This started as a journey down memory lane. Remember when the Lions were good? When we had legitimate beliefs that the Lions were going to go all the way and end their decades long slumber in the filth of total mediocrity?
SSR remembers. (And yes, I’m talking about myself in the third person now. It’s pitiful, I know.)
I remember Darryl Rogers getting fired and that portly boob taking over amidst all the laughter. But Wayne Fontes fooled us. Perhaps he was never taken completely serious, but after going 3-4 with an awful amalgamation of losers, schleps, and whiners, he got the full time gig.
Then he hired a little guy named "Mouse" to come in and run this crazy offense called the "Run ‘N Shoot." Names surfaced in training camp that nobody had ever heard of, like Richard Johnson an ex-IBM accountant. The receivers that were brought in were much like Mouse, small. They were dubbed "Smurfs."
Barry Sanders and Rodney Peete were drafted after Darryl Rogers and Wayne Fontes combined 4-12 season. Erik Kramer, a total nobody, was picked up off the scrap heap and asked to try out.
And so, Mouse Davis and his QB coach, June Jones, went to work and a funny thing happened. The Lions won. Those Smurfs scurried all over the field putting up great numbers. The team only went 7-9, but that was a huge improvement for a team that only had one legitimate star on the roster—Barry Sanders.
The knock against Mouse’s ‘gimmick’ offense was that it concentrated too much on passing at the expense of the running game…but Barry ran for 1470 yards that season and would have won the rushing title if he’d wanted to go back into the fourth quarter of the Lions victory in the season finale.
The next season, the Lions were plagued by injuries and limped to a 6-10 record, but Barry still managed over a 1000 yards.
And in 1991, the offense took off. They went 12-4, won their first playoff game in 34 years, and made it to the NFC Championship game.
And then something very strange happened. Wayne Fontes fired Mouse Davis and hired Dan Henning to run a more ‘conventional offense.’ Why? Was the team just having too much success? This is typical Lions logic. And a complete mystery to everyone else.
Mouse Davis is currently the special teams coach under June Jones at the University of Hawaii, by the way. He has had a career of over forty years with a myriad of different teams and leagues, but his offense has always hovered near the tops statistically.
This piqued my interest.
Why isn’t anybody running the Run ‘N Shoot any more?
In 1994, June Jones took over the Atlanta Falcons after the firing of Jerry Glanville’s second consecutive 6-10 season. Jones installed the offense and the team went 7-9 in it’s inaugural season, but put up good offensive numbers. In 1995, they went 9-7 and went to the playoffs as a wild-card, losing to the Green Bay Packers led by Brett Favre. Again, the offense was spectacular. But in 1996, the Falcons locker room was splintered and destroyed by a flesh-eating virus named ‘Jeff George.’ The QB being the main cog in the Run ‘N Shoot, the 1996 Falcons floundered to a 3-13 record and Jones was promptly fired for losing the team.
From 1990-1994, Jack Pardee, former coach of the University of Houston, took over the Houston Oilers and installed the Run ‘N Shoot. The most prolific installation of the offense in NFL history. With Warren Moon running the show, the team went 44-35, made the playoffs all four seasons and if not for the greatest comeback in NFL history by the Buffalo Bills, would have made the AFC Championship game. Another soul-sucking vermin did this team in. This vermin was known as ‘Buddy Ryan.’ Ryan started a fight on the sideline of a nationally broadcast game with Kevin Gilbride, the Offensive Coordinator. Buddy’s main criticism was that the offense "scored too fast," that it didn’t give his defense enough time to rest on the sidelines.
If you look at the record books for the Atlanta Falcons and the Houston Oilers, you will see that the proponents of the Run ‘N Shoot hold high places in every offensive category—even career statistics.
If only the Lions could have that kind of problem today…
So why isn’t anyone in the NFL using the scheme now? Are all 32 teams infused with Lions’ logic? If it works, forget about it?
What are the arguments against it?
It exposes your QB to too much punishment? When you don’t have a fullback or tight-end in to block, yes, you’re QB will be faced with the possibility of getting hit. However, if your QB reads the defense properly and takes his three step drop, the entire offense is supposed to be based on the QB taking a three step drop and firing it away, then your QB will not be buried alive. But since it is possible that your QB will get drilled, you need to have a dependable backup well versed in your offense. How is that different from any other offense in the league?
It scores too fast? If that’s your biggest problem, you must live a blessed life.
It hurts your defense, because nobody else runs it and thereby your defense cannot practice against what other teams are going to do? This may be true, but who says that you can’t bring in a tight end or two to practice against? With the way that the tight-end position has evolved, many would be fine in the slots of the Run ‘N Shoot.
It is too complex, depending on too much reading of the defense by both QB and WR’s? This isn’t true either. In fact, the foundation of the offense is five running plays and eight passes. The offense has been run successfully at every level from high school up. It is hard to believe that talented professionals cannot grasp it. It’s been run in the NFL three times already and it hasn’t been a problem.
The offense puts a paramount on movement and speed. It’s very difficult to find huge speedy WR’s, but you can find tons of small speedy ones. This is why the offense has produced so quickly wherever it has been implemented. Elite talent is not required. In Detroit and Atlanta both teams improved immediately, going 7-9 in their inaugural seasons—and both made the playoffs quickly thereafter. Houston made the playoffs immediately and repeated every year after. These teams were all perennial losers. How could they do it so quickly? The offense is player friendly and only requires medium talent.
So why isn’t it all over the NFL now? I’m not sure. It’s a mystery to me. The league is full of copycats and since the three organizations that used it have abandoned it, nobody else has picked it up. The only real mark against it is that a team running the Run ‘N Shoot has never won the SuperBowl.
Someday, a hot coaching prospect will pop out of June Jones’ Hawaii campus and start to make big waves with the offense. It will take an innovative and forward thinking owner and GM to hire that coach and institute the system, but it will happen again. And next time watch out!
I miss those Smurfs.
(Note: Mouse Davis officially retired from coaching June 1, 2009 at the age of 76.)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment