At first, longtime NFL traditionalists thought Gary Crowton's approach to offense was unbearable. Last summer, Chiefs coach Gunther
Cunningham called it a high-school offense.
Now the Bears offensive coordinator is the hottest prom date in the
league. Teams have copied his hitch passes and flanker screens. They've
incorporated his nuances from empty backfield sets. If the Bears do as well
as most experts expect, Crowton will be an NFL head coach next year.
|  | | Marcus Robinson emerged as a star last season, catching 84 passes for 1,400 yards and nine TDs. |
The hitch pass and the flanker screen allowed the usually impotent
Bears to finish third in passing statistics last season even though three
different quarterbacks started. There is one school of thought that
officials might call more penalties for illegal downfield blocks on
Crowton's screens and hitch passes.
Don't believe it. What Crowton does isn't illegal. It's just well-coordinated.
"I don't think people understood the rule," Crowton said. "Most
people don't think linemen can be downfield. You can be downfield after the
ball is thrown. You just can't hit anybody until it's caught. Once the ball
leaves the quarterback's hand, you can go downfield."
Crowton sat in his office Monday looking at tapes and was still
disturbed that the Bears were flagged for an illegal downfield block
Saturday. That was a mental mistake. "Most people don't know how much we
practice it," Crowton said. "But it's only a play that we may use a couple
times a game."
As much as teams are practicing it, everyone will know it this
season. Crowton calls his hitch passes a "flash," as in quick as a flash.
The quarterback takes one step and fires it to the receiver. The idea is
simple. Receivers are playmakers. The Flash gets the ball in the hands of a
receiver, who is one-on-one against a cornerback.
If he beats the cornerback with a move, he gains yards. The play is
almost as safe as a running play. Bengals head coach Bruce Coslet has first-round choice Peter
Warrick at split end where he can catch a hitch and use his Barry
Sanders-like moves to turn a 5-yard play into a potential touchdown.
"Everybody's doing it now," Crowton said. "I'm seeing it in
Philadelphia, Tennessee, you name it. I don't think my offense is different
from anybody's. Really, a lot of the things go back to the New York Giants
offense of Bill Parcells that I learned from Tom Coughlin."
Success breeds imitation. The Rams' Super Bowl run made their tapes
the most studied during the offseason, but what teams are copying may
surprise you. Not many offenses can completely incorporate the things that
coach Mike Martz did with Kurt Warner because they don't have the quick receivers like Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt and Az-Zahir Hakim or a multi-dimensional
running back like Marshall Faulk.
More teams are copying the Rams' blitzing schemes. That system worked
so well with the Rams' offensive firepower. Like the Bill Walsh-coached
49ers, the Rams offense set the tempo of games by running plays quickly,
driving down the field and scoring a touchdown or field goal in its opening possessions. The defense played aggressively for the three-and-out
or the turnover.
The philosophy opponents are copying is the Rams' philosophy of
varying blitzes off the team's offensive formations. Most defensive coordinators call blitzes by picking a side of the field to overload and
sending the prescribed blitzers.
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NFL trends for 2000
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Bears' hitches and flanker screens
Rams' "blitz the formation" system
Empty backfields with H-backs or multiple tight-end sets
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Rams defensive coordinator Pete Giunta uses the "blitz the
formation" philosophy taught to him by retired defensive genius Bud Carson.
Defenders go into a play with a couple of blitzing options, but the blitzers
won't be designated until they see the offensive formation.
"We bring people from different places all the time," Giunta said.
"We don't want to be predictable. On a certain front, this guy will blitz.
On a different front, it will be another guy. A lot of the blitzes are
automatic based on the formation. With offenses having so many formations,
that's hard to do, but we try to get a matchup that we want."
What's made the Rams so successful is that the core group of the
defense has been together for a couple of years. That allows Giunta to add
complexities each season.
Unlike the zone blitz scheme that remain popular around the league,
the Rams' assault comes a lot of time from man-to-man coverages. Carson
taught Giunta 30 years of devious stuff. Remember, Carson was defensive
coordinator when the Steelers dominated the early 1970s. He mixed in some of that strategy in the New York Sack Exchange with Joe Klecko and Mark Gastineau.
Carson picked up Buddy Ryan's "46" defense when he went to the
Eagles and didn't revamp the playbook. That allowed the Rams to have a
"46" look at times along with conventional 4-3 sets.
"The better you are at the corner positions, the more stuff you are
able to do," Giunta said. "We want to go out and force the quick throw. We
don't line up guys and leave them there. We are constantly moving the front.
We also give our guys a lot of freedom. They may have three or four calls
depending on the formation."
Thanks to their attack mode, the Rams had an NFL-best 57 sacks last
season. To make the scheme work, Giunta believes he needs smart middle
linebackers and safeties, good corners and decent outside pass-rushers.
He has spent the most time over the past year and a half talking to Carson by phone and trying to find ways to make the complex schemes
simple. "We simply want to make it player friendly," Giunta said.
The friendly it is to Rams players, the more it becomes unpopular to
opposing quarterbacks. That's why teams are trying to copy it.
Among the other trends taking shape this year, more teams are going
to empty their backfields in pure passing situations because of the lack of
coverage cornerbacks. Fullbacks are being phased out of more plays. They are
being replaced by H-Backs and tight ends. Fullbacks are becoming
one-dimensional in that they aren't sent out on passes and rarely do they
get a carry.
The Vikings came up with the novel idea of turning a tight
end/H-back into a "super" fullback. Jim Kleinsasser is 279 pounds, but he
has the hands of a tight end. Coach Dennis Green will not only use him at
fullback, but he will send him into enough pass routes to get him 25 to 30
catches this year. In Tampa, Pro Bowl fullback Mike Allstott will be used as
an H-back to take more advantage of his multi-dimensional skills.
The Cowboys are picking up the tempo similar to the Rams and
Redskins. Quarterback Troy Aikman is trying to get plays off quicker and get
linemen in and out of huddles quicker.
It should make for a quicker, more exciting league. One thing is
certain -- whatever works will be copied.
John Clayton is the senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.
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