McCarthy-Moore Connection

[garyo1954]

And now......The Rest of The Story...

Kellen Moore’s motion-heavy offense operated within Jason Garrett’s Air Coryell philosophy, placing an emphasis on vertical shots in the passing game centered around a strong run game while HC Mike McCarthy, runs a variant of the West Coast offense that features short, quick passes with little focus on running the ball.

At first glance, it might seem like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. But these two coaches share a offensive philosophy that goes back to Paul Hackett, the Passing Game Coordinatior, de-facto Offensive Coordinator, under Tom Landry from 1986 to 1988. (The prior three years Hackett had been QB/WR/TE coach learning under the inventor of the West Coast Offense, Bill Walsh, with the 49ers).

With Garrett gone, Moore's primary offensive philosophy is expected to become the one he played in at Boise State under Chris Petersen. Petersen's own philosophy is an hodgepodge of the West Coast Offense he learned in 1992 as QB coach with the Pitt Panthers (University of Pittsburgh), his time under Mike Belotti at Oregon learning the spread offense and his years as OC under Boise State's Dan Hawkins, learning the fly offense, which was built around the jet sweep concept on nearly every play.

Going back to the Pitt Panther team of 1992 where Chris Peterson got his introduction to the West Coast Offense under Head Coach Paul Hackett, there was a third year graduate assistant by the name of Michael McCarthy, coaching WRs. Yes, the same Michael McCarthy who is HC of the Dallas Cowboys today. (The guy we know as BigMac also worked the night shift on the Pennsylvania Turnpike as a toll collector to supplement his income and spent his time in the tollbooth reviewing the University of Pittsburgh playbook).

In 1993 Hackett and McCarthy left the Pitt Panthers for the OC position with the Kansas City Chiefs and offensive quality control coach, respectively. Petersen went to Portland State as QB coach.

Essentially Paul Hackett took the offense he ran with the Cowboys to the Pitt Panthers and taught it to McCarthy working alongside Chris Petersen. And today Petersen's greatest quarterback, Kellen Moore, is the offensive coordinator working for McCarthy.

(Skip Peete, the Cowboys running back coach, was the running backs coach with the same Pitt Panthers as McCarthy and Petersen in 1992).

 

[Oz-of-Cowboy-Country]

Color me lost. Couldn't follow the connection. But then again, I dropped out of high school in the sixth grade. So my comprehension level might be a little off.

 

[Ranched]

Moore couldn't/can't connect w/calls in the redzone, how on earth is he connecting w/McCarthy?!

 

[JoeKing]

It's a small world.

 

[garyo1954]

It's a small world.

Yeah! I found it interesting they all started out at Pitt under Hackett and come full circle.
Just an interesting FYI.

 

[MikeB80]

None of this is new.

Also Skip Peete spent years here as Wade/Garrett's rb coach.

also garrett's offense here threw vertical all the damn time. Go watch the 07-09 seasons. It was bombs away.

 

[garyo1954]

None of this is new.

Also Skip Peete spent years here as Wade/Garrett's rb coach.

also garrett's offense here threw vertical all the damn time. Go watch the 07-09 seasons. It was bombs away.

Glad you brought that up. Maybe this will help.....

Kellen Moore wasn't even a Cowboy in 2007-2009. He joined the Cowboys in 2015 and became the OC in 2019.
Skip Peete's left in 2012, went to the Bears, then the Rams before returning in 2020 (last year).

 

[MikeB80]

Glad you brought that up. Maybe this will help.....

Kellen Moore wasn't even a Cowboy in 2007-2009. He joined the Cowboys in 2015 and became the OC in 2019.
Skip Peete's left in 2012, went to the Bears, then the Rams before returning in 2020 (last year).

Well I'm confused but it doesn't matter. Did you think I thought kellen moore was a cowboy in 07?

 

[garyo1954]

Well I'm confused but it doesn't matter. Did you think I thought kellen moore was a cowboy in 07?

