Wildcat strike no copycat call for Bears' offense
ON THE BEARS | Turner has toyed with direct snap since Hester's move to offense
November 26, 2008
BY MIKE MULLIGAN mmulligan@suntimes.com
A longtime Bears observer called the other day to tell the ''true'' story behind the Bears' use of the so-called wildcat formation Sunday against the St. Louis Rams. Credit Lovie Smith, the caller said, for the newfound old-school innovation. Smith, remember, was an All-America linebacker and safety at Tulsa in the late 1970s, when Quinn Jones was an All-America running back. Jones is the uncle of Dallas Cowboys running back Felix Jones.
It was the ability of the younger Jones that inspired Arkansas to start using direct snaps to Darren McFadden to get both players on the field at the same time. Smith was spotted having lunch with Jones and McFadden in Arkansas before the draft. Surely, the Bears coach had been watching the Razorbacks last season. Surely, he got in the ear of offensive coordinator Ron Turner about the wildcat. Surely, that's the Bears' connection to the oldest new offense in NFL history.
Great theory. No truth to it.
It has been a running joke around the team for more than a year that Turner would practice the wildcat but never run it. The Bears worked on it last summer in training camp, Turner said earlier this year. They worked on it throughout last season. They ran a ton of gimmick plays in camp this year, especially the final week, when Devin Hester repeatedly took direct snaps and was passing the ball as well as running it.
At St. Louis, the Bears became the first NFC North team to run the wildcat, getting a 12-yard run from Hester and a four-yard burst from Matt Forte. Turner said the Bears had wildcat plays set to go against Tennessee and Green Bay but never got to them, so he scripted them in for the St. Louis game to make sure they were run.
''It was way, long overdue,'' Turner said. ''The players teased me all the time because we'd use it in practice, and they were like, 'We're never going to call it, so why do we practice it?' I kept saying, 'We are, we are.' Finally, I had to just shut up and we did it.''
Turner said he knows he'll be accused of being a copycat in a copycat league, but he swears he has been toying with running direct snaps to Hester since the explosive kick returner was moved to offense after his rookie season.
''We worked on it for two years -- we worked on it this offseason and in the summer and everything,'' Turner said. ''We finally got to it. I don't know what took so long.''
The wildcat formation has taken the NFL by storm since the Miami Dolphins unleashed it against the New England Patriots in September and produced four touchdowns in a surprise victory. It's a variation of the old single-wing formation that dates to the early days of football, the pre-NFL era of Glenn ''Pop'' Warner, who coached the Carlisle Indian School in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The formation came to Miami from Arkansas, where Dolphins quarterbacks coach David Lee held the same position when Arkansas high school coaching legend Gus Malzahn was hired as the Razorbacks' offensive coordinator in 2005. It was Malzahn who figured out how to get McFadden and Jones on the field at the same time. The Dolphins were struggling but had two good running backs in Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams.
While the Bears have been practicing to get Hester direct snaps for years, they also got one for Forte using the wildcat with a different scheme and personnel.
''The great thing about it -- that's a starting point for us, what we used this last game,'' quarterback Kyle Orton said Monday on WSCR-AM (670). ''There is a lot of other stuff you can do. It's not a huge part of what we do, but it is something else another team has to prepare for. They have to practice against it and get ready for it. Any time you can make a team prepare for other things, that's a good thing.''
Both Orton and Turner insist the team didn't use the wildcat merely as a tease for the Minnesota Vikings, whom the Bears face in a crucial NFC North matchup Sunday night at the Metrodome. But everyone seems to like the idea that the Vikings will have to consider whether the Bears are going to try some gimmick plays against them.
Turner said he's comfortable with Hester or Forte throwing a pass out of the wildcat and has said in the past that wide receivers Marty Booker and Brandon Lloyd have excellent arms. Orton, who is not a fan of the formation -- he's convinced teams will start taking free shots at the quarterback, who lines up like a wideout -- was asked if the Bears will throw a pass from the wildcat.
''We've got so many tricks up our sleeve you can't imagine,'' he said.
Nothing wrong with a new gimmick -- or some old gamesmanship -- before a big game.
