Exclusive Breakdown of Off. Sets vs. Ravens

I scoured and broke down the game tape last nite, just like I do every Monday. In this exclusive article, which I daresay you will not find anywhere else, be it the entire Internet, ESPN, or Sports Illustrated, I have (below) a breakdown of EVERY formation that was used.

All summer long, I have screamed for the Stillers to SPREAD the field, by using various combinations of 1-back sets, 3 & 4 WR sets, split back sets, and so on. I have also screamed for this team to take stabs DOWNFIELD.

The overall feeling from the media folk, has been "Why try to spread the field�it won�t work anyway", and "We have what we have, there�s no sense trying something new; it all boils down to execution, not scheme."

Let�s look at the Raven game on Sunday. As you may recall, in week 1, the Ravens stuffed Bettis, running almost exclusively from the Whaleshit I Formation, and he gained 8 yards on 9 carries.

We introduced not one, but TWO new formations against the Ravens. One was the I-formation set, but with 3 WR and no TE. The other was a split-back set, with 3 WRs and no TE. In both cases, these sets SPREAD the field, rather than bunching up 9 offensive players within a front no wider than the lane on a basketball court.

Here are the results:

A. I-Formation, 3 WR: This was run only once in the 1st half, but TEN times in the 2nd half.

1. Out to Shaw, 5 yds.
2. Bus run, 2, but Balt flagged for offsides.
3. Bus run, 14.
4. Deep crosser to Shaw, low throw, nearly snagged for sterling reception.
5. Bus run, 3.
6. Bus run, 5.
7. Bus run, 4.
8. Stewart scramble, 0.
9. Bus run, 3.
10. Curl to Plex, 6.
11. Bus run, 11.

So, not counting the offsides play, Bettis ran the ball from this formation 6 times, and gained 40 yards. For the mathematically impaired, that comes out to a 6.7 yards/carry average. Bettis� two longest runs of the day came from this formation. You be the judge if, given the fact that Bettis averaged less that 1-yard per carry running from the Whaleshit Formation in week 1, these are fairly good results.

2. Split backs, 3 WR � We ran this set 5 times:

1. QB draw, 9.
2. 14-yard Kreider reception.
3. Pass batted at LOS, inc.
4. QB draw, 14.
5. Curl to wide open Ward, inc. on high pass.

Given the way the Ravens shut us down previously, I can also more than live with the results from this new formation.

On the other hand, the Stillers ran the scrunched-up, 2TE, 1 WR, I-formation set 6 times, as follows:

1. WR Screen, 2 yds. And Huntley flagged for holding.
2. Bus run, 5.
3. Bus run, 4.
4. Bus run, engulfed, -3.
5. Bus run, 1.
6. Bus run, -1.

5 carries from this formation, for a whopping 6 yards.

Let�s see -- would we rather have Bettis running out of a spread 3-WR set for 6.7 yds/carry, or out of a 2-TE formation for 1.2 yds/carry ??

Now, as you may recall, in my pregame outlook, I said, "The key matchup is Off. Coord Kevin Gaypride against the Baltimore defense. You may recall that in the opener, it was Gaypride who essentially sent his offense into a gunfight armed only with picnic plastic-ware. While Baltimore stacked the line with 7 and 8 men, and run-blitzed galore, Gaypride had this ludicrous fallacy that his Whaleshit Offense was going to pound the ball between the tackles. The result was a fiasco pretty much on par with George Custer at Little Big Horn, as Gaypride's popgun, glacially-slow offense was annihilated by the Ravens. You can bet the mortgage that Baltimore will once again stack the line with 7-8 defenders, as well as heavy doses of run-blitzing. If the Stillers have any chance of moving the ball and scoring, Gaypride must spread the field; use some quick-hitting running plays & minimize the Whaleshit Counter; and have his passing game prepared for the heavy blitzing by throwing some quick-strike pass plays that do not involve advanced trigonometric calculations by the QB and WR. Gaypride, and others, are probably under the assumption that Stewart's feet can help move the ball. This, along with the erroneous belief that we can pound the ball with Bettis 30+ times against the Ravens, is an outrageous fantasy. Ray Lewis is almost as fast as Stewart, and is more than savvy and quick enough to chase down Stewart when Stew tries to scramble. Moreover, Lewis' spy duties will also allow him to engulf Gaypride's 2 favorite plays -- the draw and the screen."

As for the downfield throwing, which has also been pooh-poohed around the media circles�. We threw downfield ONCE. The result? A 45-yard TD strike. This was a RARE play-action deep pass, which I think I�ve seen just once the entire season thus far and maybe 3 times during the past 3 years. And it WORKED. Ward was wide open. The only shot you ever make, is the one you take. On 3 or 4 plays per game, what would you rather see, a Witmann plunge for 1 yard, or a 2-yard out pass to Troy, or a stab deep at a possible 50-yard gain/long TD ??

Also, consider TOP (time of possession). The Stillers success on several running plays allowed them to retain the ball, move into better punting position, and keep Baltimore's offense seated on the bench. In week 1, the ground game from the WHALESHIT FORMATION sucked, and so did our offense. TOP in that game ??? Baltimore 35 minutes, Pgh. 25. Two days ago, the Stillers won the battle of TOP, 32 to 28. This massive change in TOP from meeting #1 to meeting #2 is unequivocally and directly traceable to a change in scheme that SPREAD the formations, moved defenders from the box, and allowed our blockers to engage in 1-on-1 blocking rather than 1-on-2, and it gave Bettis some steam & momentum to hit some decent creases.

This debate about scheme being meaningless, & schemes being unable to improve an offense, is over. The Stillers finally pulled head from posterior, and used SPREAD formations and threw deep once. The results were SUPERBLY SUCCESSFUL. Bettis gained 40 of his 65 yards running out of the SPREAD-OUT 3 WR set, and gained barely over 2 yards/carry on his other 12 rushes. We went deep once, and were rewarded with a long TD pass, something that has been as rare as democracy in Cuba.