I know a lot of you love the wildcat and it has it's place but I think we are relying on it all the time now and when it doesn't work we're screwed.  It has become a crutch for this team.  Here's what I believe.  We spend entirely too much time working on wildcat packages in practice and not enough time in the base offense.  That was fine with Chad Pennington cause he was a 10 year veteran but Chad Henne has all of 4 starts now and needs reps to get his timing and accuracy down.  You can't do that when he's on the sidelines watching the team run the freakin wildcat.

I would rather we establish something in the base offense and then maybe throw a wildcat play in there to throw the defense off.  This 3rd and long crap and then bring Henne in from the sidelines and ask him to get us a first down is not working and asking entirely too much from a first year starter.  And someone needs to teach Henne to stop retreating when pressure is coming.

I totally agree. I am not a wilcat hater. I actually like it but and it does have its placed but it is taking away from the base offense no matter what the coaching staff wants to admit to and it HAS become a crutch. There is no way we should stuggle this much on offense. They seem to be regressing. If the WC isnt working we just fall apart and become an abortion on offense. Its embarrasing.

Wildcat should be sprinkled in as a change up and possibly to close out games. I am probably going to catch hell for this but I also think the WR rotation isnt working and is also huring Henne and the offenses progression. The lack of no true "starter" and where just going to package guys in and out is a load of crap. Leave Harltine and Cam out there if they are the for the most part if they are indeed the starters. These 1 WR sets with Bess is not working. I man come on. Third and long and we got 1 WR on the field. WHATEVER!  Anyway thats my arm chair coaching for the day lol.  I know the coaches no 100000 times more about football then me. That is why its so frustrating for me to watch. I think the pressure and lack of faith in the wr corps is causing them to make these mistakes. I get upset with the play calling and then I think how I would feel if my boss asked me to certain things but didnt give me the proper tools to do it. (I.E. WRs).

I am sorry for all my typoes. I am really tired.

AlabamaFin wrote:

I am sorry for all my typoes. I am really tired.

You said our offense becomes an abortion.

And what happens to this thread when the Wildcat wins games for us again, like the first Jets game??

Well, it wasn't great but the wildcat converted a crucial 3rd down for us in the 4th quarter

Though I agree with some of what has been said in this thread, I wouldn't go so far as saying the wildcat has become a crutch. What I do think needs to happen is our coaching staff needs to change both how much they use the WC and what plays they run out of it. It has become a "run predictable" offensive scheme. We need to get a bit more innovative with it and make it like it was when we first started using it...more unpredictable.

That will also require our O-line to hold up a bit longer for pass plays from the WC to develop, but I don't think that is an impossible task for us. Time to re-wild the wildcat, IMO.

NationsBIGGESTFinFan wrote:

And what happens to this thread when the Wildcat wins games for us again, like the first Jets game??

The last two weeks it has hurt more than helped and I think it's taking valuable practice time away from Chad Henne and our receivers who really need to get their timing down.

We do not have any passing threat in the Wildcat. Ronnie Brown lost I'm not sure how many yards on Sunday. Patty White will never be able to play his position.

Like last year after seeing it a number of times teams are starting to figure it out. Any team we can run on with the Wildcat we can run on with our normal offense. Plus while in a normal formation we have real passing options.

Every rep that goes to practicing the Wildcat does take away from practicing something in a normal formation.

The last two weeks we also played the two top defenses in the NFL And it did work to a degree (Not as Much as one would expect to be fully successful) but you have to had played the game of football to know sometimes.

Wow I gotta disagree.   The Wildcat is apart of our offense.   So saying it's becoming a crutch is the equivalent of saying we need to stop running the ball because we haven't been successful for two games.    The wildcat is not always going to work every play nor every game.    It's about it's overall success throughout the season and it still forces teams to spend a lof of time gameplanning against it.    We tried a couple new wrinkles that didn't work, things like that are going to happen but to go all kneejerk and say bag it because of the past two games, is just not the right thing to do IMO. 

Here is the problem with the wildcat. It does not work well against certain defense. No different than other teams offenses. Some parts work well against some defense, other do not. If a team has 2 deep safetiies to you throw deep against them, no you take what they give you. No different here

Against that defense yesterday that is fast and agressive, the wild cat is not going to work well. You also can't run wide on that team and the coaching staff tried that as well in the regular formation. The coaching staff also had Henne doing play action which also does not work against a blitzing team, because they don't care.

