Can someone please explain the WCO to me

[lqmac1]

I have an Idea of the west coast offense but don't fully know it. Also I want to know how it would make our team better.

 

[JeffInDC]

I have an Idea of the west coast offense but don't fully know it. Also I want to know how it would make our team better.

So many coaches, especially the ones under the Walsh Coaching Tree, run variations of the scheme that he perfected. But, I do know the basic principal is a controlled, short-passing game at the beginning of games that sets up the running game AND (here is the important part) DEEP PASSING GAME as the game progesses.

from the Wikipedia article regarding Walsh's WCO:
"Walsh's West Coast Offense attempts to open up running and passing lanes for the backs and receivers to exploit, by causing the defense to concentrate on short passes. Since most down and distance situations can be attacked with a pass or a run, the intent is to make offensive play calling unpredictable and thus keep the defense's play "honest," forcing defenders to be prepared for a multitude of possible offensive plays rather than focussing aggressively on one likely play from the offense."

Hope that helps.

 

[Apollo Creed]

Shorter horizontal passes to open things up as opposed to running vertical routes perpendicular to the line of scrimmage.

I'm not a big fan of it, I think its a tad dated considering this is a pass happy league built around getting huge chunks of yards at a time.

 

[Eddie]

How many teams are running the WCO right now? Even SF moved to the vertical passing game.

It's a dated offense. Time to move on.

 

[craig71]

I have an Idea of the west coast offense but don't fully know it. Also I want to know how it would make our team better.

Check out this site:

http://westcoastoffense.com/

Here are a few snippets from the site.




[FONT=Arial,Courier]

]DEFINITION:

[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Courier]The term 'West Coast Offense' has a two-fold meaning:[/FONT]

• [FONT=Arial,Courier]1. it describes an ball control offensive system that uses the timed, short passing game AND[/FONT]

• [FONT=Arial,Courier]2. it also describes the entire offensive structure from play schematics, preparation, installation, implementation, game planning, execution, and attention to every detail of this offensive system.[/FONT]

• 
  
• [FONT=Arial,Helvetica]

  WEST COAST OFFENSE OVERVIEW

  [/FONT]

  
  [*][FONT=Arial,Courier]Short pass plays replace the running game to control the ball.[/FONT]
  [*][FONT=Arial,Courier]Bill Walsh originated with the Cincinatti Bengals and San Francisco 49ers.[/FONT]
  [*][FONT=Arial,Courier]Long process for QB to pick-up all the reads and adjustments.[/FONT]
  [*][FONT=Arial,Courier]Release all five receivers into the pattern.[/FONT]
  [*][FONT=Arial,Courier]QB has progression read up to five receivers.[/FONT]
  [*][FONT=Arial,Courier]Take what the defensive gives you.[/FONT]
  [*][FONT=Arial,Courier]Make the defense adjust to you

  [/FONT]

There seems to be quite abit of information to read about the WCO at this site, hopefully you will find some answers to your questions here.

Craig

 

[JeffInDC]

How many teams are running the WCO right now? Even SF moved to the vertical passing game.

It's a dated offense. Time to move on.

Green Bay, Minnesota, Philly, New Orleans, Washington, Houston to start. And, the Giants and Saints incorporate a large number of WCO principles in their offense.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Honestly, the term doesn't mean much anymore. There are so many different branches of it now that you can't say it's unique.

Most would say that Andy Reid probably runs as "pure" a WCO (meaning similar to Walsh's) as there is now because he throws so much and uses short passes to substitute for the running game.

But guys like Gruden are from the WCO tree and he likes more of a power running game.

It's really just kind of a buzzword that doesn't mean much today, other than the terminology for calling plays being similar.

 

[jimmy40]

I have an Idea of the west coast offense but don't fully know it. Also I want to know how it would make our team better.

It works extremely well when you have a Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Roger Craig running it.

 

[wileedog]

It works extremely well when you have a Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Roger Craig running it.

And the league hasn't been facing it for over 20 years.

A lot of its initial success, like the 46 defense, is that when Walsh first started running it no one knew how the hell to stop it.

That said, its intriguing here because we have 3 WRs who can excel in YAC, a QB with a quick release, and it could open up more space for Felix.

The cons would be it requires very consistent execution - not a strong suit of this team.

 

[lqmac1]

Got it!!! preciate all the inputs.