The Cleveland Browns' 2011 offense: From North Coast to West Coast

[BernietheKid]

The Cleveland Browns' 2011 offense: From North Coast to West Coast

Published: Sunday, August 07, 2011, 6:00 AM

By Tony Grossi, The Plain DealerThe Plain Dealer

BEREA, Ohio -- Except for the fluky 2007 season, the Browns haven't had a top 10-ranked offense since Ronald Reagan was president.

Conservatism has been the preferred offensive philosophy through recent coaching regimes. Defensive-minded head coaches have conditioned us to accept the football bromide, "You've got to run the football to win, especially in this climate." How's that worked out?

When Browns President Mike Holmgren hired his first -- and he says last -- head coach, he followed two criteria. Young and offensive-minded. The fact that new coach Pat Shurmur is a coaching descendant of Holmgren and runs the same precise, pass-first, West Coast offense that took NFL teams to six Super Bowl championships in nine appearances was the clincher, of course.

But mention the phrase "West Coast offense" in cold, blue-collar Cleveland and you meet instant skepticism. That won't work here, not when the Lake Erie winds howl in December. This is a running town.

In truth, the foundation of the West Coast offense was laid in Cleveland under Paul Brown and then built upon by Bill Walsh in Cincinnati when he became Brown's top offensive assistant with the Bengals.

"The sanskrit, if you will, was Cleveland, 1948," said Brown's son, Mike, the president of the Cincinnati Bengals.

"If you listen to the real professionals in the game, it started in Cleveland," said Ron Wolf, former Green Bay Packers general manager.

Not only that, one of the men credited -- or blamed -- for coining the tag, West Coast offense, was none other than former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar. Not only that, the coach who devised the blueprint for slowing down the West Coast offense is former Browns coach Bill Belichick.

And Holmgren, who proved as Green Bay coach in the 1990s that the West Coast offense could prosper in cold and windy weather, is now the top Browns executive.
Adding it all up, the question should not be: Can the West Coast offense work in Cleveland? A better question is: What took them so long to bring it back?

The West Coast principles

The oversimplification of the Walsh system is that it's a ball-control passing game that de-emphasizes the run. Think shorter pass routes and quicker throws, equivalent to extended handoffs.
"You want to strive for balance," said Holmgren, who learned under Walsh. "The indicator, as much as anything, was the fact there were a few more pass plays that you had in the game plan that would substitute normally where other teams might call runs. So you had a lot of passes in the 5- to 8-yard area, and you were OK with that, as opposed to handing the ball off and running."

There is built-in flexibility to adjust to your team's talent. That was the staple of Walsh's philosophy in Cincinnati and San Francisco.

Philadelphia's Andy Reid, whom Holmgren said follows Walsh's offense as closely as any coach now purporting to run it, said: "We led the league in long passing [last year]. Our deep game is pretty good. But, listen, everybody does it different. You've seen quarterbacks in that thing with howitzers -- Brett Favre, Donovan McNabb. Michael [Vick's] got a big gun. And you've seen the Joe Montanas."

As a player, Kosar favored a more downfield approach to the passing game. But he marveled at the "highly intricate" West Coast offense.

"The principles involve understanding defenses and really sound route-running," he said. "[Walsh] created holes in that 0- to 10-yard range. It really was beautiful. I mean, to run tight ends through and replace them and get a guy open five yards from the line of scrimmage with 10 yards of space, it's really beautiful to pull that off."
Brown admired Walsh's creativity in adapting his system to his players.

"Everybody now has a West Coast offense," he said. "I know what Bill did. It was distinctive. It was hugely successful and he deserves credit for it. He adapted to the talent he had. In my mind, the West Coast offense was the short passing game with option routes, catching the ball and immediately turning upfield and trying to split the defenders."

But it goes deeper than that. Walsh explained the principles in his book, "Finding the Winning Edge." Belichick considers the book a coach's Bible, the greatest piece of football literature ever authored. Belichick declined to be interviewed for this story.
Walsh wrote: "The West Coast offense is really more of a philosophy and a methodical approach to teaching than it is a set of plays or formations. While it certainly has come to mean a ball-control passing game based on timing, rhythm, and precision, it also describes an entire offensive structure from play schematics, preparation, installation, implementation, game planning, execution, and, perhaps most importantly, total attention to every detail."

Shurmur's definition of the system follows Walsh's comments closely.

"It's the way you practice," Shurmur said. "Not so much about no pads or beating guys up. It's about a quicker pace at practice, where you're up to game speed because the passing game is about timing, rhythm and execution. Thirty-two guys might give you 32 answers or different bullet points of what they think it is, but fundamentally it starts with what you tell the quarterback and execution."

