[Defiant]

You are wrong, it would work. It would work better with 2 QBs who are mobile, and Manning is not, but you could still make it work. I would have the snaps come to Manning, I wouldn't want to have to pass it off to Manning. And if you lateral to him, he is too close to Tebow, the rush could come at both of them. But if Tebow is away from the ball, he can serve as an outlet for a double pass. If they rush a man to Tebow, that is like a block that he didn't even have to throw. And if they don't, it extends the play. What that does is let 3 or 4 receivers have time to get deep downfield. Instead of "1,2, 3, here's the rush, throw", it gives them time to set up very deep routes which in turn opens up the middle for someone else if no one is open deep.

Vinnie is right to think outside the box. Athletes change and improve, and strategies do, too. The game is unbelievably more complex than it was just 20 years ago, and it is good to come up with new ideas that then become what everyone is doing 10 years later. People made fun of the west coast offense, too, and said you had to run to set up the pass. Now the conventional wisdom is you have to be Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. But then you get guys like Cam Newton and Tebow, and a new style might be called for. Just wait til that guy from Michigan gets there, that will be interesting.

[discostu]

No it wouldn’t, not with a timing guy like Manning and an inaccurate passer like Tebow. Every time one of Tebow’s passes clunked on the ground the team would get frustrated, and every time a snap to Tebow lateraled to Manning got Manning killed the team would get more frustrated.

Great Tebow does a pass after a lateral, with his 47.3% pass completion most of them hit the ground. You’re not sending 4 receivers deep with two QBs screwing around in the back field. That would account for 6 of your 11 guys, leaving only 5 to block for this slow to develop play. The usual lateral then pass play sends ONE guy deep, you keep everybody else in close to block for the guy running.

This isn’t actually making the game more complex, it’s making it less complex. Basically it’s an option play with a pre-option lateral, which is still in high school, and worked for a little for Tebow but eventually defenses figured it out. It would be OK to do once in a while, but like all gadget plays it relies on being unexpected, if it’s your primary offense it becomes expected, expected gadget plays fall apart because they take too long to develop. Just look at what happened with the Wild Cat, while it was unexpected it worked, then too many teams went to the well too often and it became a way to lose 4 yards.

Cam Newton doesn’t need gadgets, he needs a defense. His team lost 7 games they scored 20+ points in. Cam’s got the core essentials, 60% completions, 5 fumbles, needs to work on those INTs but still managed a lot of TDs and passing yards. Classic timing passing yards.

Tebow’s success didn’t come with a “new style”, the option is one of the oldest styles in the book. The problem the option has now is the game is so fast. The average QB has the ball for 2.4 seconds snap to pass, the average sack takes a little over 3 seconds, there’s no time in there for option. That’s why even with “throwback” QBs they need to master the 3 step drop pass to a spot, something Tebow is horrible at.