Who's in favor of burying the Wildcat?

gimmesix

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That was God awful. Pull that out of the playbook and burn it.
I think we were setting up tossing the ball back to the QB for a throw since we faked it on that one play. But both of our Wildcat attempts were awful, so I'll be OK if we just experimented with it in this game and shelve it.
 

RonnieT24

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Lol, you think nobody has seen those same plays fail on every team that runs them?
Pretty sure the Eagles used it for a TD against us on the Gainwell run. Your definition of failure is different than mine.
 

erod

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Pretty sure the Eagles used it for a TD against us on the Gainwell run. Your definition of failure is different than mine.
It has about a 3% NFL success rate. And any running play would have worked on that play. We aren't good against the run, as the 1-9 Panthers showed us yesterday.
 

big dog cowboy

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Carolina was the perfect team to mess around with it.
It was such an epic fail, who in their right might would think to try it twice???

Carolina might have been the best team to try it out against, but it was badly executed it would have failed in preseason.
 

RonnieT24

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It has about a 3% NFL success rate. And any running play would have worked on that play. We aren't good against the run, as the 1-9 Panthers showed us yesterday.
Classic goalpost moving. nice job.
 

cowboyed

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Why not jet sweep or rig the player getting the football with a jet pack and fly to the end zone. Of course I am kidding but some of these plays are gimmicky.
 

TheCoolFan

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The Wildcat has always been dumb to me. More teams need to utilize the HB Direct Snap instead. This should be in every team's playbook and used at least once a game in short yardage situations:

 

aikemirv

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My take on the Wildcat is it’s too early to know if it can work. It didn’t today. But on two particular plays I watched, I actually stopped it and rewound it to look at the blocking. Several guys whiffed blocks and that’s without being able to see every player in an ”All 22” view.

My bigger point is this: Sometimes the success or failure playcalling and formations is not about the “call” but about execution. I’m always amused in the Game Day thread when a play doesn’t work, many fans scream, “Stop calling that play”, or “What a bad call”. When a play works of course it‘s a “great call”.

Plays work almost totally based on the quality of the execution of all 11 players in the play. The Wildcat looked bad today. But I’m not convinced it’s a “bad formation”. Today, it looked like bad execution.
a lot of our run plays are bad execution so when you are telling a team we are going to run it well then you are pretty doomed from the start.
 

Pass2Run

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I simply don't get the philosophy behind snapping it to a guy who doesn't present a threat to throw the ball, and having a guy who's not a real threat to catch the ball (the QB) out as a WR. In what universe is that better than just snapping it to the QB?

It also bugs me that the wildcat, which means something very specific, is now used to refer to all plays involving a direct snap to someone other than the QB. But that ship has sailed.
They probably give him an audible. That way, if they show certain blitz packages, they do throw it. Wildcat just loosens up the defense, because it makes you think about it. Can he really not throw. In fact, he can. Nobody thought Cedric Wilson could throw either, until he did.

You also run plays, and plays like that, so other teams have to prepare for them. They spend time doing that, or it can work meaning they spend time on something when they'd rather be working on something else. It's good for the team to show a diverse array of looks out there. Never sticking to the same one too much.. Because that makes it more difficult for other teams to prepare for. Move these guys around out there. We have the team for that.
 

Coogiguy03

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I'm sorry, I don't think this formation is benefiting us too well. I like the fact that we're trying to change things up to give different looks. Maybe it's WHEN we use it. We go up and down the field, we seem to only use it when we're closer to the red zone, I don't get this thinking either, and it never seems to work. What are your thoughts, should we keep it, or can it????
 

Coogiguy03

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My take on the Wildcat is it’s too early to know if it can work. It didn’t today. But on two particular plays I watched, I actually stopped it and rewound it to look at the blocking. Several guys whiffed blocks and that’s without being able to see every player in an ”All 22” view.

My bigger point is this: Sometimes the success or failure playcalling and formations is not about the “call” but about execution. I’m always amused in the Game Day thread when a play doesn’t work, many fans scream, “Stop calling that play”, or “What a bad call”. When a play works of course it‘s a “great call”.

Plays work almost totally based on the quality of the execution of all 11 players in the play. The Wildcat looked bad today. But I’m not convinced it’s a “bad formation”. Today, it looked like bad execution.
That's where I struggle with saying do we have the right kind of players for it, and especially the right kind of lineman to run these plays and pulling plays. I think we need guys that are a bit more agile/better on getting their guys blocked the right way. The execution is the big reason why these players don't work, I often wonder how things look when we practice it against our defense
 
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