Getting offensive

Ok, so maybe it's a little late to start dissecting the offenses of the Superbowl participants, but hey, my blog, my rules. We'll start with the Saints. Basically the Saints run a West Coast Offense which in itself doesn't really help anybodies understanding. Firstly, there is an ongoing debate/crying match as to which system should be called the 'West Coast Offense'. This stems from the fact that the term was first applied to the system as used by guys like Sid Gillman, Don Coryell (who somehow missed the HOF this year along with Roger Craig. WTF) and Ernie Zampese. The term was then misapplied to Bill Walsh's system which drew the ire of the former 49ers coach, who is often quoted as saying something along the lines of "Call it what you like. Call it the Bill Walsh offense or the Ohio River offense. Just don't call it the West Coast Offense. That's something completely different." The point is a little mute now. Regardless of what each system should correctly be referred to as, the reality is that most people know the system currently used by guys like Mike Martz and Norv Turner as the 'Air Coryell' system, and the Bill Walsh type system as the 'West Coast Offense'. And so the names have stuck and we should all stop moaning about the etymology and correct application of the name and just get down to business. Which is where the next problem arises. As the more observant of you will have noticed, in my sidebar I go to great pains to complain about TV pundits use of the term 'West Coast Offense'. The single most common thing you here is '.... a three step drop, ball control offense'. This is just about the anti-christ of what the WCO (I can't be bothered to keep typing West Coast Offense) is about. Yes, the three step drop technically forms a portion of the ball control aspect, but really it's the five step drop that does the trick. The essence is simple. When he was the offensive co-ordinator for the Bengals, Walsh realised he and his offense would need to somehow achieve 25-30 first downs per game in order to stay competitive with the other teams in their division. The trouble was, he simply didn't trust the Bengals ground game. So the solution was 5 step drop, ball control passes. Out routes, In routes, Hook/Curl routes. The QB takes a 5 step drop and the receiver should go into his break at about 10 yards. The QB should be just about ready to throw as the receiver begins to turn and break. The idea is to complete short passes such as these in order to build a series of consecutive first downs. If the defense (specifically the Cornerbacks) start sitting off at a depth of ten yards, THEN you bring in the 3 step drops and start throwing Quick hooks, quick outs, and quick slants. The defense is giving you these throws by the nature of their passive alignment. The gradual aim is to flatten the defense, drawing safeties and corners down a little closer and forcing linebackers to spread out to try and take away the throwing lanes. This now (hopefully) opens up the rest of your offense. Deep throws now become possible over the top (a standard for WCO teams is to tell their receivers to convert a 10-yard out into a fade vs bump and run coverage). It also creates lanes on the inside for running the ball (sounds a lot like all the fancy new 'spread' offenses that have been prevalent in college football for the last 10 years. New? Their philosophy is over 30 years old!). Now you should be able to call inside run plays that consistently achieve moderate yardage (say 5-10 yards) and at the same time you're reducing the number of risky throws that have to be made. This last point is the single biggest failing of most modern WCO teams. When you go back and look at the 49ers total pass attempt and rush attempt numbers from the 1980's (and anyone can do this by looking at the team stats on NFL.com), you'll notice that the 49ers typically had 50 or so more rushing attempts than pass attempts during the whole of an average season. That's pretty darn balanced right there. Now look at modern teams like the Eagles under Andy Reid or the Seahawks under Holmgren. Their offense is heavily pass balanced (Reid is especially guilty of this). So what does all this have to do with the Saints? Well, they run the WCO to a tee and they (usually) get the run/pass balance about right. This one of the reasons that the Saints get so many big plays down the field despite being what many NFL commentators annoyingly call a 'dink and dunk' offense. The run game sucks people in then the Saints let loose and Brees hurls it over the top for someone to go catch. The amount of touchdowns you see the Saints score on play-action is wildly disproportionate to a) how many they score with their standard dropback game and b) how effective their rushing attack really is. But again, it's one of the many beauties of the WCO. You play 'dink and dunk' until the defense cracks and starts biting on the short stuff, then you exploit the gaps over the top. Everyone knows that's what they want, but everyone still bites. Like clockwork. But it goes deeper than that. There are three particular tenants of the WCO that the Saints are particularly adept at pulling off.

