baalworship
O Ba´al, now your foes you must slay
Walking off the field Sunday after his heavily favored New England Patriots lost to the Buffalo Bills, Bill Belichick may have been thinking, By Jove, I've created a monster.
In the copycat NFL, where no effective piece of game-planning goes unnoticed for more than 14 seconds, Buffalo may have won the early prize for the innovation of the year—one that is playing a leading role in the team's surprising early-season breakout. You can call it the "stack," the "bunch," or maybe even the "spread scrunch."
Belichick's offense is famous for its use of a dangerous but potent weapon: a formation where the offensive backfield is left empty while everyone except quarterback Tom Brady lines up close to the line of scrimmage in unconventional formations. After the snap, New England swarms the defensive backfield with enough eligible receivers to approximate the Mongols sacking Moscow.
After three games this season, it's clear that the Buffalo Bills haven't just stolen that part of Belichick's playbook, they've made it their offensive strategy. For nearly the entire game Sunday, the Bills had four wide receivers on the field, and often used five. (A traditional NFL alignment consists of two wide receivers.) They also sometimes lined up their tight ends as wide receivers and flung their running backs off to the corners.
At first glance, these formations look much like the spread offense that's popular in college football. But in practical terms, they're not necessarily all that alike.
The major difference is that NFL quarterbacks, unlike many of their highly mobile college counterparts, have no intention of taking off and running. The idea is to find an open man in two or three seconds and get rid of the ball before being pummeled.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204422404576595233381220172.html
In the copycat NFL, where no effective piece of game-planning goes unnoticed for more than 14 seconds, Buffalo may have won the early prize for the innovation of the year—one that is playing a leading role in the team's surprising early-season breakout. You can call it the "stack," the "bunch," or maybe even the "spread scrunch."
Belichick's offense is famous for its use of a dangerous but potent weapon: a formation where the offensive backfield is left empty while everyone except quarterback Tom Brady lines up close to the line of scrimmage in unconventional formations. After the snap, New England swarms the defensive backfield with enough eligible receivers to approximate the Mongols sacking Moscow.
After three games this season, it's clear that the Buffalo Bills haven't just stolen that part of Belichick's playbook, they've made it their offensive strategy. For nearly the entire game Sunday, the Bills had four wide receivers on the field, and often used five. (A traditional NFL alignment consists of two wide receivers.) They also sometimes lined up their tight ends as wide receivers and flung their running backs off to the corners.
At first glance, these formations look much like the spread offense that's popular in college football. But in practical terms, they're not necessarily all that alike.
The major difference is that NFL quarterbacks, unlike many of their highly mobile college counterparts, have no intention of taking off and running. The idea is to find an open man in two or three seconds and get rid of the ball before being pummeled.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204422404576595233381220172.html