The history of the West Coast

Paul Brown's Cleveland Browns offensive teams of the late 1940s and '50s were years ahead of their contemporaries. Brown's passing concepts were so advanced that his quarterback, Otto Graham, could stand free and wait for longer patterns to develop.

Brown's end product was the result of meticulous planning and preparation that created favorable matchups in his passing game. He took the same system to Cincinnati when he founded and coached the Bengals in the late 1960s. Walsh, first hired as the Bengals quarterback coach, then seized upon those principles and took the offense to another level.

"The numbering system that the old Cleveland Browns created and used and then adopted for the Bengals was the language of the West Coast offense," Mike Brown said. "What it was, was a system where you called the protections and the backfield flow by a number, and then you attached a tag to the number -- a verbal description -- to describe the patterns the receivers would run."

Early on, the Bengals emulated Paul Brown's vertical passing attack because they had a strong-armed quarterback named Greg Cook. But Cook's career was cut short by injury, forcing Walsh to adjust to journeyman thrower Virgil Carter in 1970.

"Virgil could not throw the ball far with great strength or accuracy, but he was very quick-thinking and he could throw short patterns effectively and he could move, so you could roll out and you could hit shorter patterns," Brown said. "And that was probably where Bill started with the short throws that became the hallmark of the West Coast offense.

"When Bill got to California, he first had Montana and they looked pretty much like what we would have looked like here. Although there were probably more short throws, it wasn't as significant as it became later with Steve Young. With Steve Young is when the West Coast offense really reached its climax. They could get rid of the ball so fast that you couldn't rush them effectively."

That ability to adjust to the quarterback's talents was a core of the system. It is why Holmgren's passing game was more vertical with Brett Favre in Green Bay than it was in Seattle with Matt Hasselbeck.

"You couldn't have the coach be so tied in to a system that you wouldn't let the [quarterback] flourish," Holmgren said. "Then you're making a mistake."

Naming the West Coast

There are two stories of how the West Coast offense got its name.
One is that when the NFC rival New York Giants finally conquered Walsh and the 49ers in the 1985 season NFC Championship, after two previous post-season losses, coach Bill Parcells sneered to reporters, "What do you think of that West Coast offense now?"

The name didn't stick, however, until a few years later when Kosar used it in a interview with a national football writer.

"Actually Mike [Holmgren] used to bust my chops about it," Kosar said. "It's an unfair simplification of a highly intricate offense. The knowledge it takes, the understanding of coverages, running guys through zones and replacing them with receivers and hitting them in full stride. When they're running it right, like Frisco in the late '80s, they made something very complex look like throwing against air, just pitch and catch."

Holmgren is not a fan of the offense's nickname. "That was the phrase that was coined after Bill kind of installed everything and the fact that it was a little bit different than the thump, crush, kill stuff," he said.

"I didn't resent it. I just thought that anybody that worked for Bill and then went on, or worked for me and went on, they kind of said they ran the West Coast offense. That wasn't altogether true because everybody put their own stamp on and things evolved.

There were a couple of us that pretty much stuck with the 49ers plan, I guess, more than the others. Andy [Reid] stayed the closest to what we did."

Defending the West Coast

As Parcells' defensive coordinator with the Giants, Belichick had the task of creating gameplans to stop Joe Montana, Jerry Rice & Company in the mid-1980s. After losing in the playoffs in San Francisco's championship seasons of 1981 and '84, Belichick formulated a blueprint to slow down the offense.

By the time Belichick came to Cleveland as head coach, his plan was tried and true. On a Monday night early in the 1993 season, the Browns forced three interceptions and a fumble by Young and three dropped passes by Rice in a 23-13 upset win in Cleveland Stadium. Young would have his greatest year the following season, winning league MVP honors and taking the 49ers to their fifth championship.

"The key to defending that style offense is understanding the basic principles of it," said Carl Banks, who played linebacker for Belichick in New York and Cleveland. "Your defenders have to be good enough to disrupt timing. Basically, you've got to put speed bumps in the defense for the wide receivers in that offense. Most of the passing yards come after the catch.

"An effective West Coast offense doesn't give up a lot of sacks, so the mistake a lot of teams make -- you saw it against the Packers all year [in 2010] -- is teams were devising pass rush schemes before devising schemes to disrupt the timing.

"It's a waste of time to think you'll come off the edge and get a sack. It won't happen because the quarterback doesn't hold the ball long enough. If you can employ a combination of good, physical play on the outside of the defense and a good pass rush inside, then you have a shot.

