A Toast Coast to Coast

By BOB OATES BOB OATES

Jan. 23, 1996 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

TEMPE, Ariz. — Bill Walsh, the 1980s innovator who won so often at San Francisco, has retired from coaching except, as he says, for several advisory roles. But he is still represented in the NFL by his offense.

It is called the West Coast offense now.

Fifteen years after Walsh first sent Joe Montana out to win 49er games and championships with quick short passes--to backs as well as wide receivers--many NFL teams were doing it that way this season.

Ten used elements of Walsh’s offense, five made the playoffs, and two reached Super Bowl XXX.

By reputation, the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers are tough-guy teams that love to run the ball. But in fact, they owe their eminence largely to passes by quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Neil O’Donnell.

That is most noticeably true of the Cowboys, who, under two dissimilar coaches, have been winning since 1993 with the essential play of the West Coast offense: the quick pass.

As their opponents stiffen for a jolt from running back Emmitt Smith, Aikman throws--sometimes to Smith or fullback Daryl Johnston, sometimes to tight end Jay Novacek, sometimes to a wide receiver running a slant pattern.

Like Walsh, the Dallas coaches frown on a four-wide-receiver set, and the shotgun formation, preferring to keep the Smith-Johnston unit in the game, with the quarterback under center. And like Montana, the Cowboys throw often on first down. When Aikman won the 1993 Super Bowl game at the Rose Bowl with four touchdown passes, each was delivered on a first-down play.

As for Pittsburgh’s coach, Bill Cowher, who for years has been trying to run his way into the Super Bowl, he finally made it when he switched to O’Donnell’s arm.

On some plays, lining up five wide receivers, the Steelers don’t even use a running back.

What links them to Walsh is O’Donnell’s short and medium passing, which is one of the distinctive features of the West Coast offense.

It apparently is an effective way to play football and there has been a lot of talk about it. But as an offense, what is it?

In a conversation with Walsh, who led the 49ers to three Super Bowl championships, you hear that West Coast football is a system based on three principles, the first and most important being “a willingness to pass on first down.”

Second, he says, “You have to complete a bigger percentage of your passes in this offense than most football teams can. You’re trying to keep possession throwing the ball--you’re trying to move down the field--and the best way to do that is with closely timed short-to-medium-range passes.”

Third, says Walsh, “You want the other team to keep using most of its base defensive people instead of situation specialists. So you attack them the way Dallas does, with a base set that threatens everything, everywhere, on every down. That means a possession receiver, a speed receiver, a good receiving tight end who is also a very good blocker, and two running backs who are also good receivers.”

Thus, in the pure West Coast system, there are “very few plays with four wide receivers”--or even three, he says--even though it’s a pass-oriented offense. Some opponents, in fact, call the West Coast a pass-first offense. But “that’s oversimplifying,” says Walsh, who is expected to return to the 49ers today as a consultant.

Question: Isn’t it true that the West Coast objective is to establish the pass in the same sense that most coaches try to establish the run?

Answer: No, our objective is to establish the offense. On first-down plays, we want to establish the fact that we can move the ball either passing or running--and that means being ready, able and willing to do either. The big thing on first down is a willingness to throw.

Q: Football players since boyhood have tried to grind it out on first down. How do you make them willing to pass?

A: You need a pass offense they can count on. What it takes is a sound way to throw the ball that will make the assistant coaches as well as the players feel confident that they can do it.

Q: Why is it so important to throw on first down?

A: Because that’s one time when the defense can’t gear up against passes. On first down, they always have to be ready for the run, too.

Q: Of the three underlying principles you mentioned earlier, the second is the need to control the ball with passes. Some critics say the West Coast offense is just a bunch of short passes and long runs after the catch. Why do they think of it that way?

A: Because that’s what they see.

Q: But that isn’t what it is?

A: Not quite. We call as many long passes as any other team. We might call a particular deep pass five times and not throw it once. What we do in every game is go to the outlet receiver quicker than other teams. If the deep pass isn’t open right now, we go immediately to the tight end or a back.

Q: What is the basis for your assumption that ball-control passes are more efficient than a ball-control running game?

A: We’ve learned that it’s too difficult to go head and head against today’s defensive linemen and linebackers on a running play that they anticipate. They’re too quick and mobile. When was the last time you saw a good offensive line block seven guys to the ground? A well designed pass offense is more reliable for ball control--especially against highly motivated defensive teams.

Q: What theory are you advancing here?

A: Offensive football is like this: If a team is trying to establish the run, emotionally charged-up defensive players will climb through good blockers to get your ballcarrier. And there goes your rushing game. But when you’re throwing the ball, motivation doesn’t help defensive players that much. Pass offense is skill, not muscle. An effective pass offense neutralizes emotion. That’s one of the great things about it.

