Read Option

[Direwolf63]

Defensive coordinators around the league will dig out last years Oregan/Stanford game. Stanford was the only team to stop that freight train from Eugene.

Defenses will get better at stopping it, but I don' think it's a fad. I think there will me more and more athletic QB's who can throw coming out of college. So it will remain part of the game. You will just see teams moving in and out of the zone read. Once QB's become veterans and their mobility starts decreasing, they will move to more conventional offenses.

That's what the Commanders will have to do when RGIII returns.

 

[john van brocklin]

Watching SF/SEA/WAS excel with the read option I believe most teams will spend some time working on defensing it in Training Camp. Likely only SEA and Was did any real work against it in camp in 2012. It is a copy cat league and I'm sure there will be more teams trying a form of it and drafting QB's who can run it in the future.
Will it go the way of the Wildcat, or evolve into a more dominant force NFL wide?
IMO it will go the way of the wildcat after the spotlight of success shines on it and Defenses teach to stop it more than a few days before they play a team that runs it.

You expose your QB to too many hits, see RG3.

 

[jrumann59]

R/O in my opinion will only last as long as QBs that run it. The only problem I see with it, QBs like Wilson and Kaepernick will adapt as they get older better than RG3. Though RG3 may need to evolve as passer much quicker now. As age and the hits add up you have to become more of a mobile pocket passer, please see Cunningham and McNabb when your legs go and you actually have to stand back there and read a defense pre-snap. QB is such a important position I do not see a GM drafting a QB to have him there 6-7 years so he can run R/O but totally suck at a real offense.

 

[Doomsday101]

You expose your QB to too many hits, see RG3.

RGIII exposes himself to these hit. He can get down or get out of bounds but he chooses to get the extra yard. Often time a pocket passer will take big hit even after they release the ball and they are in a less potected state as they are exposing their ribs as they are in a throwing motion.

Nothing wrong with a QB be it in the pistol or conventional offense to take off and run if the defense is giving them a big wide opening the mistake is going for the extra yardage like some RB.

 

[Doomsday101]

if this offense is truely unstoppable, then there should be a lot of teams installing it in the offseason, lets see what happens.

Unstoppable has more to do with the execution of the offense than the offensive system. There is not an offense that can't be stopped, WCO is used and has been used but when not executed it can be stopped like any other offense. Pistol will work because it allows for both the run and pass game it is not like some typical option offense based on solely running the ball.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Johnny Manziel Is gonna dominate in the NFL.

I don't think so.

 

[links18]

Unstoppable has more to do with the execution of the offense than the offensive system. There is not an offense that can't be stopped, WCO is used and has been used but when not executed it can be stopped like any other offense. Pistol will work because it allows for both the run and pass game it is not like some typical option offense based on solely running the ball.

In any offense, the QB still has to make the throw, the receivers still have to catch the pass, the RBs still have to find the yardage and the coach still has to manage the game. But the fact is, the 'Skins, Niners and Seahawks have been tearing the league up with this system this year. We certainly had no answer for it. It completely neutralized our best defensive player..........

 

[Doomsday101]

In any offense, the QB still has to make the throw, the receivers still have to catch the pass, the RBs still have to find the yardage and the coach still has to manage the game. But the fact is, the 'Skins, Niners and Seahawks have been tearing the league up with this system this year. We certainly had no answer for it. It completely neutralized our best defensive player..........

True but it is also why I don't see this as some fad and clearly nothing like the wildcat that people are using as an example. The wildcat is a direct snap to a RB and what do teams do? They run the ball

The pistol is not just running the ball teams are running and throwing out of this offense it is not 1 dimensional. As long as you put the defense in the position of having to contend with run or pass it keeps the defense honest. You can't just go after the QB and you can't just key on the RB you have to play the entire field. So in my view the pistol is nothing like the old time option and it is nothing at all like the wildcat.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Defensive coordinators around the league will dig out last years Oregan/Stanford game. Stanford was the only team to stop that freight train from Eugene.

Defenses will get better at stopping it, but I don' think it's a fad. I think there will me more and more athletic QB's who can throw coming out of college. So it will remain part of the game. You will just see teams moving in and out of the zone read. Once QB's become veterans and their mobility starts decreasing, they will move to more conventional offenses.

That's what the Commanders will have to do when RGIII returns.

See, I think once the right mindset is put to it, stopping that type of offense isn't like splitting the atom.

Defensive players simply have to stay in their gaps. When you see Clay Matthews Jr and Erik Walden wandering all over the field without any interest in maintaing their gaps, that's when those long QB runs happen.

 

[Plankton]

Defensive coordinators around the league will dig out last years Oregan/Stanford game. Stanford was the only team to stop that freight train from Eugene.

Defenses will get better at stopping it, but I don' think it's a fad. I think there will me more and more athletic QB's who can throw coming out of college. So it will remain part of the game. You will just see teams moving in and out of the zone read. Once QB's become veterans and their mobility starts decreasing, they will move to more conventional offenses.

That's what the Commanders will have to do when RGIII returns.