1. Multiple formations, shifts and motion.
2. Spreading the ball to multiple receivers
3. Taking what the defense gives you

The multiple formations, shifts and motions is a feature of the WCO picked up from Walsh's time with the Oakland Raiders in 1966. Al Davis had learned the system from Sid Gillman and this knowledge was passed onto Walsh. Subsequently, every WCO team has adopted this approach. This explains why the Saints will come on to the field and during the course of the game, line up in quite possibly every formation known to mankind. Sometimes they line up in one formation and have two or three players move to create another formation (a 'shift'). Sometimes they'll just send one guy in motion prior to the snap. Sometimes they'll even line up in a pretty standard formation, but now they've moved their personnel around, with a Running Back out wide and a Wide Receiver in the backfield.

And the point of all this? One word.

Mismatches.

Send a receiver in motion from one side of the formation to the other and one of two things will happen. If the defense is playing zone coverage (marking areas of the field as opposed to specific receivers) then you'll see them 'bump' each other over a little, moving more towards the two receiver side. This leaves one of your receivers running into an area covered by a linebacker on a pass play (mismatch) as well as leaving a Cornerback (who are notorious for their lack of, shall we say, 'commitment' to tackling) as the force defender on run plays to the other side (mismatch). If the defense is playing man, then you're dragging a cornerback to the opposite side of the field with your motion. Now there is one less defender on one side of the field to stop runs (mismatch) and it leaves just a safety and a linebacker to cover your Tight End and any RB coming out of the backfield (mismatch).

But all of this comes at a price. The average WCO playbook consumes some 300+ pages and typically reads like the user manual for a NASA Space Shuttle. All of this has to be learnt, memorised and then recalled during the game. Not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination. Missed assignments are not a rare thing for a WCO team. The QB in particular is under duress to remember where everyone is supposed to be going, who's going to block who and who will be left unblocked for him to 'hot' read. Ultimately it takes a special kind of QB to be really successful in this system.

Luckily there is help at hand. Lot's of it. Namely multiple receivers. And the Saints have really been outstanding at this. Think about these names: Lance Moore, Marques Colston, Devery Henderson, Robert Meachem. None of them is really a legitimate #1 receiver. They could all do well as the #1 for another team, but whether they'd be the next Terrell Owens is up for debate. And Owens himself has struggled for a number of WCO. The trouble is that Owens would like to be (and even now is certainly capable of being) the main target, with other people taking catches in order to draw coverage from him until he gets the one on one matchups again. The WCO however is much more concerned with just finding an open receiver, whomever that may be. There are even routes in the WCO specifically designed to draw coverage down the field in order to create running room for a back or tight end slipping in underneath.

And when you look at the numbers, this what you see from the Saints. Multiple receivers with moderate reception numbers. No one player truly stands out. They all get a piece of the action and as a result, it makes it much harder to shutdown the Saints pass game. You can't just double team Henderson and Colston, because you'll be leaving Moore or Meachem open somewhere else. The four receivers don't have to be exceptional, just have safe hands. It helps that the Saints have four very good receivers, plus Jeremy Shockey at Tight End. And what's more, they have Reggie Bush at running back.

Bush couldn't be a better fit for the Saints if he tried. He can run fast outside. He has shown he can run hard between the tackles. He is also a great pass receiving option. It's another tool in the Saints locker and a deadly one at that. Not bad if your Drew Brees to have a guy like Reggie for a checkdown. And this where the 'take what the defense gives you' part comes in. Often backs in a WCO will get plenty of receptions. This is fine. The QB reads the field and goes where has an open receiver. If that means dumping the ball off to Reggie Bush, then so be it. If he catches the ball 2 yards past the LOS then that's already 2 extra yards you've gained. And a guy like Reggie can tack another 10-20 onto that with ease (sometimes). Think about Roger Craig for example, the first player to clock 1,000 yards rushing and receiving in a single season. That will be Reggie Bush some day.

But the biggest piece in the puzzle is the connection between Head Coach Sean Payton and QB Drew Brees. Having the level of understanding that they do is critical. Brees understands the WCO just as much as his coach and buys into the philosophy. He'll sit back and take what he's given all day long, waiting for that chance to strike down the field. Patience is key and Brees accepts this. Combine that with Payton's game planning skills, his ability to sift through film of the defense he's going to be facing to find weaknesses to exploit and you have a deadly duo.

More than that, you have a Superbowl winning duo.

Tomorrow, if I have time, I'll go through the Colts offense. If not tomorrow, then at least some point between now and the start of the 2010 season.

Please also note that I still dislike the Saints hype.

And I still hate the Panthers.