I like the fact that they finally had ronnie throwing the ball, but again unless he was going to step back and throw as a pocket passer, him rolling out was not going to work against that defense.

Play calling was awful yesterday against that defense.

You mean the same defense that we ran the wildcat down their throats 3 weeks ago?     It was a conservative gameplan, no doubt.  Kind of expected with a young qb making his first road start, in a game where most realized turnovers would probably be the difference. 

It has nothing to do with not playing football. Its obvous that when the wildcat doesnt work nothing else works either. I cant believe you all dont see it.  That doesnt mean that its no good. It means we have not progressed in the other aspects of our offense. We appproach each week with the same game plan. Lets be honest. The wildcat was installed because of lack of production last year from the running game and suspect passing game. We never really addressed any of those weaknesses we just masked them with the wildcat. That is smart coaching in that respect but on the flip side not working on the other aspects of your offense and letting them suffer is not good coaching. Which then proves that it is a crutch. IMO. 

I dont really blame Sporano completely for this. You gotta do what you gotta do when your boss isnt giving you the tools you need to succeed or hasnt yet. AKA Wide RecieversLOL. Having said that I dont understand how we can be THIS BAD in the passing game. Our WRs are not very good but are they really THAT BAD that we are so afraid of throwing down the field? Makes me learn towards the wildcat being a crutch.

 We should have been able to make some plays down field here and there. Throwing on first down should have helped but we didnt even try. That is very concerning. The overthrow to Hartline proved that there was something there at times but we didnt even try after that. Waiting to third and long to try and throw. Predictable! Made it easy for them and played right into there hands. No confidence in the passing game. SCAREY. Why dont we let Henne take a shot again on first down. Hell we were going three and out anyways!  Let them get a chance to mesh during the game and gets some timing down.

Dude, did you watch the second half of the Saints game?    We passed a lot on first down and we passed some on first down in this game as well.     We came in with a conservative gameplan, YES.   but that's what you do when you have a young qb in a game where turnovers will be the deciding factor.    Also, we are power football team that is going to run the ball and not give up on running the ball.    If you don't like that style, you better learn to deal with it, because that's been the goal from day 1.     And we also used some different personal groupings to try and get some mismatches in this game,  I.E. Fasano split wide, Ricky split wide, Ronnie split wide.     What's scary is some peoples inability to understand this game.    They are not going to put all the pressure on Henne to carry this team, not this early into his development.     This Front office was handed a team lacking talent across the board,  we are only a year and half into the transition and we are winning while doing it.    Rome wasn't built in a day,  we are on the right track just show some fricken patience.    Also, some of you have to realize that the other team gets paid too.    Some weeks we are going to go up against a good defense and not be that successful offensively.  It's football for crying out loud, but you still have to find a way to win and OUR team did yesterday.    Coming off the heartbreakng loss to the Saints, this was a great win on the road against a division rival. 

Yes i watched the Saints game brutha.  Dont get all cranky. We didnt really do much of that in the in the Jets game. We shoud have won the Saints game. However that is a different team and a different circumstance. I am talking about what happends when the Cat doesnt work we seem to have no answers and that should concern you. I saw these formations you are refering to and they were not effective.  Fasano split wide doesnt scare anyone. I understand they were being conservative and trying to avoid turnovers. So dont come with the arrogant comments about understanding the game because I do have a decent understanding of the game.  I am not talking about going 4 and 5 wide everytime and running some wide open BS against these guys. The truth is we got very lucky that Ted Ginn wanted to shut people up. That isnt going to happen often. Contrary to what you may think I do love power football. However it does have to be complemented with atleast a compatant passing game and we do not have it yet. I agree with you that we need to have patience and that we are in only year 2. However it is frustrating to watch and I can still believe in the trifecta and still question them when we look like we did this sunday. You should question things when we are embarrising and the rest of the league makes fun of our passing game.  Many of us thought that Jimmy Johnson was going to turn us into the dominant cowboys of the 90s and we know how that turned out. He ruined the end of Dannys career. So dont get upset with me because I dont want to see ineptness on the field. We have seen enough of that. I do agree that Trifectia had there hands full when they took over so please understand that is always in my thoughts when I vent.