DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Breakdown the WCO

I know there's a lot of people still asking what is the WCO. Here's an article that I came across that nicely summarizes the offense that we'll see here in Cleveland.

http://football.calsci.com/WCOHistory6.html

The Main Principles of the WCO

There are three main principles to minimize risk and achieve success with the West Coast offense. These include protecting the quarterback, timing the pass, and using multiple receivers (including using backs as receivers). Pressure from the pass rush can result in loss of yardage and can disrupt timing between the quarterback and receivers, resulting in forced passes. Repeated hits on the quarterback take a toll physically and invite injury. The offense must have a plan to handle the pass rush of linemen, shooting linebackers, and defensive back blitzes. When the defense sends more rushers than available blockers, the hot receiver principle is used in order to get rid of the ball before the rusher can get to the quarterback.

Solid pass protection gives the quarterback time to find the open receiver and throw him the ball. The quarterback gains confidence and gets into a rhythm of throwing on time while the defense becomes frustrated because of its inability to get to the passer.

Sound protection is based on effective blocking technique. Blocking for the pass is more than the offensive player positioning himself in front of the rusher. The rusher is surging toward the quarterback. The blocker must stop this surge and force the rusher to start up as many times as possible or redirect him away from the quarterback. Technique must he drilled in game like situations and polished through repetition. Practice time allotted for pass protections should he proportionate to how much an offense will use the passing game.

Pass timing is the next most important element in successfully throwing the football. The depth of the receiver’s route must time out with the depth of the quarterback's drop. If the receiver breaks into his route before the quarterback is ready to throw, the defender begins closing on the receiver and arrives at the same time as the ball. If the quarterback is ready to throw, but the receiver has not broken into his route, the coverage begins to converge to where the quarterback is looking and gets a jump on the ball.

Proper pass timing aids the receiver in getting open and permits the quarterback to get the pass off. It establishes a rhythm for the quarterback and receivers. A team that executes its passing attack with near flawless timing is difficult to defend, because in most instances it simply beats the coverage.

The quarterback and receivers must have a thorough understanding of what a given pass route is trying to accomplish and how to run that route properly. Receivers must run routes at precise depths and adjust their route according to the coverage encountered. The quarterback must understand pass defense, recognizing the alignment of defensive secondary personnel and their drops into coverage. He must know the strengths and weaknesses of the coverage and which defender can take away a given route.

Finally, using multiple receivers in the West Coast offense is a definite must. The design of the attack must include a secondary or dump off receiver along with a primary receiver. Their routes will complement each other so that; versus man coverage, a clearing action is provided by one receiver for the other, and versus zone coverage, the defender must make a choice of which receiver to cover.

This design increases the chance for a completion, and permits the quarterback to get rid of the ball quickly, since he does not need to wait for his primary receiver to get open.

The receivers routes should be in the same general area and at varying depths so that a stretching action is made on the coverage, and one receiver comes open before the other. The quarterback should be able to quickly scan from one receiver to the other, and complete the pass to the open man. He is taught that when the coverage takes away the primary receiver, he will immediately go to the secondary receiver. Even if throwing to the second choice results in a missed first down, an incompletion or possible interception will be eliminated and some gain will be achieved. There's always chance the receiver might break away for the first down. Throwing the ball to the secondary receiver enough times will soon condition the defense to cover him, opening up possibilities down field.

The West Coast passing attack utilizes all five skill positions as pass receivers in a variety of ways when attacking the defense. By using all skill positions as receivers, the offense can attack the whole field and reduce defensive coverage into one-on-one situations.

The nice thing about the West Coast offense however is that on any given pass play, a quarterback will have a variety of options, especially on the side of the field that the play is designed to go. Because of this a receiver is usually open. For example, on a pass play to the strongside, the wide receiver may be called to run deep down the field, the tight end may be called to run an intermediate out route, and the fullback may be called to run a swing pass. If the flanker and tight end are covered, the quarterback should be able to dump the ball off to the back.

Football is a game of field position. Positive yards are gained in the field position war. This is the same strategy a traditional running attack tries to accomplish. At best, the back breaks a tackle and picks up the first down. Don't force the issue, don't make mistakes. This is supposed to be a low risk offense. A complimentary benefit is that completions will raise a quarterback's confidence level.

In conclusion, the West Coast offense in my opinion is the most productive offense that could be used in football. I say productive because this offense can be used with average players for maximum benefit. As defenses place more and more emphasis on speed pass rushers, disguised coverages, and attacking, pressure- based concepts, the need for the West Coast offense will continue to grow.

Here's an article written about Mark Whipple's west coast offense and the University of Miami.

http://www.shakinthesouthland.com/2009/10/21/1094068/miami-mark-whipple-and-the-west

Miami: Mark Whipple and the West Coast Offense

What is the West Coast offense? Emphasis on balanced football from traditional pro-sets and structure. Generally, alot of passing in the 1st half for quick scores sets up the run in the 2nd to protect an early lead, but the run game is still important. Overall it's a very detail-oriented approach to the game that emphasizes technique, execution, planning, and strategy over raw talent. Instead of "take what the defense gives you," the overriding philosophy is closer to "make the defense give you what you want by outsmarting and outplaying them."
In its original form, the WCO was a very complex and verbose offense, so installing it in college with the NCAA time limitations was very difficult. Miami's new OC, Mark Whipple, has installed a simplified version of what was run with Andy Reid in Philadelphia and has so far proved that he can simplify a huge playbook and teach a brand new scheme.

