West Coast Offense

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The West Coast Offense (dt .: West Coast offense) is a strategy of offense in American football . The passing game is emphasized with short throws, exact running paths and variable formations.

history

The main founder of the West Coast Offense is Bill Walsh , who was offensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals from 1968 to 1975 . Starting with Sid Gillman , who emphasized the importance of an unpredictable passing game, he designed an offensive strategy with short, fast passes, which was initially called the Ohio River Offense . An important factor was that Walsh had no strong running backs at the time to put on an effective running game (" Smashmouth Offense "). From the basic formation of the pro set , Walsh often sent all eligible players (i.e. both wide receivers , the tight end and both running backs) in motion ( man in motion ) before the snap , and sent them on exact running routes. Walsh thus forced the opposing defense to defend the entire width of the field and often brought their own attackers into favorable one-on-one situations (e.g. a fast wide receiver against a slow linebacker or a large tight end against you small cornerback ). Since the Bengals weren't a strong team at the time, the Ohio River Offense initially remained unpopular. Don Coryell pursued a similar strategy with the San Diego Chargers , but relied more on throws in depth than in width.

When Walsh became head coach of the San Francisco 49ers , a team on the west coast of the United States, and won three Super Bowls with quarterback Joe Montana and wide receiver Jerry Rice , the strategy was called the West Coast Offense . Through his coaching tree , Walsh produced many successful coaches who won the Super Bowl with his tactics. Both Walsh's former assistant coach and 49ers successor George Seifert , as well as Walsh's former employees Mike Shanahan and Jon Gruden won this title with Walsh's West Coast Offense with the Denver Broncos and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, respectively . Three-time Super Bowl winner Joe Gibbs drove a variant of the West Coast Offense at the Washington Redskins that went over the tight ends rather than the wide receivers.

description

The West Coast Offense is often done in pro set . With many moves, both wide receivers (WR), the tight end (TE) and both running backs (HB, FB) complete precise running routes.

The West Coast Offense favors a fast, precise passing game, which in turn requires a high degree of timing between quarterback and pass recipient. A special feature is that not only wide receivers, but also running backs and tight ends have to run exact routes and have safe hands. Since the opposing defense has to defend a lot of space, running plays meet less resistance, and a play-action play can also be fooled. Many short throws also mean comparatively little gain in space and an increased risk of interception . Since the running backs and tight ends block relatively little, a well-organized defense can quickly score a quarterback sack . This risk can be reduced by a mobile quarterback who can improvise a running play ("quarterback scramble") or throw it at full speed. Since the pass recipients catch the football at full speed, one missed opponent's tackle is enough to achieve a big play .

Demarcation

The West Coast Offense has many similarities with the " Air Coryell " system of Don Coryell , the head coach of the San Diego Chargers . Both tactics are based on Sid Gillman's pass-intensive attack philosophy , but while Walsh's West Coast Offense is based on width throws (i.e. little gain in space, but little risk), Air Coryell prefers depth throws (i.e. a lot of risk but a lot Space gain). Coryell took advantage of the fact that he (in contrast to Walsh in Cincinnati) had the players who could throw or catch long passes through thick cover ( Dan Fouts , Kellen Winslow , Charles Joiner and others) that Walsh only had at the end of his coaching career in San Francisco had available. Another difference is that the West Coast Offense requires a mobile quarterback, such as B. Joe Montana or Steve Young for the 49ers and John Elway for the Broncos. Air Coryell prefers a classic quarterback who remains disciplined behind the offensive line and takes time to put all his physical strength into a long throw.

The New England Patriots under Head Coach Bill Belichick use a modification of the Erhardt-Perkins Offense , which has similar game concepts as the West Coast Offense. While the West Coast Offense specifies both the formation and all routes for each move, the Erhardt-Perkins Offense outputs the formation and routes separately for each move. Thus, depending on his assessment of the defense, the quarterback can decide for himself whether his offense z. B. perform a throwing play or just pretend.

Web links

swell

  1. ^ Jaworski, Ron (2010). The Games That Changed the Game: The Evolution of the NFL in Seven Sundays.