You didn't say you didn't. And I don't read minds.

 

[Redball Express]

And now......The Rest of The Story...

Kellen Moore’s motion-heavy offense operated within Jason Garrett’s Air Coryell philosophy, placing an emphasis on vertical shots in the passing game centered around a strong run game while HC Mike McCarthy, runs a variant of the West Coast offense that features short, quick passes with little focus on running the ball.

At first glance, it might seem like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. But these two coaches share a offensive philosophy that goes back to Paul Hackett, the Passing Game Coordinatior, de-facto Offensive Coordinator, under Tom Landry from 1986 to 1988. (The prior three years Hackett had been QB/WR/TE coach learning under the inventor of the West Coast Offense, Bill Walsh, with the 49ers).

With Garrett gone, Moore's primary offensive philosophy is expected to become the one he played in at Boise State under Chris Petersen. Petersen's own philosophy is an hodgepodge of the West Coast Offense he learned in 1992 as QB coach with the Pitt Panthers (University of Pittsburgh), his time under Mike Belotti at Oregon learning the spread offense and his years as OC under Boise State's Dan Hawkins, learning the fly offense, which was built around the jet sweep concept on nearly every play.

Going back to the Pitt Panther team of 1992 where Chris Peterson got his introduction to the West Coast Offense under Head Coach Paul Hackett, there was a third year graduate assistant by the name of Michael McCarthy, coaching WRs. Yes, the same Michael McCarthy who is HC of the Dallas Cowboys today. (The guy we know as BigMac also worked the night shift on the Pennsylvania Turnpike as a toll collector to supplement his income and spent his time in the tollbooth reviewing the University of Pittsburgh playbook).

In 1993 Hackett and McCarthy left the Pitt Panthers for the OC position with the Kansas City Chiefs and offensive quality control coach, respectively. Petersen went to Portland State as QB coach.

Essentially Paul Hackett took the offense he ran with the Cowboys to the Pitt Panthers and taught it to McCarthy working alongside Chris Petersen. And today Petersen's greatest quarterback, Kellen Moore, is the offensive coordinator working for McCarthy.

(Skip Peete, the Cowboys running back coach, was the running backs coach with the same Pitt Panthers as McCarthy and Petersen in 1992).

Read your post and never saw Linehan mentioned. Got amnesia. Linehan ran alot of short passing in 2016 when Dak was by far the most successful. Then the media questioned the QB as not able to throw anything but intermediate passes and nothing deep. Then Linehan was fired and Moore appeared. Everybody thinks Moore is going to bloom but I think just the opposite. The more an offense is successful..tje more the defenses study it and stut it down. Moore is going to struggle this year. Dak is not going to pickup where he left off. Things are not lineal in the NFL. That usually make detours. Expecting Moore to get really focused on this year. Just my feeling of how things really work.

 

[phildadon86]

None of this is new.

Also Skip Peete spent years here as Wade/Garrett's rb coach.

also garrett's offense here threw vertical all the damn time. Go watch the 07-09 seasons. It was bombs away.

That wasn’t Garrett offense. He was OC in title only. Without Tony Sparano holding his hand his offense was garbage. May I remind you of the 3 straight 8-8 years

 

[garyo1954]

Read your post and never saw Linehan mentioned. Got amnesia. Linehan ran alot of short passing in 2016 when Dak was by far the most successful. Then the media questioned the QB as not able to throw anything but intermediate passes and nothing deep. Then Linehan was fired and Moore appeared. Everybody thinks Moore is going to bloom but I think just the opposite. The more an offense is successful..tje more the defenses study it and stut it down. Moore is going to struggle this year. Dak is not going to pickup where he left off. Things are not lineal in the NFL. That usually make detours. Expecting Moore to get really focused on this year. Just my feeling of how things really work.

