Bill Walsh and the West Coast Offense- An Excerpt from Ron Jaworski's New Book

Originally posted by PTulini:
LINK HERE...

Quote:


• This game expanded defensive pressure concepts out of the 3-4. Coaches now understood that they were going to have to broaden their repertoire with more variety and disguise if they were going to compete against teams that ran West Coast systems. Otherwise they would be picked apart. Defenses would also have to become faster, especially at the linebacker position.

This is something that I think our team has gotten away from. Disguise is key for any aggressive defense, but particularly a 3-4. Our 3-4 is about as deceptive as a fat guy hiding behind a light post and about as aggressive as a box full of kittens. These LB's are capable of so much more if they could just loosen up a little bit out there aka have funn...I add the extra n because it seems fun is the new 4 letter word in 9er town.

If the defense is going to get ass punked the way they have been, I'd prefer it if they at least went down swingin'. It's bad enough that these DB's can't make a play on the ball, but the pre snap reads are way too easy for the opposition and that's a problem we can actually do something about. Maybe our less talented pass rushers won't have such a hard time doing their jobs if our blitzes aren't so easy to pick off. Who knows; a little pass rush might actually make these DB's look serviceable.

It's a new game, but there are timeless truths everywhere and I'd like to swipe LT's timeless truth: "let's go out like some crazed dogs and have some fun". These guys work all week to have some fun on Sunday and this bullsh*t 3-4 I've been staring at doesn't look like a whole lot of fun to play in.

Good luck tomorrow guys...I think we're gonna need it.

Originally posted by carlgo:
I remember the game in Chicago, the ("ice bowl"?) that was in horrendously cold weather, at night I think. The Bears were talking s**t and taking their shirts off and such, lots of pointing and yelling.

Yup, the mighty, tough midwest Bears were going to crush the "finesse" 49ers. Heck, I was nervous, I bought into the hype about how the mighty Bears were built for just this kind of late-season game...

The only problem was that the 9ers beat them on both sides of the ball. It was a genius against Ditka or somebody.

Was Sing on that team? If so, what was the lesson he took from it. Just be even tougher?

23-7 IIRC. The Bears were never in it. Walsh turned every Bears strength into a weakness. It was one game that added a great deal to the Walsh legend, and the mystic of the 49ers. After that game, it seemed like most teams walked onto the field wondering what Walsh was going to do to them this time to embarrass them.

Great days. I am grateful I was there to see every home game that Walsh coached.

Ah the good old days. I wish every fan here could have seen this team play, read the newspapers(dating myself with that one) and magazines for an entire season during the Walsh days. The respect and awe that Walsh's machine-like 49ers commanded was indescribable. I remember some announcer on TV saying Walsh was playing chess and the rest of the league was playing checkers.

Originally posted by Ronnie49Lott:
Ah the good old days. I wish every fan here could have seen this team play, read the newspapers(dating myself with that one) and magazines for an entire season during the Walsh days. The respect and awe that Walsh's machine-like 49ers commanded was indescribable. I remember some announcer on TV saying Walsh was playing chess and the rest of the league was playing checkers.

We NEED the WCO back... Look at the teams that are running variants: Green Bay, Indy, Minnesota, etc., etc. If we really WANT an offence, we need to get back to our tradition. It is also better for our QBs... I remember those heady days of the 80s and 90s, and remember wondering, just HOW does our 3RD string QB manage to put up 300 yards??? It was the system... Sure we had incredible talents in Montana and Young, but the system made guys like Elvis look okay. Remember our other backup QBs? Remember them going on to start for teams like Kansas City? Even Mooches teams were able to put huge numbers up. It was TOs loud mouth and the salary cap situation that ended that...

Please, please, PLEEEEEEEEEEEEASE, bring back the WCO...

Great post, by the way... Brings back some golden memories...

this hurt the most

Quote:
There are still occasional flashes of Walsh's original precepts. In Green Bay, Mike McCarthy has quality receivers who run those familiar slants, hitches, and comeback patterns, and his quarterback Aaron Rodgers is a quick thinker who reads defenses rapidly.

