[grantland]Victor Cruz, the New York Giants, and Shades of the Run-and-Shoot Offense

tinman · Jan 22, 2012

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7481235/chris-brown-victor-cruz-new-york-giants

Victor Cruz, the New York Giants, and Shades of the Run-and-Shoot Offense

The run-and-shoot was supposed to be dead, at least in the NFL. The offense (at least one form of it) was conceived by Glenn "Tiger" Ellison back in the 1950s, while Darrel "Mouse" Davis developed its modern form throughout a four-decade coaching career that has touched nearly every level of football imaginable. The offense had its moment of glory in the NFL in the early 1990s. Back then, the Detroit Lions, Atlanta Falcons, and Houston Oilers (and the Seattle Seahawks, extremely briefly) ran the 'shoot, which featured four wide receivers and one running back on every snap. The offense used no fullbacks and no tight ends.1 These teams had mixed success. The Lions won 12 games in 1991; the Falcons won 10 and made the playoffs twice during their 'shoot days. But the NFL team that most exemplified the run-and-shoot, in both its glory and its shame, was the Houston Oilers. The Oilers made the playoffs in seven straight years with the run-and-shoot (and fielded a top-10 offense in each season), and quarterback Warren Moon blitzkrieged defenses with his four-receiver aerial assault. But the Oilers never reached the Super Bowl, and they managed to be on the wrong end of the greatest playoff comeback in NFL history. Against the Buffalo Bills in the 1993 wild-card round, Moon threw four first-half touchdowns, but he wasn't able to burn the clock and the defense collapsed in the second half of a 41-38 loss. The Oilers became part of an even more ignominious moment the following year, when Buddy Ryan, Houston's defensive coordinator, punched the team's offensive coordinator in the face.2 Ryan was no fan of the run-and-shoot, which he called the "chuck-and-duck."

Eventually, a consensus formed around the league that a team couldn't win championships with the run-and-shoot, and teams abandoned the offense. Without a tight end or fullback, they said, the 'shoot was "finesse only" and lacked the physical element necessary to win.3 But not everyone agreed. When Hall of Fame safety Rod Woodson heard Houston had given up on the offense, he said: "Tell the owner thank you, and tell the front office thank you. The run-and-shoot got the Oilers where they are, and I think defenses all over the league are going to be very relieved when they hear about it."
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http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7481235/chris-brown-victor-cruz-new-york-giants

tinman · Feb 5, 2012

Congrats Kevin,
we know you are one hell of an offfensive coordinator

DaDakota · Feb 5, 2012

tinman said: ↑

Congrats Kevin,
we know you are one hell of an offfensive coordinator
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And he can take a punch.

DD

Shroopy2 · Feb 5, 2012

It's true that the "pure" run-and-shoot is never coming back to the NFL. But this aspect of the offense — the read-and-react style that rang up huge numbers in the early 1990s — has never left. It was merely co-opted into other attacks. For an offense that is supposedly defunct, it may be surprising to know that almost every team in the NFL uses some piece of the old Oilers offense, whether it is a type of read route or an entire concept. In this way, Victor Cruz and the Giants' success is no surprise. Cruz is a current-day Ernest Givins — the gutsy, undersized slot receiver who has a knack for reading defenses (and uses that skill to shatter receiving records). And let's not forget the name of the Oilers' offensive coordinator at whom Buddy Ryan took a swing: It was Kevin Gilbride, offensive coordinator for the 2011-12 New York Giants.
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The Oilers abandoned run & shoot because conservative power football Jeff Fisher took over the Oilers. And there werent another other successful run & shoot coaches to hire (similar to how there aren't many "pure zone block" Kubiak offenses out there)

But every OTHER team STOLE IDEAS from the run & shoot and incorporated it into their OWN schemes. The Oilers legacy is that they influenced EVERYONE ELSE

Oilers didnt HAVE to do total abandoment, they COULD have ran a modified form with tight ends and fullbacks. All in all, Oilers didnt get over the hump cuz they CHOKED numerous times pure and simple.

Uprising · Feb 5, 2012

Congrats David Carr!

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[grantland]Victor Cruz, the New York Giants, and Shades of the Run-and-Shoot Offense

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[grantland]Victor Cruz, the New York Giants, and Shades of the Run-and-Shoot Offense

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