The Cleveland Browns and the “West Coast” Offense.
There has been a great deal of speculation over whether or not the “West Coast” offense can be a successful philosophy in the AFC North. Many are convinced that in a run-heavy division like the AFC North it is simply not a favorable philosophy. But what is the “West Coast” offense? And where did it come from? The answers may surprise you.
The common philosophy in many offensive schemes is as follows. To be a successful offense, you must establish the run in order to be successful in the passing game. But the West Coast philosophy differs.
The basic philosophy which has come to be known as the “West Coast Offense” is to execute short horizontal passes in order to stretch the defense. This can cause the defense to become vulnerable to deeper passes and longer runs. Many attribute this philosophy to Bill Walsh who successfully implemented his offense in San Francisco. But it was former Cleveland Browns, and hall of fame head coach Paul Brown that was the originator of this playbook. Paul Brown’s success in the NFL is well documented, not only in Cleveland with the Browns, but he was also the founder of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Walsh’s exposure and implementation to this offensive philosophy came while he was an assistant coach at Cincinnati under Paul Brown from 1968-1975. Walsh later took a modified version of this offense to San Francisco when he became a head coach. Walsh won three Super Bowls with this offense, but It was not until 1985 after a playoff loss to the New York Giants (17-3) when the term “West Coast” was applied to Walsh’s offensive scheme. Then head coach of the Giants Bill Parcells made a comment after the game poking fun at Walsh’s scheme, “How do you like that West Coast offense now?”. Later in 1993 Bernie Kosar used the term to describe the offensive system used by the Dallas Cowboys as the “West Coast” offense in an article published in Sports Illustrated. Although he was referring to the “Air Coryell” style of offense (Similar offense popularized by Don Coryell with the Chargers in the 1970’s & 80’s), it was mistaken that Kosar was referring to Bill Walsh’s philosophy and the term stuck.
Needless to say this style of offense has become popular among many coaches over the years such as George Seifert, Mike Shanahan, and Mike Holmgren just to name a few. And as each coach who is taught this philosophy, they will take it, and make their own variation. It has been wildly successful for many teams and in various weather conditions. Current head coach of the Cleveland Browns Pat Shurmur uses this philosophy, and as time goes by, and as players become familiar with the system we will hopefully see success in the future.
Michael W. Youngman ( Lead Analyst )
*Historical background From: [David Harris, "The Genius: How Bill Walsh Reinvented Football and Created an NFL Dynasty", Random House, 2008] Tags: hot , this
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8 Responses to “The Cleveland Browns and the “West Coast” Offense.”
March 18, 2012 at 5:40 PM
I'm not particularly fond of this style of offense, but if it does by chance work for the Browns, H&H are gonna look like geniuses. I just hope that when the Browns do decide to get a REAL FRANCHISE QB, then just maybe instead of all these 5 yard dink & dunk passes they'll open up the field more! RG3 would have been perfect for them long accurate passes every now and then...DAMN! I still can't believe we let him get away, 1-2 more losses deliberately done and we would of had him with no problem! I just can't believe that H&H didn't consider it!!! like the colts philosophy "Suck For Luck" we'd be sittin pretty right about now with a true franchise QB, now I'm depressed again.
March 18, 2012 at 5:55 PM
107 years is a long time to coach football......"Walsh’s exposure and implementation to this offensive philosophy came while he was an assistant coach at Cincinnati under Paul Brown from 1868-1975"
March 18, 2012 at 6:29 PM
Seattle just got a good quarterback, if the Cleveland Browns management doesn't replace Colt joke McCoy before the season starts, they are going to lose every single Cleveland Browns fan out there, and a boatload of money. You can only offer a joke of a team with no quarterback for so long, before people just won't tolerate it anymore. Listen up Cleveland Brown management, get a legitimate NFL quarterback for the Browns or lose all your fans, and a ton of money!
March 18, 2012 at 7:21 PM
Yes. You are absolutely correct. TYPO LOL. Of course though it feels like its been well over a hundred years since Paul Brown was in Cleveland winning titles. LOL, thanks for reading:)
March 19, 2012 at 12:10 AM
OOPS--That for picking that up Matty--Owe Ya!
March 19, 2012 at 4:10 AM
Well it should at least make him a shoe in for the Hall of Fame.
March 22, 2012 at 5:52 PM
FOR THOSE WHO DOUBT HOLMGREN....
Well, the basics of the WCO were first conceived by Bill Walsh under the tutelage of Paul Brown. Bill Walsh took it to San Fran and perfected it while tutoring Mike Holmgren, a highly unknown and highly doubted young OC. Under that tutelage the young and inexperienced Holmgren began his journey to being the bigger than life figure he is today.
He then went to Green Bay and tweeked it some more in a much colder and windier clime and revived a poorly run and stagnant franchise and returned them their grand tradition. While there, he tutored Andy Reid who then took it to Philly and revived another poorly run and stagnant franchise and revived their grand tradition. While there, Reid then tutored Tom Heckert on the personnel end of it.
Meanwhile, Holmgren then went to Seattle and revived another poorly run franchise without hope and nursed them to their very first taste of prominence.
Then he took a couple years off, vowing many times to not return, until he saw the similarities of ALL his experiences right here in Cleveland. Went out and hired his best pupil's best pupil in Tom Heckert and now here we are full circle where Paul Brown got it all started and modernized pro football.
This is a legacy thing most undoubtedly for Holmgren and he wants nothing more than to repay the football gods for one of, and arguably, the greatest football dynasties of all time and the coaches it spawned, whom without, he'd not have his livelihood and opportunity for the Hall of Fame....
When he said that he wanted nothing more than to restore the famed Cleveland Browns tradition, I'm a firm believer that he meant it. He went to Green Bay and did it, he'll most certainly will do it here, too.
FOR THOSE WHO DOUBT THE WCO CAN WORK IN THE AFC NORTH....
San Francisco is cool, damp and windy city that at the time had an acient stadium that was wide open to the whims of the great bay in which it rested next to.
Green Bay is a much colder and forbidding clime with, you guessed it, an open and ancient stadium also at the mercy of the great bay it rests upon.
Philly is a city with some of the most rabid sports fans, and although the climes are not as much a factor, has another ancient and foreboding stadium and with all the hot air it's fans can muster can be just as difficult a place to operate as the formers.
Cleveland, on the other allows for a little of each. The unpredictability of a San Fran winter- by -the- bay, The cold and wind of Green Bay, and the demon spawn that we lovingly call fans that's found in Philly.
San Fran's rivals are the Cowboys (brought to prominence by another pupil of Brown's), Green Bay's is the most storied of all franchises in the Bears and Philly has to deal with the Giants and their even blustier fans along with Dallas to boot. See some similarities here with Cleveland and Pittsburgh ?!?!? Not to mention the whole Modell and Baltimore thing.
In summary, if any thing can turn our beloved franchise around it would be the experiences of a man who worked hard and earned the experiences he has the hard way with a system that many have doubted time and again to be as successful or as resilient to the constant changes of this league. To doubt his method is foolish pride, and quite honestly, possesses an aroma of ignorance and bad attitude.
Thank You for playing along,
A TRUE AND DEVOTED BROWNS AND NFL FAN.
March 23, 2012 at 1:55 AM
Ya Know OJB--good write-up. You should have just given it a title and sent it to me as an article--thanks for the comment!!!
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