Stanford had a great approach to playing the Oregon spread attack:

• Get upfield.
• Maintain lane/gap discipline
• Play physical and hit the QB on the read-option plays

If this is the approach going in, and the DEs in a 4-3 and the OLBs in a 3-4 are taught to stick the QB only, the attack can be stopped. It is predicated on the 3 man line/ILBs in the 3-4 and the 2 DTs and 3 LBs stopping the inside run from the back. The keys are what I listed above.

With the amount put in QBs, if they are getting tagged on these plays, the QBs will not hold up over the course of a season. It is why the option has not been a sustainable offense in the NFL.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

I think it's a fad. The reality, at least in my mind, is that you can't subject your QB to hits like you have in the spread. Sooner or later, they are going to be hurt and that's it. Over time, it shortens their careers and when you have the kind of money you see today invested in these players, it doesn't take long to see the diminishing returns brought forward. Add to that, it's simply too hard to find a starting QB in the NFL and I think it spells short lived.

JMO

 

[JackWagon]

you have to be like elway and young ... throw from the pocket ... run as a last resort.

 

[CxC1993]

Just a fad that will pass after a year or two like the Wildcat. There is no substitute for a pocket passing.

This.

 

[links18]

Wasn't Randall Cunningham supposed to be the "ultimate weapon" like 27 years ago? How'd that work out?

 

[Doomsday101]

Wasn't Randall Cunningham supposed to be the "ultimate weapon" like 27 years ago? How'd that work out?

Not good but then when you challege defenders head on as a QB you will not last long. Sliding, getting out of bounds instead of trying to leap over defender or lowering your shoulder is a good way to have you season end.

On the other hand Romo is not a running QB and has had the crap kicked out of him so being a QB you will take you shots, when you are in the middle of your throwing motion and get slammed you are a lot less protected than the QB who runs with a wide open field in front of him. Hell my grand mother could have picked up yards like the San Fran QB did when you have a gapping space in front of you. Hell he went 60 yards on a run and was never touched that is how open he was to run.

 

[CowboyChris]

i know one thing....fad or no fad, with Romo and Orton on the roster, i know we wont be running any of this.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

On the other hand Romo is not a running QB and has had the crap kicked out of him so being a QB you will take you shots, when you are in the middle of your throwing motion and get slammed you are a lot less protected than the QB who runs with a wide open field in front of him. Hell my grand mother could have picked up yards like the San Fran QB did when you have a gapping space in front of you. Hell he went 60 yards on a run and was never touched that is how open he was to run.

This is one of the things that has changed quit a bit with Romo. When Parcells was here, he was very disciplined in the fact that Tony would drop, go through his progressions and get the ball out quickly. No screwing around.

After Parcells, Romo went through a period of 2 or 3 years where he actually did pull it down and run a lot more and that put a tone of pressure on the defense but it did not last long.

Romo hardly ever runs now. I wished he would scramble a little more but he doesn't do it much now IMO. He moves around in the pocket and tries to make plays but not so much running downfield.

 

[NIBGoldenchild]

It is the way anything works when it is sprung on the rest of the NFL. Year one is when the new tactic works best, and then defenses slow it down from there. That has been established time and time again.

I can see you arguing against it being just a fad that defenses shut down... what I can't see is you arguing against defenses figuring better ways to slow it down after having seen it and had plenty of time to work on it. You know this will happen.

It has already happened a little as the year wore on and defensive coordinators have had time to digest it a little.

Try to convince yourself that it is some magical thing that defenses just can't stop if you want. Daydream all you wish that, unlike anything that has ever popped up in football, it can't be slowed down.

Just don't try to make the people who understand football do it.

I understand football just fine. So do college coaches. Still waiting on the magical solution to figure it out.

 

[NIBGoldenchild]

heres a great article about the read option (Cowboy Related) see what you think

http://www.acmepackingcompany.com/2013/1/10/3861876/packers-vs-49ers-defending-the-read-option

When did Mike Vick and Vince Young run the read option?

 

[Doomsday101]

This is one of the things that has changed quit a bit with Romo. When Parcells was here, he was very disciplined in the fact that Tony would drop, go through his progressions and get the ball out quickly. No screwing around.

After Parcells, Romo went through a period of 2 or 3 years where he actually did pull it down and run a lot more and that put a tone of pressure on the defense but it did not last long.

Romo hardly ever runs now. I wished he would scramble a little more but he doesn't do it much now IMO. He moves around in the pocket and tries to make plays but not so much running downfield.

That is true but then he is running because he has been forced to run and things are collapsing around him. Now if I got 60 yards of clear space in front of me why would I not run and take it as SF QB did? He did not put himself at risk he went untouched. Had a defender closed in then slid or get out of bounds but I see the shot the QB take even after they throw the ball and that is no less painful and just as likely that you will get injured.

I'm not seeing the pistol expose the QB the read is very quick if the end man takes a step inside the QB pitches to the RB if the end move out to the RB and there is a big hole there the QB will take it and as long as he slids he is not going to take any hit. In the meantime he can also pull up and throw to the open man as the DB move up.

If this offense was soley a running option like the wishbone then I would agree it was nothing but a gadget play or fad but you can run the complete offense and use the entire field with 3 WR, RB and TE. In doing that defense can't just key on one aspect of the offense. It is not just about running the ball as a QB it takes advantage of their ability to throw the ball