West Coast Offense
|
|
The West Coast Offense is a football strategy (in American football) associated especially with the great former San Francisco 49ers coach Bill Walsh.
As an assistant with the Cincinnati Bengals in 1968, Walsh, who was wide receivers' coach then, came up with a system to utilize the Bengals' agile but weak-armed quarterback. Contrary to most other offenses of the time, where running the ball first was a priority, Walsh decided to use more quick, timed throws and fewer, yet well-placed runs in order to keep the ball in his offense's hands and the defense off the field. While it was a ball-control philosophy, it was different from the usual run-first ways of dominating the ball. Walsh put a lot of stock in practicing for different situations, and his teams became very proficient at excelling in almost every possible offensive situation. More emphasis was put on YAC yards, or "yards after the catch." Receivers caught short passes and were expected to make bigger plays out of them. Walsh streamlined this offense, and eventually took it to Stanford with him in 1977. Two years later, he was named head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, and used his West Coast Offense to win 3 Super Bowls in the 1980s. When Walsh retired in 1989, George Seifert took over and the 49ers won the Super Bowl again the following year. The 49ers have won 5 Super Bowls in total running the West Coast Offense.
Personnel for the West Coast Offense
The personnel required to run the West Coast Offense is precise. Teams that wanted to run it (or modified versions of it) needed these ingredients in order to run it effectively:
- A quarterback who can make quality reads and necessary adjustments. A "golden arm" is not necessary, but an accurate one is. It also helps if the quarterback has some agility and can make plays when leaving the pocket.
- Halfbacks and fullbacks who can catch the ball out of the backfield as well as run.
- A receiver dedicated to catching short, timed passes--usually quick slants or quick outs.
- A "deep ball" receiver so the defense can't gear up to stop the under-10 yard passes. This receiver will also run the same routes as the "possession" receiver, although he'll be the go-to man on deep routes.
- A receiving-oriented tight end who can catch "possession"-type passes over the middle.
- An agile offensive line. Since the West Coast Offense was an offense that passed to set up the run, a huge, 300-plus pound line geared for running wasn't needed.
Characteristics of the West Coast Offense
Although different teams have different variations of it, each team employing a West Coast offensive system has certain plays that every single one of them run over and over again.
- The three-step quick slant--a staple of the West Coast Offense.
- Agile running plays where the offensive linemen can move in space, such as sweeps, counters, and traps.
- Screen passes.
- Quick, short passes to running backs in the flats (as a substitution for running plays)
- Rollouts or sprint-outs with the quarterback.
- A decent amount of play action passes.
External Links
1999 SportsIllustrated.com article (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/dr_z/news/1999/10/28/inside_football/)