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Archie Manning on the Pistol Offense (1 Viewer)

Jewell

Footballguy
I was listening to an interview with Archie Manning on the Dave Dameshek podcast. Dave joked with Archie that Archie would have been great in the pistol offense. Archie said he wished he had that offense back in his day, and then Archie named three past QBs he thought would be great in the pistol offense -- Roger Staubach, Steve Young, and Doug Flutie.

Do you agree with Archie that those three QBs may have been even better running the pistol offense? And what other past QBs do you think would have had a better career with the pistol offense?

 
randall cunningham

kordell stewart

Condredge Holloway

and not that he needed it, Elway

 
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Randall Cunningham would have absolutely dominated. His name IMHO is the only one mentioned so far in this thread. He would have ate defenses alive in his prime with the pistol.

 
Are we talking the zone-read stuff? Or just lining up in the pistol? Cause I don't really know what the Pistol offense is?

 
Are we talking the zone-read stuff? Or just lining up in the pistol? Cause I don't really know what the Pistol offense is?
Yes, my understanding is that the Pistol Offense is another name for the zone read or read option. I may be wrong, though.
 
It's where the qb stands at 1/2 shotgun distance with rb behind them.
Yes, that's the pistol formation: pretty sure everyone here knows that. I have no idea what the Pistol offense is, but I assume they're using it to refer to the read-option spread offense that's in vogue, and tends to feature the pistol.

Heck, my Cowboys have been running a lot of plays out of the pistol this season: by no means are they running the read-option.

 
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Pistol Offense is basically a downhill power running offense built off the Zone Read (but does not have to be married to it to work as a base offensive formation). Even without the Zone Read, it can still be almost an I-Formation type running system too.

It allows for the downhill running of a pro system with the "shotgun" visibility for a QB by setting him up 1/2 to where he'd be in the Shotgun.

 
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Are we talking the zone-read stuff? Or just lining up in the pistol? Cause I don't really know what the Pistol offense is?
Yes, my understanding is that the Pistol Offense is another name for the zone read or read option. I may be wrong, though.
Yeah, that's not correct. The pistol is a formation that you can run nearly anything out of. 1/2 shotgun type look. The read-option was just run out of it a lot last year.

 
Thanks for all the clarification on the pistol vs. the read option. I was obviously unclear about the difference; and, quite frankly, I think Dave Dameshek may be too.

 
Archie is pretty intense. I've met him and his wife. His life story is pretty remarkable. I think he definitely carries grudges.

Big fan of him as a player (looking back...). People may not realize he held the SEC single game total yards record from 1970 until last uear when Johnny Touchdown took it away and obviously there were some big time rules changes that made that possible.

Neither Eli nor Peyton really look or play like Archie, maybe Eli throws a little more like him that Peyton.

Archie spent a good part of his early (1971-1977) career running around being chased by enemy defenders while his porous line just fell apart. He had multiple offensive coordinators and coaches. The Saints hired an astronaut (seriously) as a GM at one point. He finally got a good offensive cast around him 1978-80 and then he was faced with an historically bad defense (even to this day) and a drug scandal in the Saints locker room.

Also, like Joe Namath, he blew out knees, shoulders, you name it, and so he lost a good deal of his incredible running ability and arm strength by the time he finally got some decent support around him.

Somehow despite all this he was the NFC Player of the Year in 1978 and he was the highest paid NFL player (whoo-hoo, $600,000) in that 1978-1980 era.

In 1971, when he took over Tulane Stadium in his very first game he beat a heavily favored perennial NFCW Champion LA Rams team, scoring himself on a QB run on the very last play of the game. Needless to say New Orleans was crazy over him. - That was the highlight of his Saints career, and I do not exaggerate.

What would he have done with a Don Coryell? Or maybe a Tom Landry (and that incredible Cowboys line) or a Sid Gillman? It's not just the pistol, there were football minds in his day who could have worked wonders, maybe sent him to the hall of fame.

Same happened with HOF'er Tarkenton, at least to the extent he got to play for a great coach (Bud Grant) and on the right side of one the great defensive units of all time.

The other half of the Archie discussion (yes, there is definitely such a topic in LA & MS bars, pubs and living rooms) is that he is remembered glowingly by Ole Miss and Saints fans who knew very little winning tradition.

The facts are that Archie lifetime only had:

* Three full seasons

* 55 completion %

* 3.4 TD%

* 4.8 INT%

* 35-101-3 record as a starter - now think about that, he lost 101 games a starter. Man.

He also lost the last 14 starts of his career. He went 4-33 in his last 37. Without exception, he lost every big game he was in where he could have pulled the Saints out of mediocrity and into some level of decency. This is not the stuff greatness, I'm afraid.

I will say this about Archie and whether it's the pistol or the read option we're discussing, or even the shotgun, or any variety of plays available to QBs today - the man was a master at the sneak, the fake and the rollout. He also threw sidearmed.

 
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I might be too young to say this, but I think Archie Manning might be a bit underrated, from what my Dad's told me and what little I've seen.

But I think we can all agree that the best thing Archie's ever done for the NFL was impregnate his wife a couple times.

 
Other QBs who'd have loved running the read-option out of the pistol:

- Steve Grogan

- young Joe Montana

- former CFL great Damon Allen (Marcus' brother)

 
Randall Cunningham would have absolutely dominated. His name IMHO is the only one mentioned so far in this thread. He would have ate defenses alive in his prime with the pistol.
I would have been INVINCIBLE with Randall and the Pistol on Super Techmo Bowl.

 
It doesn't matter how good of a runner you are, you still need to be a good passer.

I think Andrew Luck would be great in the Pistol offense because he can read the field and he's a very underrated runner. Has the build to take some hits.

 

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