Linehan has nothing to do with BigMac and Kellen.
BigMac learned at Pitt under Hackett.
Petersen learned under Hackett and taught Kellen.
Kellen and BigMac have the basic principles in common which give them something.
(Could be why BigMac lets Kellen have autonomy in playcalling).

I suspect you're right about the O. In the NFL teams and players have up and down years and nothing is linear so (hate to admit it) it likely won't continue going up.

 

[john van brocklin]

And now......The Rest of The Story...

Kellen Moore’s motion-heavy offense operated within Jason Garrett’s Air Coryell philosophy, placing an emphasis on vertical shots in the passing game centered around a strong run game while HC Mike McCarthy, runs a variant of the West Coast offense that features short, quick passes with little focus on running the ball.

At first glance, it might seem like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. But these two coaches share a offensive philosophy that goes back to Paul Hackett, the Passing Game Coordinatior, de-facto Offensive Coordinator, under Tom Landry from 1986 to 1988. (The prior three years Hackett had been QB/WR/TE coach learning under the inventor of the West Coast Offense, Bill Walsh, with the 49ers).

With Garrett gone, Moore's primary offensive philosophy is expected to become the one he played in at Boise State under Chris Petersen. Petersen's own philosophy is an hodgepodge of the West Coast Offense he learned in 1992 as QB coach with the Pitt Panthers (University of Pittsburgh), his time under Mike Belotti at Oregon learning the spread offense and his years as OC under Boise State's Dan Hawkins, learning the fly offense, which was built around the jet sweep concept on nearly every play.

Going back to the Pitt Panther team of 1992 where Chris Peterson got his introduction to the West Coast Offense under Head Coach Paul Hackett, there was a third year graduate assistant by the name of Michael McCarthy, coaching WRs. Yes, the same Michael McCarthy who is HC of the Dallas Cowboys today. (The guy we know as BigMac also worked the night shift on the Pennsylvania Turnpike as a toll collector to supplement his income and spent his time in the tollbooth reviewing the University of Pittsburgh playbook).

In 1993 Hackett and McCarthy left the Pitt Panthers for the OC position with the Kansas City Chiefs and offensive quality control coach, respectively. Petersen went to Portland State as QB coach.

Essentially Paul Hackett took the offense he ran with the Cowboys to the Pitt Panthers and taught it to McCarthy working alongside Chris Petersen. And today Petersen's greatest quarterback, Kellen Moore, is the offensive coordinator working for McCarthy.

(Skip Peete, the Cowboys running back coach, was the running backs coach with the same Pitt Panthers as McCarthy and Petersen in 1992).

Pretty complicated
Just hope they score points

 

[garyo1954]

Pretty complicated
Just hope they score points

Apologize for the weirdness.
Its a strange story with twists and turns that brought these three together with the Cowboys.
At it all started with the last OC under Tom Landry, Paul Hackett.

 

[Typhus]

Color me lost. Couldn't follow the connection. But then again, I dropped out of high school in the sixth grade. So my comprehension level might be a little off.

Its OK, you made up for it

 

[john van brocklin]

Apologize for the weirdness.
Its a strange story with twists and turns that brought these three together with the Cowboys.
At it all started with the last OC under Tom Landry, Paul Hackett.

No problem
I appreciate you posting the information!

 

[MikeB80]

That wasn’t Garrett offense. He was OC in title only. Without Tony Sparano holding his hand his offense was garbage. May I remind you of the 3 straight 8-8 years

well yes Tony Sporano was an excellent coach to have on that staff in that transition year however that was 100% garrett's offense.

It was a throwback to turner's offense with all the updates everyone else had added to that coryell offense through the years. it was so much so Turner/Garrett/Coryell's offense that Jerry basically did not hire Norv to be the head coach because Jason was going to run the same offense.

