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Loose Slag From The Still Mill (Sep. 7th)

September 07, 2000 by Still Mill

Loose Slag from The Still Mill (Aug

Loose Slag from The Still Mill (Sep 7th)

  • I�ve run out of patience. Dating back since last year, and even this spring (check out my pre-draft outlook in the articles archive), I�ve been firm that we must get some skill, athleticism, and spacing (read: spread formations) into this slowpoke, lumbering offense. When we line up in the Whaleshoit Formation, with Bettis as the TB, Witman as the FB, and Breuner as the TE, all scrunched into an area the size of your average sofa, we have the slowest, least versatile formation in the NFL. There's little else you can do out of this formation, except run Bettis between the tackles and throw 2-yard outs to Witman and 5-yarders to Breuner. And some people wonder why teams like the Ravens stack 8 men in the box.
I've asked at least 250 people these same questions ---- "WHAT was different in the '99 offense, from the '98 one?" & "What is different in the '00 offense, than the hideous '99 and '98 versions?"

To date, no one has been able to give me even a single answer (except for some humorous sarcasm). Cowher and Gilbride had EIGHT months to make adjustments, make changes, and so forth....and on Sunday we saw a Xerox copy of our '98 and '99 offense. We already have proven, with reliable data from TWO SEASONS worth of football, that the Whaleshoit Formation does not work with our offensive line. So, why in gawd's name would ANYONE try to do it AGAIN, for the THIRD consecutive year ??? There's a famous saying that says, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again, and expecting different results."

Maybe someone can show me an NFL rulebook that MANDATES that we MUST run an I-formation, and that we MUST use a 2 WR 1 TE set, except when we are down by 16-points.

  • Let us all watch us play the Browns 10 days from today. And when you do, remember:

Cowher saw this fiasco in '98, when teams stacked the line and run blitzed nearly every down, while we ran the I-formation with Bus and Witman. Our offense sucked the entire season. Most people thought this was simply an aberration.

Cowher fired Sherman, hired Gilbride, and told Gilbride (unlike Sherman) to implement whatever Kevin liked and wanted. We changed NOTHING in '99, and teams stacked the line and run blitzed nearly every down, while we ran the I-formation with Bus and Witman. Our offense sucked the entire season. After happening for the 2nd straight year, more people junked the "aberration" theory and surmised that this was a trend.

Last week, Cowher & Gaypride changed NOTHING, and the Ravens stacked the line and run blitzed nearly every down, while we ran the I-formation with Bus and Witman. Our offense sucked the entire first half, and only moved the ball in the 2nd half when we combined things like: spreading the field; putting playmakers on the field (Hunt, Shaw); using 3 or 4 WRs; and using the shotgun.

Cowhead has 13 DAYS to prepare for the Browns game. That is LOADS of time for an NFL team to make some significant adjusments. Cowher and Gaypride can either:

a. Line up exclusively in the Whaleshoit Formation and run the EXACT same offense from '98 and '99, as well as continue to cleverly use Witman as a WR.

b. Use a little bit of I-formation with Bus/Wit, but mix in, EARLY ON, lots more 1-back sets, or I-formation with HUNTLEY as the TB, 3 or 4 WR sets, using Tuman (the team�s "pass receiving TE") and so on. Also work in skill players like Amoz.

Print this article out, and refer to it before the opening kickoff. When you watch the game, you decide if this coaching staff is willing to make necessary adjustments to be competitive, or if they'll continue the INSANITY of doing the exact same things and expecting different results.

The Still Mill

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