Of commentators who hate the Phins.

Chris Collinsworth, Joe Theisman, Ron Jaworski. Any others?

Jaworski sounds like an idiot to call the Wildcat a gimmick.

A gimmick would be running the Statue of Liberty Play every week.

A Gimmick is the Flea Flicker. You burn the D once, and then they smarten up.

A Gimmick is putting Mike Vrabel in as an eligible Tackle, or putting the Perry the 'Fridge' in at FB.

The Wildcat is not any of those. The Wildcat can take the ball inside, outside, pass, reverse, flea flicker. They can dive, draw, lead, counter. It is an Offensive Formation.


Anybody who doesn't think so is exposing their Anti-Phin bias.

I hope he and the others keep convinxing people of that.

Truth is the OL is beating people on the blocks, and the reverse direction hand off or Ronnie's keeper gives the FINS a solid advantage due to defenses freezing long enough and having to respect the various options.

It is no different than good option teams being successful running the option. If well executed it is effective.

What is about to be cool is when the passing game begins to benefit from it.

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Yes iut is a gimmick ... you keep saying that to yourselves, as you pick yourself up from 8 yard gain and another 1st and 10.

They can call it whatever they want, as long as we keep winning games!

They call him JAWS for a reason

he may have signed with us for 2 years as a back-up; but, when you listen to him when he's covering our games....he usually is the less favourable guy in the booth.

He was a Charger back in the day when they were our rivals. I am sure his blood is blue & yellow.

I won't call it a full fledged gimmick, but its a semi-gimmick. Just like the RUN-N-SHOOT offense was a semi-gimmick and a K-Gun/No-Huddle was a semi-gimmick. Until a team with an un-conventinal style of offense that isn't the norm WINS a super bowl, then its a gimmick on some level.

I hope the rest of the league remains in the same view of it as a gimmick, and in denial about the execution being the principal cause for its success.

As Ronnie Brown put it, they are not sure about what to say or think of something they don't understand.

I think it is more of an anti-wildcat bias myself.

This is the first time I can remember ever since I have been watching football where a team has DRASTICALLY changed the game on offense. Every other time teams have tried drastically different formations... it only can work for a play here and there and only when you get the favorable personnell matchups. Defense catch on quickly and teams are forced to revert back to a "normal" formation to get the offense moving.

I think many "experts" just don't believe it can be successful longterm and they are hedging their bets and calling it a gimmick, so that when it stops working... they can say "See!! I told you it wouldn't last forever."

Personally, I agree with Ricky. Its not a gimmick, it is brilliant play-calling and preparation by the coaching staff. Notice nobody else in the league (although many have tried) are able to have the success Miami has had in the formation. In fact, I almost laughed when we were ramming the ball down the Jets throats and they lined up in a Wildcat formation and it was immediately stuffed for a 6 yard loss.

Other teams don't have the success because they don't have our personnel. Ronnie is a patient runner who is doing a tremendous job following blocks and chugging away for positive yards... and I think Ricky is THE key. His full-speed lateral movement, and the defenses having to respect that, is the key to making it all work. No other team I have seen try to run the wildcat has that element in play... and that is why it is failing for them.

We have the luxury of two of the better backs in the league, and the Wildcat allows them both to be on the field at the same time, and the scheme perfectly takes advantage of their strengths. It also opens up oppurtunities for them because defense have to repsect them both. If one or the other weren't here I don't think we would have any success with the scheme. So, in that respect you can call it a gimmick, because it will never be a staple formation across the NFL (or even in Miami.) But, as long as Ricky and Ronnie and this coaching staff are here, I think it will continue to work and it is just good coaching and playcalling to use it.

In a word - Yep!

realist Wrote:
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> He was a Charger back in the day when they were
> our rivals. I am sure his blood is blue & yellow.

Jaworski never played for the Chargers, he was with the Rams, Eagles, Phins, and his last year was a Chief. You are thinking of Fouts.

I think at 1st when we would split the QB out wide it could be considered a "gimmick" but now when we straight line up and ram it down their throats and they can't stop it it's just a good formation that we run really well. It's really brilliant when you think about it and i'm surprised it took this long to come the NFL, by eliminating the QB your adding another blocker and there is so many different ways you can run with it or throw for that matter. By the way who named it "The Wildcat"? and why does it have to pigeon holed into this category? is it the wildcat when QBs run it like Pat White or Vick? isnt it then just a shot-gun formation with the option to run or throw? For that matter it is a variation of the option if you think about it. I think it's here to stay whether the announcers like it or not.

oops, don't know what I was thinking...I knew that...but had a brain fart.

He is still anti-phins...IMO

Who cares what anybody thinks....As long as we keep dominating everybody with the wildcat they can talk and envy us all they want.

Well the way I look at it--- any time you execute a play, be it misdirection, razzle-dazzle, "gimmicky", and it works, and you keep executing it, and it keeps working, then call it what you like--- it's for real.

I'd rather win all day long with "Gimmicky" and "trick" plays then lose all day long with "Conventional" and "Standard" plays.

colonel Wrote:
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> "I just think that as a QB he doesn't like any
> formation that takes the ball out of the QB's
> hands." A good quote from Phinfans2.
>
> I agree.

I think Dan Marino would have loved a few wild cat plays if it won him a superbowl. LOL just a thought

grooves12 Wrote:
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> Other teams don't have the success because they
> don't have our personnel. Ronnie is a patient
> runner who is doing a tremendous job following
> blocks and chugging away for positive yards... and
> I think Ricky is THE key. His full-speed lateral
> movement, and the defenses having to respect that,
> is the key to making it all work. No other team I
> have seen try to run the wildcat has that element
> in play... and that is why it is failing for them.

I agree. Ricky lateral movement is an often overlooked key to this offense formation. Miami also uses the offset OL, with our LT Long at TE on the Right side, (add blockers) Ricky atleast has the attention of one LB and I suspect his movement has to be respected be for couple Defensive players (is CB can't blitz, Ronnie), so they can't key in on Ronnie Brown.

One interesting thing Sparano did mention about the Wildcat formation in the Jets press conference this year, was the Dolphins coaches have to guess on how teams are going to defend it because they don't have a lot of tape of teams of their opponents trying to defend it.