The End of the West Coast Offense

Its was Bill Walsh of the San Francisco 49ers that became connected with the offense in the NFL called the West Coast offense. It was a gigantic departure in concept from the traditional offenses that used short yardage running plays to grind down the field and an occasional pass that went for many yards in a single down. The West Coast offense used short passes to move the ball consistently 5 to 8 yards down the field usually to an outside receiver or a running back out of the backfield.

The current scheme is decidedly different. Most passing plays are consistently looking at a 20 to 35 yard pass with the receiver starting straight down the middle of the field and slightly curving more toward the middle just before the pass arrives. This is sometimes called a skinny post. The philosophy is no longer a Joe Montana or a Steve Young short pass but passes longer and more convoluted toward the center of the field.

There are artifacts of this style of play. The defense has to be very active in the middle and long portions of a vertical offense. It is very difficult for them to do this as the receiver knows where he is going and the defensive man does not. Defenses are able to stop these plays with good geometry in the gaps and with hands up for the defensive backs. This results in more knocked down plays. With plays taking longer to develop, this puts much more pressure on the quarterback. Blitz schemes are getting harder to identify and many successful defensive plays occur when the quarterback is rushed or his throwing arm is stopped mid throw. Short plays where the running back or the tight end make quick angled patterns are much less regular in the flow of the game. This is because more teams are risking longer passes. A check down pass if the long ball is not available is too late in a slant pattern.

Teams are not fooled by naked bootlegs. The forty niners used to send all their pass receivers one direction and Montana would slip out of the pocket going the opposite way for a big gainer. This is not practical in today's scheme. When it is done there are many quarterbacks on the grown not getting up to play the next play.

The NFL product as it stands is very quick. It is hard to imagine unless you are down on the field how the pace of this game has sped up. Plays last an average of 3 seconds. This makes it really hard to get long plays in. It happens because there is some tremendous work being done on the line to protect the quarterback for an additional 1 to 3 seconds and to allow for the pathways through the line to get enough punch on the pass to get through arms and hands that could intercept or change the direction of the pass.

I was always amazed at the speed and strength Brett Farve as the pass coming off his hands blisters through the air with incredible speed and accuracy. As quarterbacks get older, the speed is still their but the accuracy is often lost. This is why the Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rogers is so good. He is very accurate in his passes. As time moves along he will develop the ability to read defenses like Brady or the Manning Brothers. Then he will be unstoppable.

The 49ers are due for a new quarterback this year. The Stanford quarterback from this year will be a great addition. He must be cultured like all of the others that came before him. Lets hope that they get a great line to protect the quarterback whomever he is.

: ) Pat