erod
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A word of warning to the traditionalists like me, you might want to stop and put away the sharp objects and Ozzy music now before you read any further.....
So I'm flipping across the dial, and I land on some Cowboys talk and a stop-by from Mike Fisher on The Fan. For those not familiar with Fisher, he's kicked around Dallas for many years through a number of jobs. He's the Keith Olbermann of this market. Very good reporter who has a bad habit of letting his bad temper and politics bleed into his content. But you can generally trust what he says regarding Cowboys information.
This morning, Fisher offered this, regarding the league, the Cowboys, and the read option. This is a paraphrase, but I think it pretty much captures what he said.
The Cowboys had better start addressing the read-option defensively, and Monte Kiffin said they are, especially now that the cameras are out of practice.
Teams in the NFL are not only working on the read-option, they're working on offenses that can have literally 4 or 5 options in a single play, with a hand-off, quick pass, bubble screen, and QB keeper all rolled into the same play. LOTS of teams are installing this. It's up to the QB to decide at the line of scrimmage which play to run based on the defensive front; the other players just run the play and expect the ball without knowing what the QB will do, so noone has to think. A team can basically have 4-5 plays alone, and run them up and down the field in no huddle all game long (to prevent substitutions on defense).
In fact, the Cowboys had better get started on putting this into their offense, too. They don't want to be the last team to do this. And in fact, perhaps that's a lot of what they mean by Romo being more involved in the offense and playcalling this season. We may see the Cowboys with their own version of the read-option, pistol offense this year.
I had three reactions to this: (1) Yes, it makes sense that this is where things are headed after what Washington, Seattle, and San Francisco accomplished last year, (2) it sounds like dumb-downed, pick-up football at the local elementary school, and (3) it's awfully depressing if this is what the NFL is devolving into.
Soon, we may see the last of the stately, cerebral quarterback who rides herd over the team to John Facenda and NFL Films music. Instead, we may see a series of athletic, college-like quarterbacks that make quick 5-6 year career runs and are relatively easily replaced, and NFL Films reverts to a more MTV video format.
My DNA says no, perhaps in desperation, that the defensive talent in the NFL and the coordinators will find a way to solve this conundrum, and we'll get back to more drop-back passing and a traditional running game. I certainly hope so.
But a quick glance at those uniforms in Jacksonville and Seattle, and now this news, and I'm growing more and more convinced that we're headed to an Oregon Duck looking league, both in style and substance. Sooner or later, probably sooner.
I feel my football-watching days slipping away. I just don't think I'll ever come around to that style of football. I have no taste for 38-35 football games, which college football is now.
I'll have to leave it to the young whippersnappers with their short attention spans and online Madden football leagues. They'll be the paying customers soon enough.
So I'm flipping across the dial, and I land on some Cowboys talk and a stop-by from Mike Fisher on The Fan. For those not familiar with Fisher, he's kicked around Dallas for many years through a number of jobs. He's the Keith Olbermann of this market. Very good reporter who has a bad habit of letting his bad temper and politics bleed into his content. But you can generally trust what he says regarding Cowboys information.
This morning, Fisher offered this, regarding the league, the Cowboys, and the read option. This is a paraphrase, but I think it pretty much captures what he said.
The Cowboys had better start addressing the read-option defensively, and Monte Kiffin said they are, especially now that the cameras are out of practice.
Teams in the NFL are not only working on the read-option, they're working on offenses that can have literally 4 or 5 options in a single play, with a hand-off, quick pass, bubble screen, and QB keeper all rolled into the same play. LOTS of teams are installing this. It's up to the QB to decide at the line of scrimmage which play to run based on the defensive front; the other players just run the play and expect the ball without knowing what the QB will do, so noone has to think. A team can basically have 4-5 plays alone, and run them up and down the field in no huddle all game long (to prevent substitutions on defense).
In fact, the Cowboys had better get started on putting this into their offense, too. They don't want to be the last team to do this. And in fact, perhaps that's a lot of what they mean by Romo being more involved in the offense and playcalling this season. We may see the Cowboys with their own version of the read-option, pistol offense this year.
I had three reactions to this: (1) Yes, it makes sense that this is where things are headed after what Washington, Seattle, and San Francisco accomplished last year, (2) it sounds like dumb-downed, pick-up football at the local elementary school, and (3) it's awfully depressing if this is what the NFL is devolving into.
Soon, we may see the last of the stately, cerebral quarterback who rides herd over the team to John Facenda and NFL Films music. Instead, we may see a series of athletic, college-like quarterbacks that make quick 5-6 year career runs and are relatively easily replaced, and NFL Films reverts to a more MTV video format.
My DNA says no, perhaps in desperation, that the defensive talent in the NFL and the coordinators will find a way to solve this conundrum, and we'll get back to more drop-back passing and a traditional running game. I certainly hope so.
But a quick glance at those uniforms in Jacksonville and Seattle, and now this news, and I'm growing more and more convinced that we're headed to an Oregon Duck looking league, both in style and substance. Sooner or later, probably sooner.
I feel my football-watching days slipping away. I just don't think I'll ever come around to that style of football. I have no taste for 38-35 football games, which college football is now.
I'll have to leave it to the young whippersnappers with their short attention spans and online Madden football leagues. They'll be the paying customers soon enough.