What does he do? What happens with this modern WCO is that you essentially have unbalanced formations and mix alot of ace-back sets with two-back sets: Splitback Veer sets, Pro I, Offset I, Double Tight I, then 3/4 wide sets from the ace formations, but without much motion.....essentially a mix of the One-back offense with the old West Coast Offfense. To protect the QB with only 5 men, they do a fair bit


of bootlegs and waggles. Another key is that while Miami has made huge plays, particularly on first downs, their bread and butter is short-to-intermediate routes by the running backs and TEs. Quick passing on first down is a tenet of the WCO/LaVell Edwards systems, and many times the primary receiver is actually the RB or TE, not the WRs. They attack the underneath zones while simultaneously stretching and clearing the coverage with deeper routes and crossing routes by the WRs. One reason why Harris has succeeded is that Whipple puts multiple receivers running different routes within his vision to weak/strong side, called triangle reads. That way, Harris doesn’t have to look far for the open man.

If a play works continuously, Whipple will keep running it until the defense adjusts, and he's not afraid to go with power running, especially in short distance situations. His core run plays are the usual Iso, counter trey, and zone/stretch runs. Then he sets up deep throws well with play-action off of them.

As an illustration of the complexity of the true WCO and how it attacks coverages, I wanted to go through this very simple play:HB Read Option Z Dig.

It can be run from any 2-back formation, shown here in the Splitback Veer set. In the WCO the HB needs to be a versatile athlete who can run, block, and catch the football. He also has a number of pattern adjustments that can be put into effect. In the formation above, he is lined up behind the OT in a 2pt stance so that he can see the LBs and the coverage, and the width allows him to get into his route.

In the play, the X runs a fly route with an outside release (meaning he runs around the CB to the outside). The TE or 2nd receiver to the strong side runs to a spot about 6-8 yards upfield with an inside release, then cuts and aims for a spot 15-18 yards downfield that should be vacated by the X. The Z receiver runs a 20 yard in route. You can see then the pattern floods the weak side with receivers, when the defense had adjusted itself towards the strong side. The defenders shift over towards the weak flood, and the Z receiver will find an open hole, especially against Cover 1. Underneath, the FB runs an arrow route, further helping the Z because the underneath coverage will adjust to pick him up. But in this play the HB is the primary receiver. The QB read progression is weak: the HB, the TE, then the X in that order.

As the primary, the Back has to make the appropriate reads based on the coverage the defense shows. Here is a basic rundown of what he can be told do.

If the defense aligns in a 3-4 Cover 3 look, he finds a spot between the Mike/Ted (Ted is the strongside ILB in a 4LB set) and Will, about 6 yards deep. If the defense shows a Cover 2 look, there will be 5 underneath zone defenders and his job is to find the hole between the CB playing the flat, and the LB's


hook/curl zone. Against Cover 1 or Cover 2 Man Under (which Clemson plays a lot of), the Back releases hard against either Will or Mike, and has the choice of cutting inside or outside to get open. If one of the LBs blitzes, he just runs at the other one directly, then makes his choice which way to cut to get open. However, if both LBs to his side blitz, one of the safeties will have him in coverage, coming from a deeper position. In this case, he runs a shallow flat route towards the sideline. If the S fails to make the tackle, the play will be huge. Since this is a hot route, he has to look for the ball immediately and it must be thrown before the Safety can make it down in coverage.

What if I choose to take away the HB route by squeezing him with two LBs to his side (as we would see in Robber with Will playing Man on him)? In that case the TE should be open behind the linebackers.
All this assumes the 5-man protection can handle blitzes. The decision by the staff will be whether to block the Center to the strong or weak side, and that changes the Backs' blocking assignments. If the Center blocks strong, the HB has no called blocking assignment but releases, watching the LB to his side. If the LB blitzes, he expects the FS/SS to pick him up and cuts to the sideline. If the Center blocks weakside, the HB knows he has no block at all. If the WLB blitzes, the Back runs his normal route into the space he vacated, knowing the FS will have to pick him up.

How did Virginia Tech handle this offense? Well first off, VT came into that game {censored} off. They played with real fire on defense. Miami didn’t look like they wanted to be there in the cold rain. Also, Bud Foster blitzed the {censored} out of them. Zone blitzes, man-man key blitzes, all early in the game and they did a poor job of picking them up, particularly on the backside. They weren’t unconventional blitzes either, nothing terribly different from what Clemson would throw at them. Then Foster went away from it, and came back to it again late in the game. Zone blitzing is a key principle used by most Defensive Coordinators in the NFL to stop the WCO, by confusing the backs and receivers on their reads.

OU got good pressure on Harris as well, and I think most people would agree that with a healthy Bradford, OU likely wins the game. Georgia Tech was handled rather well by Miami, as Miami changed their front (usually they play an EVEN 4-3 Stack) to mimic what Clemson was doing earlier to stop the Dive, and GT plays awful pass coverage.
Hopefully this gives a decent introduction to what we'll see from the 'Canes.

Nice read.

Ye, gods, , but I love it when you talk pigskin to me like this! Really good reading! Thanks. Classic "when I have the chalk" stuff. I also appreciate some of the real game/opponent illustration. This is well beyond the lousy offense last year. Hope to see it in action.