| Page 2 of 3 < > |
Wildcat Package Brings Direct Results in Miami
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
But the formation -- a version of which was popular in pre-1950s pro football and is still used by some high school powerhouses -- takes a team's primary ballhandler, the quarterback, virtually out of the action, pushed as he is to a wideout slot. It gives the featured running back responsibilities he probably hasn't had since junior high: fielding shotgun snaps, handing the ball off to a motion back who arrives just after the snap, even throwing it downfield.
"There is," Sparano said, "risk."
But something had to change, and soon, and so it changed at 35,000 feet. The package, which didn't see the light of day during a training camp in which Sparano sought to emphasize basic, hard-nosed, disciplined football, no longer seemed like a good gadget scheme for the deep recesses of Sparano's mental library. It seemed like a necessity.
Back when they were first hired, the two coaches had written Wildcat options -- they then still called it the Wild Hog -- on paper, studying them and even testing them on a bunch of players participating in voluntary spring drills, some of whom aren't even with the team now.
Back then, quarterback Chad Pennington wasn't in the picture. (He was signed in August.) Running back Ronnie Brown was rehabilitating a torn anterior cruciate ligament that caused him to miss most of last season. Fellow running back Ricky Williams, back from a shoulder injury, hadn't played the majority of an NFL season since 2005.
The Dolphins coaches said "let's take a look at this thing," Sparano said. But "we didn't even know the personnel we had."
Discombobulated from the drubbing against Arizona, Miami's players didn't immediately master or embrace the scheme when it was introduced three days later during a Wednesday practice. There were doubts the plays would work, or even be used in that Sunday's game against New England.
"I was kind of skeptical," tight end Anthony Fasano said. "We had a lot of moving parts. There was a lot of timing going on."
Brown, however, was excited.
"You never know, each time you put in a new play, how the defense is going to respond," Brown said. "At the same time, I was hoping it would be a change of pace for us."
The Wildcat is gaining popularity around the rest of the league as well, with other teams adding the formation to their playbook. The Cleveland Browns, who play Washington at FedEx Field on Sunday, even used it Monday night in a 35-14 victory over the previously unbeaten New York Giants.
The formation gives Brown or the back behind center plenty of options. If he keeps the ball rather than handing to the motion back (usually Williams), he can bolt through the right side of the unbalanced line, which features both tackles to the right of the center, as he did for a 62-yard touchdown against New England. One variation calls for Brown to fake a handoff and roll left, looking for the tight end downfield. Against New England, the play worked for a 19-yard score to Fasano.