"You have to have some sort of disruption at the line of scrimmage. Bill thought the best way to do that was to press and jam receivers with linebackers at the line and then have another defensive back they'd have to get through. When the quarterback's back foot hits the ground and there's nobody open, that's when the pass rush becomes effective."

Kosar said, "Bill understood what the offense was trying to do. The first guy decoying and trying to clear a zone out, knowing they're going to replace it with another guy. I can still hear Bill saying, 'If a guy runs through, they're going to replace him, so anticipate the next guy coming into that zone.'

"And he would beat them up at the line of scrimmage and then push that five-yard rule as far as you can and then beat them up at every aspect."

Restoring the West Coast in Cleveland

Can the West Coast offense work on the North Coast?

Banks pointed out, "You can't run that offense effectively without good wide receivers."
The quality of the Browns receivers is an ongoing debate. But all the experts interviewed for this story had much less doubt about quarterback Colt McCoy, who has all of eight games NFL experience.

"It's probably a good offense for Colt McCoy," Banks said. "In that [AFC North] division, you don't want him holding the ball because it'll result in a lot of picks and he'll probably get knocked out of the game. So it's probably suited for him. Second-year quarterback with young, inexperienced receivers. So they predetermine their routes and get the ball out of the quarterback's hands and live with it."

Brown, who saw McCoy throw for 243 yards and two touchdowns in a 19-17 Bengals win in Cincinnati in December, said, "I like your young quarterback. I think he's got real promise -- quick-thinking, accurate, nimble-footed, quick-throwing. I think that he's a natural for this kind of thing."

Reid said, "McCoy will be very good at this. He's smart. It's timing, anticipation."
Holmgren believes the combination of McCoy and Shurmur is the right fit.

"I think some things about the offense have proven true over the years," he said. "One, while everyone would like the guy who is phenomenally physical, a la Brett Favre, who can throw the ball through the roof and all that stuff, to be successful in the offense, it's more accuracy and timing.

"So if you have a good quarterback and you can teach him the system and he's disciplined, I know it works. So Colt is those things and now we just have to see and allow him to play."

What about the Cleveland weather in December? It's no harsher than in Green Bay. The Packers ranked in the top 10 on offense in five of Holmgren's seven seasons there.

When Wolf hired Holmgren in 1992, he said he had no hesitation about bringing the West Coast offense to frigid Green Bay. He was sold when he saw Holmgren, then the 49ers offensive coordinator, roll up big numbers in San Francisco with fill-in quarterbacks Mike Moroski and Steve Bono.

So weather is not an issue. As Mike Brown pointed out, "We did it here before they did it in California."

It just didn't have a catchy nickname.

The Cleveland Browns' 2011 offense: From North Coast to West Coast | cleveland.com

[Greythan]

Good read. +1 to Grossi.

[Brown Warrior]

Great article. If Colt McCoy were in a better situation, he'd have to get blow jobs whenever the defense took the field. He's not only in the NFL offense that gives him the best chance to be a long-term factor in the NFL... he's with Holmgren, Heckert, and descendant Shurmur.

Let's not forget: If McCoy becomes the Browns long-term starter, it'll be downright freaky. Doerschuck went through the QBs picked after round two this millenium and it's a Who's Not List. It's tough to find a quarterback drafted after the second round who goes on to start for his original team for any length of time. Hell... it's tough to find many after round one.

Who would we be talking about? Still Brady, Romo, and Garrard? Soon to be Brady and Romo?

McCoy could be Holmgren's cherry on top.

[Brown Warrior]

BTW, while we're watching Colt's big opportunity, we can also watch Dalton, Ponder (at some point), and Alex Smith. These are all guys hand selected (or re-selected) because coaches and personnel type believed their value was far greater in the WCO.

Neither Ponder or Dalton have much in the arm department, something that would normally nudge you down to at least round 3... but Ponder went 12th and Dalton went 34th because they just FEEL like WCO guys: Super smart, hardworking, and crazy accurate. Honestly, if McCoy were in this draft? I think we'd be clustering those three guys in conversations.

It's like WCO teams are actually looking for guys who fit their systems, considering it's rare that you get a guy with all those qualities plus a gun. Bradford has just more than those three guys but not all that much... and it made him #1 overall. Very interesting.

Harbaugh's romance with Alex Smith was about the WCO more than anything. Smith got one of the highest Wonderlic's ever, has the nimble feet, and shows fantastic accuracy on WCO-esque routes. Harbaugh saw a kid who just turned 26 and might be an ideal fit for his system.

