West Coast offense

In American football, the term "West Coast Offense" refers to an offensive strategy that employs short, high percentage passes to move the ball rather than frequent runs.

The actual term "West Coast Offense" is derived from a 1993 Bernie Kosar quote, which was publicized by Sports Illustrated writer Paul Zimmerman, aka "Dr. Z". It meant the offense used by the two west coast teams (Chargers and 49ers) in the past few decades, not the 1980s-era 49ers attack, but a reporter mistakenly grouped all three and the name stuck in association with the offense of Bill Walsh. Walsh formulated what has become most widely known as the West Coast Offense during his tenure as assistant coach for the Cincinnati Bengals from 1968-75 while working primarily with All-Pro quarterback Ken Anderson. From there, Walsh took it, most famously, to the San Francisco 49ers where it was implemented with great effectiveness by Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana. It is interesting and important to note that the West Coast Offense popularized by Walsh with the 49ers (and now used by NFL teams such as Denver and Seattle) is distinct from the offense formalized by Don Coryell with the Chargers (and now used by NFL teams such as Kansas City and Washington), but both styles were invented by Sid Gillman.

The West Coast Offense as a general concept is more of a philosophy and an approach to the game than it is a set of plays or formations. "Traditional' offensive thinking argues that a team must establish their running game first, which will draw the defense in and open up vertical passing lanes downfield (passing lanes that run perpendicular to the line of scrimmage). The West Coast Offense, on the contrary, stipulates that a defense must first be stretched with a short, horizontal passing attack that features sharp, precisely-run pass patterns by the receivers and quick, 3-step and 5-step drops by the quarterback. This 'stretching' will then open up running lanes for the backs to exploit. This will, in theory, make the offense's play calling unpredictable, which makes a defense play 'honest' because most down and distance situations can be attacked with the pass or run in the West Coast Offense. Beyond this basic principle of passing to set up the run (not vice versa), there are few rules that govern the WCO. Originally the offense used two split backs, giving it an uneven alignment in which five players aligned to one side of the ball and four players aligned on the other side (with the quarterback and center directly behind the ball). Although WCO teams now commonly use formations with more or fewer than two backs, the offense's uneven-ness is still reflected in its pass protection philosophy and continues to distinguish it from single back passing offenses. Throughout the years, coaches have added to, adjusted, modified, simplified, and enhanced Bill Walsh's original adaptation of the Sid Gillman offense. Formations and plays vary greatly, as does play calling.

At the college level, the West Coast Offense was advanced largely by Walsh while at Stanford, by coaches LaVell Edwards and Norm Chow while at Brigham Young University, Sly Croom currently at Mississippi State University and Tyrone Willingham currently at the University of Washington.

External links

• 1999 SportsIllustrated.com article
• 2004 Sports Illustrated.com article
• Washington Times overview of offensive systems
• espn.com explanation of West Coast offense
• The Unofficial West Coast Offense Site