[skinpride1]

I want to hear some opinons on the so called west coast offense. Are any teams playing a true west coast style offense anymore?Has the west coast style just been split into many types of different offenses.Would you consider gibbs offense a type of west coaststyle.Would you define it as using the quarterbacks feet to the receivers route,so timing can be sensed,or is the west coast a thing of the past because of the teams using it in different ways.What do you think,should teams call it something else, because it's not truley west coast.

[die cowboys die]

as i understand it, the "West Coast" offense is built around the short passing game, with an emphasis on timing and "RAC" (run after catch).

the idea is that there are always small holes in any defense, and usually the defense will make those holes be up close within the 5-10 yard range, rather than expose an open area deep that could result in a huge gain.

so the QB is supposed to throw one of those holes while the WR is running toward it, that way the WR and ball arrive at the same time, hitting him in stride, and he can run forward for a few (or a lot) more yards after the short pass.


gibbs did throw a lot of short passes this season, but in general i don't think he runs a west coast style offense. gibbs prefers to pound the ball with the running game, which makes the defense bring additional men up close to stop the run. that sets up the deep play-action pass-- all the defenders are up close to stop the run so you throw it way downfield and go for the homerun. (but only AFTER you establish the run- so it's not like spurrier's idea of just throwing deep all day long even though there are 100 defenders back there).

one could argue that the West Coast offense uses the short passes for the same purpose-- to bring the defense up close so you can throw it over their head. true, any good offense will take its shots downfield. so perhaps you could make the distinction that the west coast offense substitutes that short passing game in place of a running game to some extent.

hope that made any sense.

[Redskin in Canada]

Joe Gibbs' teams have never played a West Coast offense.

http://www.westcoastoffense.com/

http://www.footballproject.com/story.php?storyid=61

[welch]

Thanks for the sources, RiC. (I would never have had the patience to track them down!)

Check your Washington Post Redskins book. I remember something in it that suggested the mid-60's Redskins ran the "west coast" offense under Otto Graham...long before anyone thought to name it.

Of course, Otto didn't care about the defense, thought the run was boring, and didn't waste much effort on the OL, either, so the Redskins always finished about 6 wins and 8 losses, but it made me think better of him.

[Smithian]

We didn't run the West Coast... We just stunk.

[Redskin in Canada]

[BossHog]

[Redskin in Canada]

I stand by my two statements in the post above.

Otto Graham's offense of the late 60's was not Bill Walsh's offense of the 80's. Nothing comes from nothing but there is a huge leap from one offense to another.

Some of the Walsh plays simply did not exist under Graham. These are plays created to fit some specific talent in the 49ers at that time.

[BossHog]

Yeah the book and the offensive line coach couldn't possibly understand football like we do.

[Redskin in Canada]

[redskincity]

offense has gone south--literally, towards San Diego, the home of the West Coast Offense, where it was fashioned by Sid Gillman of the NFL Chargers and Don Coryell of the San Diego State Aztecs/NFL Chargers.


http://www.4malamute.com/westcoast.html


Too me, if Don and Sid invented and updated the West Coast offense and Gibbs utilizes his system, Wouldn't we use some variant of the system???

[Redskin in Canada]

One version of the History and Evolution of the WC offense.



I have never associated the name of D. Coryell with the West Coast Offense.

[welch]

I was intrigued by the suggestion in the Post that that Otto Graham ran elements of what became the west coast offense. Note the "Brown" in small letters, in the "geno-gram", as a source leading to Walsh. That's Paul Brown, certainly, Graham's coach at the Cleveland Browns.

But the Walsh offense never looked like Air Coryell or the Gibbs offense...at least not to me, as an observer. When I think of Walsh and the 49'ers, I think of receivers criss-crossing every which way, and a quick pass to Roger Craig. I think if Craig running tricks and traps, but not smash-mouth Hogs-like line play.

Maybe the interesting thing is how much of the "pre-WCO" thinking Sonny carried with him in his play calling for Lombardi and Allen. I remember that Allen hated letting Sonny run the team -- QB's called their own plays -- because, as my used to say, "Allen never knew what Sonny was going to do next". Maybe Sonny's creativity had been nurtured by Graham?

[BossHog]

RIC... obviously Walsh has more to do with the WCO than anyone else. All I'm saying is that if you're going to talk about the EVOLUTION... one should peerhaps consider it's possible inception.

Whether the offense Graham ran was the same as Walsh or not, to me has no bearing on mentioning that it could very well indeed be where the WCO got it's start. Like Welch said, the Brown is likely Paul Brown, and to me that means they just didn't take that chart back quite far enough. Throw a tick above Brown and the name Graham, and I'd call it a day.

I guess the only guy that could answer the question is Bill Walsh himself.

[Redskin in Canada]