huge advantage getting drafted. As Bill Walsh ran it with Joe M, it was virtually unstoppable, because it made the defense play more man-to-man than they wanted and it only requires one blow defensive assignment for a big gainer. It IS stoppable, but you need a very fast defense, esp. the DEs and linebackers. The trench warfare is not as important, because pulling guards create many of the mismatches the WCO is looking for when it DOES run. The game is much faster and that's why many NFL coaches are looking for speed linemen, rather than just big strong ones (not that they're not all 300-pounds now anyway).

[SQUACKEE]

When the Giants and the DA 9's were among the best it was funny because they could not have been more different. If the G men had 3rd and 2 everyone knew they were running. Nobody knew what the Da 9's were gonna do. Ive seen them pass on 3rd and 1! :shock:

[cladthin]

I've always found it interesting that the so-called West Coast Offense actually has it's origins in Ohio with Paul Brown-sometimes credited as Bill Walsh's mentor. Certainly, some changes were made to the original concept but it's originally a Midwest offense or so I've been told.

[bad hammy]

Wiki says the term 'West Coast Offense' was mistakenly alpplied to Walsh's system, and was meant to apply to the long-pass offense of Coryell and Al Davis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_coast_offense

[Bruce Kritzler]

Methinks this is like the "discovery" of the "drive phase" in sprinting. How did they ever manage to get through 100m previous to its inception?

[tafnut]

Wiki says the term 'West Coast Offense' was mistakenly alpplied to Walsh's system, and was meant to apply to the long-pass offense of Coryell and Al Davis.

Wiki is mistaken. As announcers use it now, it's definitely what Walsh pioneered. Air Coryell was definitely a precursor though.

[cullman]

I've always found it interesting that the so-called West Coast Offense actually has it's origins in Ohio with Paul Brown-sometimes credited as Bill Walsh's mentor. Certainly, some changes were made to the original concept but it's originally a Midwest offense or so I've been told.

I assumed that Bill Walsh's offense had it's roots with the Cleveland Brown offense from the old AAFC. Paul Brown had what was considered a pass happy offense with Otto Graham at QB in the late 1940s.

cman