With more and more spread begin played in college, will we see the decline of the WCO in the Pro Game?

I mean, college kids would have to take another 2-4 years to fully learn the system and then see if they are even good.

Originally posted by PTulini:
LINK HERE...



San Francisco drafted left tackle Bubba Paris in 1983 to occassionally protect Joe Montana's blind side.

great read! thanks.

it makes me sad and kinda sick that all the teams mentioned (using the WCO) today are pretty good teams. how did we get so far away from our history?

I am not too sure how the quote really goes, but isn't it something like, "to know your future, you must no your past".

ugh.

Originally posted by 76Razor:
great read! thanks.

it makes me sad and kinda sick that all the teams mentioned (using the WCO) today are pretty good teams. how did we get so far away from our history?

I am not too sure how the quote really goes, but isn't it something like, "to know your future, you must no your past".

ugh.

For the last seven or eight years the Niners have definately said "no" to their past.

No problem guys! I thought you all would enjoy it.

Originally posted by ads_2006:
this hurt the most

Quote:
There are still occasional flashes of Walsh's original precepts. In Green Bay, Mike McCarthy has quality receivers who run those familiar slants, hitches, and comeback patterns, and his quarterback Aaron Rodgers is a quick thinker who reads defenses rapidly.

With more and more spread begin played in college, will we see the decline of the WCO in the Pro Game?

I mean, college kids would have to take another 2-4 years to fully learn the system and then see if they are even good.

Another great thing about the Walsh offense was that it WASN'T all the hard to learn. There were only about six basic formations and everything ran off that. Plays were designed so the defense had very few cues to read. Many plays all looked the same for the first 1 and 1/2 seconds. It was only around the 2 second mark that defenses could actually see what was happening.

There were quite a few very mediocre QBs who put up decent numbers in the system. Steve DeBerg had the longest career as he managed to jump around to teams there were trying to imitate Walsh. Other more forgettable names like Jeff Kemp come to mind as guys who did well in that system but little any other place they played.

"This game proved to everyone -- and ourselves -- that what we did worked. "

Quote from Randy Cross.


Those great Niner teams went into games knowing that the had a weapon in Bill Walsh and his system.

Nowadays, our team goes into games knowing that they have a liability in Mike Singletary and his staff and the game is already half-lost even before the first snap

Pete Carroll and his staff "Bill Walsh'd" us in the first game. Carroll brought out the strengths of his inferior team (on paper), weathered the 1st half and pulled away in the 2nd half.

Sean Payton and his staff "Bill Walsh'd" our team by doing enough within their great system to win a tough game against a home team that was going to be high intensity and playing their 1st home game. They made mistakes but they also had enough good plays out of their system to still beat us in the end.

Todd Haley, Romeo Crennel, and Charlie Weis "Bill Walsh'd" us by coming up with a killer-gameplan that took advantage of their strengths, minimized ours, and once again, pulled away in the 2nd half.




This season is screwed.
Even if we straggle to 8-8 or 9-7, largely due to the ineptitude of all the other teams in the division, would you really feel good about being in the playoffs?

The key to the WCO was intelligence. Bill Walsh was the first to identify fundamental keys to the game of football

-Offense has the initiative and therefore controls the outcome of every play. This isa significant advantage. A DB has to follow a WR. If he doesn't know the route he will always be a step behind when the WR makes his break etc. Walsh realized this meant he didn't need his WR to be faster or quicker (i.e. superior athlete). He needed to be precise and in synch with the QB.

-Walsh also realized the offensive formation gave information to the defense. He used fewer formations and made the plays they could ran from a specific formation balanced.

I could post pages and pages on football theory but the current 49ers play STUPID. We might as well tell the defense what is being run.

I'm also angry we haven't turned to a 2TE set and used every single play possible from that basic formation.

We could probably run a majority of the game using nothing but a 2TE set and simply motion and audible based on what the D gives us. We could run it if they put too many DBs on the field or split our TEs out and pass if they put too many LBs.

It is a travesty to see the potential our offense has just wasted. Walsh would have put up video game numbers with the weapons we have.