Rammer wrote: ↑Mon Jun 04, 2018 2:27 pm
The new offense is dependant upon early success. How comfortable will Wally be if the O struggles out of the gate? Until the real bullets arrive and the results are positive, I will hold reservation on what will happen. At least there is a change in philosophy and that is the baby step this club desperately needed.
Now I'm hoping one QB can A) stay healthy and B) run with this new look O. The West won't allow any team to falter and expect to make the playoffs. The Lions IMO are on the outside looking in until the O gets traction.
I am however looking more forward to this season over the past several, yet the knawing thing here is Wally's penchant to go back to what he has had success with in the past. And if he suggests that trick plays are used by desperate teams, the Lions better have a ton of trick plays this season.
Certainly, whenever an offensive coordinator in the past attempted to deviate the offence, Wally tended to have little patience and eventually demanded the offence be 'simplified'. However, it won't be easy to go back to the 'old Calgary spread offence', after so much time has been spent at training camp installing a new offensive system.
In terms of so called 'trick plays', the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles certainly used them with great success in last year's NFL playoffs. I don't view plays that are unusual as 'trick plays'. The term 'trick play' was introduced by coaches who were burned by unpredictable plays to discredit them. A tailback throw to a receiver, a double reverse, a flea flicker, a throwback to the quarterback streaking down the sideline, a direct snap to the tailback, would all be considered 'trick' plays by Wally.
But then again, Wally likley considers a fly sweep, a throwback screen, and a punt, not run straight up the middle, as a trick play. Keep it simple and execute has been his mantra. That works, sometimes, with very superior talent. But it also has made us very predictable. For example, for years now, we have basically used only one running play - the inside zone read. We have run the play with zone blocking left and zone blocking right for variety.
Jackson's offence is designed to get the football out quickly to playmakers, using a lot of motion and misdirection. The quarterback is moving often, after the snap, and the short passing game sets up the deep ball. Calgary runs a similar offence as does Winnipeg.
That is very different from our passing game philosophy in past seasons, where we have focused on the deep intermediate pass to our slotbacks, with the quarterback throwing from the pocket. Most of our pass patterns were very slow developing patterns to our slotbacks, which required our quarterback to hold the football for a longer time in the pocket.
Its going to be an interesting change in offensive philosophy. It will be interesting to see if Wally sticks with it or goes back to the familiar.
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)