Fun to watch all four. Seems like Ponder will have to wait, the best thing for that shoulder.

[golfer704u]

Originally Posted by Brown Warrior

Great article. If Colt McCoy were in a better situation, he'd have to get blow jobs whenever the defense took the field. He's not only in the NFL offense that gives him the best chance to be a long-term factor in the NFL... he's with Holmgren, Heckert, and descendant Shurmur.

Let's not forget: If McCoy becomes the Browns long-term starter, it'll be downright freaky. Doerschuck went through the QBs picked after round two this millenium and it's a Who's Not List. It's tough to find a quarterback drafted after the second round who goes on to start for his original team for any length of time. Hell... it's tough to find many after round one.

Who would we be talking about? Still Brady, Romo, and Garrard? Soon to be Brady and Romo?

McCoy could be Holmgren's cherry on top.

But I thought you keep harping that our recievers suck? That certainly has to make McCoy's situation not so cherry?

[hammertime]

^^^

[Brown Warrior]

Originally Posted by golfer704u

But I thought you keep harping that our recievers suck? That certainly has to make McCoy's situation not so cherry?

Way to contribute.

But seriously... my problem with the WR unit is they have no NFL track record at all. I'm pretty sure I've never seen a corps so collectively unaccomplished. Have you?

Could it work out? Sure. I can see Little and Massoquoi growing into a very nice pair of starting WRs. But Little is raw and Massoquoi is in a boot. Haven't heard a peep about big, fast Carlton Mitchell yet. Robiskie is Robiskie: He'll make the team if we're not good enough to move on from him yet.

My point is that i can't imagine a clearer prescription for one savvy vet WR. It's glaring. But obviously Heckert doesn't agree. So if Heckert and Holmgren dig their WRs so much, they can't use it as any kind of excuse if McCoy struggles.

We have a potentially great offensive line. We have a great set of backs and TEs. Some of that will mask our deficiencies at WR, hopefully long enough for something to gel.

But I would turn that around, Golf: Either we're really good at WR (no excuses for Colt) or we aren't (Heckert's a moron). What I'm reading from some here is a bit of fence straddling. They're great unless Colt struggles, at which point it's their fault.

But even with a raw group of wide-outs, McCoy will be in a system that plays to his strengths and minimizes his weaknesses. It's absolutely the right offense for him. Historically speaking, third round picks don't step into opportunities like this very often, certainly not with their original team.

All the reps and THE reigning WCO guru in the house? C'mon. It's gravy.

[golfer704u]

Originally Posted by Brown Warrior

Way to contribute.

But seriously... my problem with the WR unit is they have no NFL track record at all. I'm pretty sure I've never seen a corps so collectively unaccomplished. Have you?

Could it work out? Sure. I can see Little and Massoquoi growing into a very nice pair of starting WRs. But Little is raw and Massoquoi is in a boot. Haven't heard a peep about big, fast Carlton Mitchell yet. Robiskie is Robiskie: He'll make the team if we're not good enough to move on from him yet.

My point is that i can't imagine a clearer prescription for one savvy vet WR. It's glaring. But obviously Heckert doesn't agree. So if Heckert and Holmgren dig their WRs so much, they can't use it as any kind of excuse if McCoy struggles.

We have a potentially great offensive line. We have a great set of backs and TEs. Some of that will mask our deficiencies at WR, hopefully long enough for something to gel.

But I would turn that around, Golf: Either we're really good at WR (no excuses for Colt) or we aren't (Heckert's a moron). What I'm ready is a bit of fence straddling. They're great unless Colt struggles, at which point it's their fault.

But even with a raw group of wide-outs, McCoy will be in a system that plays to his strengths and minimizes his weaknesses. It's absolutely the right offense for him. Historically speaking, third round picks don't step into opportunities like this very often, certainly not with their original team.

All the reps and THE reigning WCO guru in the house? C'mon. It's gravy.

I'm just trying to keep your arguements straight and honest. Thanks for the continued discussion.

I'd disagree that it's one or the other and that was my point. I'd somewhat agree with you, our WR's are average. Not terrible, just average, and some with potential to get better.

Secondly. While this "system" is the best for McCoy to play in, and will play to his strenghts and minimize his weaknesses. You're comments (as usual) imply, that McCoy must be "great" now or he never will be. and that's a position I totally refute.

I've been harping on this since last season, and I know most of you don't want to hear it. But this team is going to STRUGGLE this season. MIGHTILY. and that will include Colt McCoy. A lockout was THE SINGLE WORST thing that could have happned to a QB going into his second season and his first real season as the unquestioned starter.

