Nothing Wild About These Cats
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins put up a 260 yard effort against the New England Patriots in week 3 then followed that up with a win over the San Diego Chargers…the common theme was the “wildcat”. It’s been 5 weekends of NFL football since then and a few other teams have decided to give the WC a try after watching the Dolphins find success with it and there is nothing wild about that cat.
The Kansas City Chiefs are one of those teams who yesterday found Tyler Thigpen, their QB, up the sideline and into the endzone as he caught a TD pass out of the formation. ChaChing. So there it is the evolution of an Arkansas formation, a Darren McFadden run to perfection college formation which ironically is not being run in Oakland. Now, it seems that Bill Belichick, the supposed genius coach of the New England Patriots, has adopted the formation as well. Belichick the trend setter is now Belichick the copycat.
Hey whatever works right?
Now it’s not like they ran the formation all day, but they ran it on their second series of the game and then ran it one or two times more during the game. The success of the formation against a mediocre Indianappolis team was…well…mediocre.
I had to laugh when I saw that the “Boy Genius” was relying on a formation that he didn’t come up with first. I can hear Billy in the film room chewing someones ass after the Miami loss saying “why didn’t we think of that?” Now, half a season into 2008 and the Patriots are apparently pulling out the stops.
Why not? They should be. The AFC East is a mess with the Bills, Patriots, and Jets all tied for 1st and the Miami Dolphins sitting one game behind at 4-4. The long ago battle tested AFC East is once again one of the divisions that are being watched closely as the playoffs inch closer week after bruising week. The East has 3 teams at 5-3 and one at 4-4, the NFC South boasts the best “record” division with two 6 win teams, a 5 win team, and a 4 win team while the NFC East has 4 teams all winning at least 5 games.
The playoffs are a ways away and for a team like New England who will be fighting for one of those spots the “wildcat” may become a more important part of their offense…maybe not. The difference between Miami running it with success and the Patriots trying to run it is simple. Personnel. Miami has it, New England doesn’t. Nor does the KC Chiefs.
Yep, Miami has something that New England…at least for this year doesn’t have…talent in the offensive backfield.