Something Old, Something New

I just watched Mike Riley ruin Pete Carroll's year by running the wham play ad nauseum. Congrats to Oregon St. and it got me to thinking about the Skins play calling.

Much has been made of the "new" Jim Zorn West Coast offense but a lot of the plays that are working for the Skins look really familiar. For example:

1. The Cooley Screen

Cooley fakes like he's in pass pro and then darts out for the easy catch and run. We saw this last year against Green Bay. I do credit Zorn in that this year the ball is in Cooley's hands much faster.

2. The Santana Screen

I called for it in my Dennis Hopper play calling thread and so far it's 2 for 2 with one touchdown.

3. The Goaline Draw

It worked for a score at the Giants last year and again against the Saints.

4. Yodepass

When they went I form at the two, I thought it was the Brunell/Sellers thing for sure, but they went to the Yodepass which was run against Tampa 2 seasons ago.

Now if Thomas can channel Reche Caldwell's out routes from the season finale last year, my theory will have been perfected. Thoughts?

Coach Z was just on the radio yesterday discussing things they kept the same. In large, the running game. It's the same plays but different terminology. They also created new running plays. He didn't mention specific passing plays, but It's safe to assume that when he and the coaching staff were putting together the play book, they probably kept a lot of the things that we had great success with. i.e. the bubble screen to Moss. This play in particular was a staple of our offense especially in the '05 season when Moss had 1400+ yards. Last week, we saw a lot of misdirection and trick plays. The exciting part is that we still have not seen the vast majority of his playbook.

there's new stuff too..

how many straight up 4 wr slants did we see under gibbs? THE definitive WCO play.

that crossing route where el or moss go out, run straight across to the other side of the field, and then turn vertical after getting the ball... seen that 4 or 5 times now.

we're running draws much better this year than last year, and i don't think gibbs used them as much out of 4 wr sets.


the cooley dump off and the moss screen were the best plays we had under gibbs (passing) and it'd be stupid not to keep them. we've screened incredibly well the entire time gibbs was here with coles, moss, cooley, and el.

[QUOTE=That Guy;481144]we're running draws much better this year than last year, and i don't think gibbs used them as much out of 4 wr sets.[QUOTE]

Isn't this a thing of beauty? The fundamental difference in philosophy- draws are really only successful when you have a good passing game. I think the one thing were really missing is the corner fade- especially in the red zone. This usually requires a bigger wide reciever, perhaps we plan on doing this with Thomas and/or Kelly.