Big D v. Offenisve Innovation

The big story in the NFL this week does not concern Brady or the Mannings, nor even God's Chosen Team the Dallas Cowboys, nor the Best Team in the NFL the forty-niners, nor the Cheesiest Team in Green Bat, nor, not even the greatest Rookie QB in NFL History Luck of the Colts.

No the Big story in the NFL the game to watch is between the Bad Boys of the Midway -- Da Bears and the upstart yes that other team from football frenzied Texas the Texans themselves.

Da Bears have arguably the best defense int he NFL.  Going into this weeks game against the Texans, the Chicago Bears offense ranks 25th in total offense with just over 325 yards per game.  Their defense ranks 24th in total offense, yes that's right.  so, how will the Texans beat them.

Well the Texans have a different kind of offense.  It's not exactly west coast and not exactly a throw back type Lombardi simplistic, but it is different during this era of explosive big pass plays the Texans rely on something fundamentally different. 

What makes their offense innovative and different is their reliance on a pro-bowl offensive line roatating players and, of course, Adrian Fisher.  Fisher already has 770 yards this year as the work horse for the 7 and 1 Texans.  He rushes with a great offensive line.  And let's face it in spite of what we see on Televisions in spite of the endorsement deals in spite of the notoriety of the Mannings, the Lucks, the Youngs and who's that guy in San Francisco, in spite of the big name marquee QBs it is offensive lines that win games. Quarterbacks have a hard time acheiving with a mediocre offensive line. The Raiders, firty-niners and Browns have all gone through the rebuilding necessary to be competitive in the NFL this rebuilding begins with the offensive line the foundation of any great team.  The Texans succes is grounded or anchored by a great offensive line with a great runner.

But instead of accepting these as a limitation, the Texans have built on this.  They have implemented an innovative offense that includes sequencing of run plays with similar blocking patterned lanes and back routes.  These sequences in turn have play-action passing plays sequenced in. The power of this is that will keep defenses off-balance, even such a high powered high pursuit defense featured by Da Bears.

The NFL has needed a major innovation since the rise of linebacker play in answer to the west cost offense, the next logical move is to counter the new size speed and versatility of the linebacker play with a running offnese using pass plays built of the run.  Play action passing game particularly in the red zone has been a staple of tradition offenses and will remain so, but we see more and more teams like the Giants running sequences of running plays and popping in the play action pass from the red zone for 6.

Now the Texans have taken this to a new level by structuing an offense anchored by a solid line and powered by an excellent runner and building play action passes off the running plays.

We shall see but this strategy should catch on in the NFL and certainly defeat Da Bears today.