Wild Horses formation (1 Viewer)

george said:

I think it doesn't give the Defense time to react. They have to lineup as if Moreno is going to run it but react to Orton in motion.A variant I'm not sure they tried could be, what if when Orton goes in motion rather than going under center, they snap to Moreno while he is moving. Defense could be adjusitng to Orton coming back under center. Or Orton could go in motion and not under center and the snap go to Moreno after Orton passes the center...I dunno. Just speculation on my part.

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moleculo said:

This is something new that Denver broke out yesterday - a variant of Miami's Wildcat. I'm trying to understand the pluses/minuses of it, and why it really does.

For those that did not see the game, Denver's personnel included a single back (Moreno), I think two TE's, and 2 WR's. Denver lines up with Moreno at the typical tailback spot - 5 yards behind the center, Orton lines up out wide. At this point, Moreno either takes the direct snap and runs (typically off guard), or Orton motions back in and takes the snap from under center.

I'm not seeing the real benefit to starting the play out with Orton split out wide - I'm not sure what the real benefit is.

It seems to me that the wildcat works because it takes advantage of the dolphins having both Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams on the field - They can gash up the middle (RBrown), or turn it out wide (RWilliams) pretty easily, and that puts quite a bit of pressure on the LB's, especially when coupled with the possibility that Brown could also throw the ball.

What Denver is doing is different though...I don't think it puts nearly as much pressure on the D to react, because once Orton is under center, the D has plenty of time to adjust.

I speculate that there are twp possible benefits -

Moreno makes the run/pass call, depending on how he sees the D lining up. If he sees something he likes, he can take it; otherwise he can option out and let Orton throw.
Orton can scan the D from a different angle and is able to make a different read, especially if he can see how the D changes from "read run".Anyone else see anything different?

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george said:

I think it doesn't give the Defense time to react. They have to lineup as if Moreno is going to run it but react to Orton in motion.A variant I'm not sure they tried could be, what if when Orton goes in motion rather than going under center, they snap to Moreno while he is moving. Defense could be adjusitng to Orton coming back under center. Or Orton could go in motion and not under center and the snap go to Moreno after Orton passes the center...I dunno. Just speculation on my part.

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Grigs Allmoon said:

The other minor thing, that's not really a huge advantage over a normal formation is that the motion by Orton might cue him into the coverage, (Man vs Zone). That can be done in a normal formation, but the wildcat "motion" is more for misdirection, and I'm sure the D's don't adjust to it the same as a normal formation.

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switz said:

Grigs Allmoon said:

The other minor thing, that's not really a huge advantage over a normal formation is that the motion by Orton might cue him into the coverage, (Man vs Zone). That can be done in a normal formation, but the wildcat "motion" is more for misdirection, and I'm sure the D's don't adjust to it the same as a normal formation.

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This... bigger advantage than you think.

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Josh McDaniels' knowledge of the Patriots' defense was clearly the difference in this game. His plan to take away the aggressiveness of defenders by making them think and adjust to multiple offensive formations was brilliantly executed. The "Wild Horses" formation used by the Broncos put the Patriots' defense in the same audible they would call versus the Wildcat formation used by the Miami Dolphins. Whatever defense is called in the huddle is trumped by the audible that is called by the signal-callers of the defense once the Wild Horses formation is recognized. The problem with this adjustment occurred when Kyle Orton motioned back to the quarterback position from the receiver position and ran traditional plays. Once it recognizes that the offense is in a traditional set, the defense must go back to the original defense called. Recognizing and adjusting to those gadget offensive formations is one thing, but getting back to the original defense called is one of the most difficult checks a defensive signal-caller has to make. So difficult, in fact, that the Patriots burned three timeouts during the game to settle themselves down -- two in the first quarter and one in overtime. The result was that the Patriots played on their heels most of the game in vanilla zone coverages that the Broncos' offense had no problems recognizing and executing against.

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