07 was vertical all the time and so was 08. 08 was so much vertical route running that this whole market and fanbase went nuts because they never ran the ball. Go back and watch that final cowboys Commanders game at the stadium. They could not run early so they just threw the ball all game and they caught hell for it.

as far as the 8-8 seasons go, the first two garrett head coaching years were essentially rebuilds on offense with the same high expectations as previous years. They went from having gurode and davis inside to guys like david arkin, kevin kowalski and phil costa...it was like hey go beat the giants defense with these guys in your interior. Sure thing.

To this day I am not sure how Tony Romo did not die during the 2011 thanksgiving game versus the dolphins or the 2012 game vs Tampa at home. He got absolutely killed because the line was basically thrown together on the interior, hoping old players would not get hurt and they of course did ending with the phil costa's of the world blocking.

Michael bennett put one of the most vicious hits I have ever seen on Romo in that game in 2012. In the stadium the feeling was like well its 2010 again because he just got killed by a free rusher....

anyway, Garrett's offense changed a little in 09 and then Romo had more input into it and they could not play that vertical passing game with poor pass protection. Which led to Bill Callahan, Jimmy Robinson, Mike Pope and scott linehan coming in over the next two years to help.

 

[phildadon86]

well yes Tony Sporano was an excellent coach to have on that staff in that transition year however that was 100% garrett's offense.

It was a throwback to turner's offense with all the updates everyone else had added to that coryell offense through the years. it was so much so Turner/Garrett/Coryell's offense that Jerry basically did not hire Norv to be the head coach because Jason was going to run the same offense.

07 was vertical all the time and so was 08. 08 was so much vertical route running that this whole market and fanbase went nuts because they never ran the ball. Go back and watch that final cowboys Commanders game at the stadium. They could not run early so they just threw the ball all game and they caught hell for it.

as far as the 8-8 seasons go, the first two garrett head coaching years were essentially rebuilds on offense with the same high expectations as previous years. They went from having gurode and davis inside to guys like david arkin, kevin kowalski and phil costa...it was like hey go beat the giants defense with these guys in your interior. Sure thing.

To this day I am not sure how Tony Romo did not die during the 2011 thanksgiving game versus the dolphins or the 2012 game vs Tampa at home. He got absolutely killed because the line was basically thrown together on the interior, hoping old players would not get hurt and they of course did ending with the phil costa's of the world blocking.

Michael bennett put one of the most vicious hits I have ever seen on Romo in that game in 2012. In the stadium the feeling was like well its 2010 again because he just got killed by a free rusher....

anyway, Garrett's offense changed a little in 09 and then Romo had more input into it and they could not play that vertical passing game with poor pass protection. Which led to Bill Callahan, Jimmy Robinson, Mike Pope and scott linehan coming in over the next two years to help.

So 2014 with Murray was vertical? I thought Garrett wanted to run a 90s style offense. It makes no sense. The fact anyone can still defend Garrett with a straight face here is absolutely mind boggling to me. Where was the giants offense ranked last year? Just curious

 

[MikeB80]

So 2014 with Murray was vertical? I thought Garrett wanted to run a 90s style offense. It makes no sense. The fact anyone can still defend Garrett with a straight face here is absolutely mind boggling to me. Where was the giants offense ranked last year? Just curious

After that 09 season the offense changed a bit as I said mostly because of the interior of the line. The 14 team was a mix on offense that was different from the 07-09 years that Garrett was running the offense he installed and called plays. After that 12 season the offense was basically running a modified version of the west coast with Callahan calling plays and the same when linehan came in. Those were different offenses in those years although still using the coryell numbering system and terminology.

also what does murray have to do with the passing game? The running game changed here when callahan came in 13 and Frank Pollack. In 14 Romo did throw a lot of vertical stuff, there was this guy on the team named Dez Bryant who along with Tony Romo perfected the back shoulder fade. They were pretty damn good you should look them up.

you can hate garrett all you want and I am no fan either after the ware and romo handling but it was his offense in 07-09.

 

[chagus]

Fascinating. Great post!