Q: Moving along to your third aim or principle--the need to perfect a base offense--why are versatile starting lineups more productive than, say, specialist groups of four wide receivers?

A: When you leave your base offense on the field--with the quarterback under center--the defense has to account for every run and pass you have [power plays, traps, sweeps, draws, quick passes, deep passes]. We’re not against formations with four or five wide receivers, provided you’re using them to see if the defense makes a poor adjustment or gives you a major mismatch. But we think it’s counterproductive to bring in three or four wide receivers just to confuse the defense by giving them a different look.

Q: What’s wrong with that?

A: Timing is critical to pass offense. And the more people you have milling about, the harder it is to get your timing down. I think all cosmetic things hurt offense more than they help.

Q: So in West Coast football, how do you perfect a base offense such as Dallas has: an offense with two backs all the time, two wide receivers, the same tight end?

A: What we recommend is, going into training camp knowing every play that’s going to be called in the first six regular-season games. We simulate game-time conditions for every play we practice--everything we do--both in training camp and in a regular-season practice week. We isolate every possible game-time contingency--first and goal, third and 15, the four-minute offense, the two-minute offense, and so on--and we practice every play in one of those situations.

Q: How many such situations are there altogether?

A: We isolate four kinds--time on the clock, position on the field, down and distance, and field conditions--and no offensive or defensive play is ever practiced except in one of those contingencies.

Q: Is one contingency more important than another?

A: We think the four-minute offense is the most underrated or overlooked part of the game. The NFL is so competitive that most games are won or lost in the last four minutes of the half or the game--when too much or too little time is too often taken off the clock.

Q: What’s most important in down-and-distance planning?

A: We have distinct plays for, say, third and five, or six, or seven, or eight. The most difficult down is third and three.

Q: Why?

A: That’s a long way to pound the ball on a running play, and the defense knows it.

Q: Do you always expect to win?

A: We approach every practice as if we’re a one-point underdog. To a winner, complacency and overconfidence can be destructive. To losers, desperation and despondency are just as harmful. So on the practice field, we’re always slight underdogs with a chance to win.

Q: Do pass plays or running plays get most of the practice time?

A: During every regular-season game, there are occasions when you absolutely have to be able to run--you’re in short yardage, you’re ahead in the fourth quarter, you’re on the opponent’s goal line, times like that. So you work on it. But in the NFL today, it’s very difficult to line up and run early in the game, or relatively early, when both teams are fresh and inspired, and thinking clearly, and determined to win. The only thing you can rely on to circumvent the strength of today’s defensive teams is the timed short-to-medium pass. We allot more practice time for that.

Q: How do you define timing pass?

A: You drop back, say, three steps and throw to a man who will be there when the ball arrives.

Q: The 49ers have had a 15-year run at the top of the NFL, winning it all every three years, on the average. No other team ever did that. Is the way you time the short-to-medium pass a principal explanation?

A: It’s the elemental difference in what we do. But I’d say the explanation for why the whole thing works is our attention to organization and detail. We have a format to do everything, a role for everyone, a plan for scripting every moment of practice as well as the first 15 or 20 plays on Sundays after the opening kickoff.

Q: What’s the theory behind scripting early plays?

A: We want to show the defense a lot of formations and read their adjustments; we want to get in our basic runs to set up play action for later; it takes the pressure off the coaches to make critical early decisions; it helps the players to know ahead of time what plays are coming.

Q: Other teams are also scripting the first 15 or 20 plays.

A: Yes, there are things about this offense that can be and are being used now by many coaches. It’s an offense that is a little different everywhere. Everybody, including me, revises it every year. The aim is constant improvement.

Q: But why is it called the West Coast offense? Why not the Bill Walsh offense?

A: People who used to play for the Cincinnati Bengals wonder about that. When I was Paul Brown’s offensive coordinator there [in the 1970s], we were doing pretty much what the 49ers do now. This is an offense that originated in Cincinnati--which doesn’t even have a suburb on the West Coast.

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Comparing the Offenses

Of the NFL teams using part but not all of the West Coast offense, the Pittsburgh Steelers want to control the ball with short-to-medium passes. The Dallas Cowboys don’t script first- quarter plays, but otherwise they are basically a West Coast offensive team. Others now using some or all of the offense: Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, Kansas City Chiefs, Washington Redskins, Denver Broncos, Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles.

The following is a breakdown of what teams with typical NFL offenses and the West Coast offense do in certain situations.

Scenario: First Down

Typical NFL Offense: Run

West Coast Offense: Pass or Run

Scenario: Passing Downs

Typical NFL Offense: Extra Wide Receivers

West Coast Offense: Base Offense

Scenario: Running Downs

Typical NFL Offense: Two Tight Ends

West Coast Offense: Base Offense

Scenario: Pass Preference

Typical NFL Offense: Down Field