Wildcat Package Brings Direct Results in Miami

MIAMI -- While he was still an assistant last fall with the Dallas Cowboys, Tony Sparano would call his old coaching buddy at the University of Arkansas, David Lee, and needle him about the collegiate offense he helped direct.

You still running that, what do you call it, that Wild Hog? Snapping balls directly to your star running back? They forget how to teach handoffs out there in Fayetteville?

It was all good-natured ribbing until Sparano took over as Miami Dolphins head coach in January just days after Lee had been hired to coach the team's quarterbacks. The pair continued talking about Arkansas's approach to the virtually obsolete single-wing formation. The conversations immediately shifted from playful to actual diagrammed plays.

Sparano wondered: Could this modern take on an archaic scheme -- this "college deal," as Sparano described it recently -- work in the NFL?

"This is something really interesting we could do in a ballgame," Sparano recalled thinking, "if we had enough nerve to bring it out there and call it."

It took two crushing opening losses to boost Sparano's nerve. Two wins and a one-point defeat later, teams around the NFL are marveling at the formation's power and possibilities. The Dolphins, who face the Baltimore Ravens here Sunday, have in a mere month gone from league laughingstock to legitimate playoff contender largely on the wings -- er, the wing -- of the creative scheme the team's offensive coaches have renamed "The Wildcat."

The formation has produced six touchdowns in three weeks and led to upsets of both of last year's AFC championship game representatives, New England and San Diego. Seeking a third straight win in Houston this past Sunday, Miami lost, 29-28, on a touchdown in the waning seconds.

Although a healthier squad, stronger running game and new, more consistent quarterback make this Miami team far different than the one that finished 1-15 last season under Cam Cameron -- now the Ravens' offensive coordinator -- there is no arguing the impact of the Wildcat. The Dolphins have used it 25 times and have averaged 10.1 yards per play.

"It's meant a lot: a change of pace, a different wrinkle for the offense," said Miami running back Patrick Cobbs, who caught a 53-yard touchdown out of the Wildcat against Houston. "It's given us something else instead of the same old offense. It's fun."

The first two weeks of the season featured much of the same, and no fun whatsoever. On the quiet, almost mournful flight home after an embarrassing 31-10 trouncing by the Arizona Cardinals that sank Miami to 0-2 and its offense to 26th in the NFL, Sparano's mind raced. The Dolphins, he thought, hadn't found their identity. Players needed a jolt. In mid-flight, Sparano summoned Lee, who had been with the Cowboys before leaving for Arkansas, from the back of the plane.

During much of the five-hour trip, Sparano and Lee once again bandied about the offense that helped make a star out of Darren McFadden, the current Oakland Raiders rookie who finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting twice for the Razorbacks. The pluses were obvious. With direct snaps to a running back, the scheme was intended to create space and confuse the defense. And by using two tight ends and three running backs simultaneously, Miami could put its best playmakers on the field at once.

"It would give our offense something to put its arms around," Sparano said. "That's kind of how the thing evolved."