"All the reps and THE reigning WCO guru in the house?" really? do you realize how many critical months in the life of a young QB Colt has missed those reps and guruing?

The whole offense, including the recievers will not be at thier best early in this season. the timing and understanding just won't be there. I cringe when I read statements like yours that mean we will once again, make rash judgements on a guy without seeing things through. So then you'll harp to draft a rookie QB, which will mean our second year HC will then have a rookie to put up with, and will likely have a second mediocre season which means you'll then be calling for a new HC who will bring in a new Offense and a new Defense and......over and over and over.

[Bronx Cheer]

Originally Posted by golfer704u

Secondly. While this "system" is the best for McCoy to play in, and will play to his strenghts and minimize his weaknesses. You're comments (as usual) imply, that McCoy must be "great" now or he never will be. and that's a position I totally refute.

I don't think he is saying Colt is a finished product after this season. I think it is more along the lines of the team will likely bring in a new vet QB (or draft one high) if he struggles this season, thus spelling his demise as "the guy" in Cleveland. Thus, his obsession with getting a WR upgrade is more about giving McCoy a fighting chance for a fair analysis as opposed to trying to judge his talent playing "shoulda, coulda, woulda" watching 2011 film of him throwing to WalMart castoffs. The best, and worst, thing about a low-drafted young QB is your team has no handcuffs to being committed to his development. Lower picks don't get to take their lumps, they get dumped.

[golfer704u]

Originally Posted by Bronx Cheer

I don't think he is saying Colt is a finished product after this season. I think it is more along the lines of the team will likely bring in a new vet QB (or draft one high) if he struggles this season, thus spelling his demise as "the guy" in Cleveland. Thus, his obsession with getting a WR upgrade is more about giving McCoy a fighting chance for a fair analysis as opposed to trying to judge his talent playing "shoulda, coulda, woulda" watching 2011 film of him throwing to WalMart castoffs. The best, and worst, thing about a low-drafted young QB is your team has no handcuffs to being committed to his development. Lower picks don't get to take their lumps, they get dumped.

And what I am saying is that I hope Holmgren and Heckert are smarter than that and can see the whole picture when Colt and the whole team struggles this year. I'm not saying you go with Colt no matter what. But I believe it's fan pressure from fans like Warrior and others who make front offices make rushed decisions. and then like I said, with a high drafted rookie you're looking at starting over teaching him the offense again, which will affect the teams W-L collumn which will then affect the young second year coach, and the owner will gain bow to pressure and we'll get a new coach, and then likely a new QB, just like we've been doing for the past 12 years.

But mostly, I get tired of this kind of talk, before even the first pre-season game. The back handed "I hope he turns out great but the odds are against him" type of talk . Warrior is a great poster with a lot of knowledge. We just view some of these things differently.

[YtownBacker]

Golf i agree with you 100%. The team will struggle and McCoy as a young QB in a new offense with a shortened ofseason will struggle also. I do think if he shows some and it doesn't have to be measured in stats, that this FO won't give up on him. His upside will be the deciding factor and it really can't be measured in wins and losses.

This team has committed to McCoy and unless he completely shits the bed he will be given the opportunity to grow as the teams guy. We need to stop the knee jerk reactions and stop pulling the plug at the first sign of adversity and let some things play out. We are where we are as a team because we continue to make changes within the organization and with the players.

It isn't fun watching a team lose but if they are growing an developing then sooner or later you got to just let it happen, let guys learn and become veterans and stop all the overhauls. We have a good crop of young players and now we have to develop them.

[Brown Warrior]

Your mother's right, kids (!). Bronx is clarifying what I'm saying accurately... and I think we might both kind of agree with you, Golf: It might not be fair.

But McCoy comes saddled with a low investment, a draft slot in the 80s, and tons of questions about whether he has the high-end physical skills to be a long-term franchise guy. If he's given all the starter reps and a long leash... and then doesn't get it done... and the Browns lose enough to draft up high?

Nobody who doesn't have definite franchise QB is gonna find it easy to resist Andrew Luck if they have a shot at him... and the teams drafting in the Top 5 (with possible trade up ammunition) probably don't have one. If the Browns go 4-12 with a shit passing game and draft fourth, I'd say the chances of us NOT taking a QB are slim to none.

Fair to McCoy? I don't know. But my wish this offseason was to give him a fighting chance. I do think we'll have a great line, great backs, and great TEs. I think we sold him short at WR by not giving him his version of Mark Clayton.

Maybe it should be Jerricho Cotchery or Lee Evans, but nobody's hearing that's the case.