Tuesdays are for Wildcat Ramblings…

Here are my precious kids. We had a great photo shoot with Chris Klimek from our church who is a burgeoning photographer, on Saturday. We were outside unfortunately and as Logan would try to smile his bottom lip would just be trembling from the deep freeze. I already had to scrape my windows a couple of times. By the end of the month, snow will be a reality. Here we go again.

Deep Church

I have just begun reading a new book called Deep Church by Jim Belcher. Belcher, a pastor in Newport Beach, California, works throughout the book to demonstrate the growing divide between the emerging church and many evangelicals. He navigates the issues that lead to the growth of the emerging church, gives a fair assessment of its weaknesses and offers better alternatives for both parties, a third way of doing church. It is a great read, and is filled with striking insights. This is not a light book, it is written for seminarians, but it is a really important book. I will offer more thoughts and reflections as I cruise through it over the next couple of weeks. Over at Jesus Creed Scot McKnight has been working his way through it also, and well he is always worth reading far more than I am.

Cow Rights in California

Gov. Schwarzenegger signed into law a ban on cutting off cows tails in California. Cow rights are on the rise! Seriously though, it is kind of a funny law even though it seems really humane. I just wonder what the lobbyist for this bill were using to butter up the politicians? Free glass bottle milk delivery, extra whip cream on your hot fudge Sunday, maybe a free steak or two?

There are groups out there for almost every possible animal issue we can imagine and a bunch that we never could. I always wonder the correlation between those who fight for animal rights and those who fight for unborn children. Are there any studies out there showing how many people who fights for animal rights are pro-choice? Just a random thought, it would be interesting to find that out.

The Wildcat on the Loose

Last night’s Dolphin and Jets game was a great example of why the Wildcat can be a really effective weapon in the NFL and an even better demonstration of why most teams have no idea how to use it. Dan Henning showed the full acumen of his 30 plus years in the NFL last night and against the Colts a couple of weeks ago. The Dolphins use of the wildcat is so superior to any other teams and here is why.

Most teams use the Wildcat coming out of a normal huddle with their base personnel. They put the QB at WR and simply hike the ball directly to the RB who runs it or hands it off. The reason that doesn’t often work is that you have just made a dangerous offensive player, the QB, completely irrelevant for the play. The defense can simply leave a corner over there and forget about him. Having a RB throw a pass to a QB is a really stupid play in the NFL. Defenses simply aren’t surprised by this type of formation anymore and they go into a run blitz package designed to blow up the play.

But what Miami does most of the time is to change their personnel, they don’t care if you know they are going to run the Wildcat or not. They have several different wildcat packages. They have their base one where the QB stays on the field, but they have two RB’s and run motion with the second RB on a read play for the RB receiving the snap. They have another package where they remove the QB entirely and replace him with a TE or another offensive lineman. They helps them counteract any blitz packages and makes the defense account for another blocker.

They have another package where they bring in a different QB, Pat White from WVU (there you go Shannon) and they run the same play, but Pat White is a great running QB, and a far great threat to throw the ball than any RB, so the defense has to stay honest. Then last night the Dolphins revealed yet another formation as the Jets adjusted to the plays and Rex Ryan shifted in his dad old 46 defense (as made famous by the greatest defense of all time 85 Bears), the Dolphins brought in a jumbo package that had 3-4 RBs, 5 offensive lineman, and 2-3 TEs. Here there was no question, they were simply going to run the ball and there was nothing you could do to stop it.

It was a fantastic bit of offensive engineering from Dan Henning who I have liked for years and shows other teams how they can actually take advantage of match ups if they want to run the Wildcat. Of course none of it would have mattered if Chad Henne hadn’t been amazing last night. Great win for the Dolphins. As a Redskin fan it was good to see a team functioning well.