Why Stopping the Read-Option Isn't as Easy as You Think

[Monkeydad]

Here's how I addressed this last season...thought I had a good point so I dug it back up.

Originally Posted by Monkeydad

If we abandon it, we're not utilizing Griffin's talent to its fullest potential.

Until the league catches up and learns how to stop it, keep going pedal to the metal.

I do not believe the league's defenses CAN stop it. It's not a scheme that they have to figure out like Hideo Nomo's quirky wind-up or the Dolphin's Wildcat experiment...you can't really learn something that presents itself as completely unpredictable. Griffin's fake handoffs are like Houdini's tricks. He's so good at hiding the ball so well that no one knows where it is that you can't learn how to defend it. It will always freeze defenders and send them in the wrong directions. It's not something they can adjust to, they have to either hesitate until they know for sure who has the ball, or they have to gamble one way or the other. Maybe a new defensive alignment can be developed to try to cover the field better, but the offense is based on causing the defense to guess and react.

I don't see this being a fading trend. It works. We have changed the way the pro game is played.

Originally Posted by Monkeydad

Yes, because a gimmick gives you the #1 rushing offense in the NFL AND one of the highest-rated passers in the league, in his rookie year.

Get used to it, we're a powerhouse on offense and will be for years. This isn't a gimmick that defenses can figure out...RGIII's incredible ball skills on fake hand-offs and the option plays isn't something you figure out, it's something you just have to hope you guess the right way on as a defender. There's nothing complex to decipher, this offense just forces the defense to react and take a blind guess about where the ball is and is going.

http://www.thewarpath.net/redskins-l...tml#post998867