The Future is Here: The NFL and the Pistol Offense

[CRedskinsRule]

Originally Posted by The Goat

Curious how/why the pistol puts the defense back on its heels in your opinion?

In the pistol the defense sees a look that forces it to account for both an inside run, and 2 quick release passes - one to a flanked wr and one to a TE on an inside seam route. They are forced to defend the whole field from sideline to sideline and from the LOS to 6 yds deep within a second of the snap. If the qb reads it right, there is almost always a scheme advantage to the offense.

Also, defending the whole field is tiring. Think about a WR screen. from the offensive side, the qb gets the snap and releases it, the WR is in position so until he catches it there isn't a lot of energy spent, but the dline at the snap is pushing hard upfield and in a split second is turning against its grain and running across the field. MS has said that's the reason we see so many wide plays at the beginning of games, to get those dline guys running sideline to sideline.

Further, an under the center the snap that is a designed pass gives the defense a few steps to set up as the qb takes his drop, a shotgun formation allows the dline to be more aggressive towards the pass rush, because inside runs are hard from that formation.

The key to the pistol is having a qb that can quickly see the best point of attack on the presnap and at the snap reads, the article pointed out this is one of RG3s strengths that doesn't get mentioned as much.