Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Pistol Offense 101

By late Sunday night you will probably never want to hear the term "Pistol Offense" again. In the simplest terms the Pistol is more a formation than an offense. Instead of standing seven yards back in the shotgun, the QB stands three or four yards back. The goal is to get the benefit of the shotgun (better vision, more space) and not lose the opportunity to have a power running game. Nevada was the birthplace of the Pistol and now, like other innovations in football, it has spread and variants are popping up all over.


BC has yet to face a true Pistol Offense but our staff is certainly familiar with it. We even used some Pistol during the season with Rettig. Of the teams we faced, the closest in style and philosophy to Nevada is Florida State. Both run similar zone blocking schemes. Both have mobile QBs and have explosive runners. The team's passing stats were very similar but a most would concede that a healthy Christian Ponder is a better passer than Kaepernick.


For BC the key will be winning the battle upfront. Most of Nevada's runs are inside Zone reads. This will put pressure on our DTs and LBs to clog holes and then play assignment football. If we can get Nevada out of a rhythm running, I like the matchup of our pass defense against their passing game.


Here is more background on the Scheme:


This is Nevada's former OLine coach discussing his line drills for the zone.


Indiana runs the Pistol with a passing focus (and uses man) but here is how the formation helps the run game.


Here is how dangerous Kaepernick can be when he gets a seem.


Smart Football has some great posts on the Pistol too.
-- Pistol Breakdown
-- Deconstructing the Pistol
-- The Pistol's Horn

9 comments:

Danny Boy said...

Frankly, I've never been too impressed with the pistol. I think its less versatile than the spread option. We've already established that we can stop a down-hill runner. We know that our LBs can fill gaps on the interior of the line. I'd be more nervous if they were in footraces to the corner.

Don't get me wrong, Nevada has a talented, running QB, and that always makes me nervous. But that has nothing to do with the 'unique' offense we're about to see.

Erik said...

Meter and Huckaby are really cracking me up. Talking about Weston athletes (or lack thereof)

Erik said...

Dartmouth Athletic Director Harry Sheehy just called Gene D to ask if we can squeeze in a game next week.

Ryan said...

3 straight losses to Harvard. We have the mentally weakest players in the country.

Big Jack Krack said...

Hello Danny Boy - I don't know as much about the pistol as others - but I think we CAN beat these guys. Will we? I don't know, but I do know that we can.

With that in mind, I'm really getting pumped up thinking about lowly BC ending its season beating #13 Nevada - let's do it for our deserving seniors who have gone through perhaps more than most senior classes - if not the most, what with the turmoil and injuries and coaching changes, etc.

I know that with proper preparation and mental attitude, etc - we can come out and really surprise these guys.

We're going to hit them hard in the beginning of the game and throughout the first quarter, and the second quarter and the third quarter - and then we're going to come out and HIT THEM THE HARDEST IN THE FORTH QUARTER.

Let's win this game for the seniors as stated in my last post. I really feel strongly about this, and I hope Coach Spaz has keyed in on this and isn't approaching this as an exhibition game that MIGHT prove rewarding.

Go BC - make this the most rewarding experience you've had this year - one that you will remember throughout your lives!!!!!

The rest is B.S. - win this game. Here's one final thought for tonight - Charlie Weiss and Notre Dame (although a home game in South Bend) took this team out 35 to 0 in the first game last season.

WE CAN DO THIS.

NEV 1st V27 08:42 Kickoff H21 04:18 Missed FG 8-52 4:24
NEV 2nd V31 14:54 Kickoff V37 12:28 Punt 3-6 2:26

NEV 2nd V20 11:42 Kickoff V25 10:39 Punt 3-5 1:03

NEV 2nd V43 08:26 Punt H20 05:33 Downs 7-37 2:53

NEV 2nd V23 01:48 Kickoff H35 00:00 Interception 8-42 1:48

NEV 3rd V20 15:00 Kickoff H47 12:10 Punt 5-33 2:50

NEV 3rd V36 10:12 Kickoff H44 08:02 Interception 4-20 2:10

NEV 3rd V39 05:50 Downs H07 02:06 Fumble 7-54 3:44

NEV 4th V11 12:13 Punt V44 09:27 Punt 7-33 2:46

NEV 4th V10 05:43 Punt V16 03:27 Punt 5-6 2:16

GO BOSTON COLLEGE - SWEEP DOWN THE FIELD FOR BOSTON.........

Big Jack Krack said...

Wow - a couple of thoughts:

The Ivy League has our number for sure. Hopefully this will be it for the next 25 years or so. Losing to Harvard 3 years in a row is unthinkable, frankly. I don't care how good they are. Congratulations to the Crimson, however - hats off to them.

The ACC is not good at all this year - the Big East is way above the ACC this year.

Why is the ACC going in the wrong direction in basketball?

Ry said...

when we win it's donahue, the up-tempo offense, and the three pointers...when we lose it's the mental weakness of the players. doesn't sit right with me.

we looked asleep all night and i lay that as much at the feet of the coach as i do the players. yale on its own was bad, but i can take it because it was early and they shot the lights out. harvard (AGAIN) is tougher to swallow because it means that we didn't learn our lessons and that we weren't ready.

reggie couldn't create his own shot tonight and harvard was glued to the three point line. biko, rubin, & moton can't create when they put the ball on the floor and just looked lost. trapani reverted to early-season poor shot-selection, forcing off-balance mid-range jumpers and awkward layups around the rim. southern didn't seem ready to play either. if we are going to have the perimeter taken away, like we did tonight, we need to have the inside game ready to go especially against a team without significant size like harvard. that didn't happen, we played our typical inconsistent defense and we lost.

also of note, very very few adjustments were made while harvard was making their runs and i don't remember a timeout being called either. i like donahue and think he will be good. but i don't think it's fair to pretend that things like that don't happen

Lenny Sienko said...

Defensive inconsistency killed BC men's BB tonight. Man-to-man was ineffectual. We could not stay with their Canadian freshman who lit us up for more than 20 points.

When we switched to zone, Harvard shot lights out from beyond three-point line. The only defense that worked briefly was the full-court press. It did force successive turnovers, letting BC cut the lead to 5 points; but 3-point misses halted the comeback.

Southern reverted to last year's inability to hold onto the ball. Trapani forced up inside shots, which he couldn't finish. Paris couldn't get a shot off, Rubin, likewise. Harvard clogged up the perimeter and disrupted our offensive flow.

Jackson started strong, looking like his old self; but tapered off and seemed to lose confidence in his game. Is he hurt? The last two or three games, he doesn't seem to have his explosive first step and his "ups".

Give credit to Harvard and Tommy Amaker, who seems to have our number. They really get up for BC . You could see their confidence growing. They also are the best foul shooting team in the USA, so there is no way to catch up in the last couple of minutes by putting them on the foul line.

Lets hope we can regroup for the ACC schedule. We can expect the same type of perimeter defense from this point forward. We need some type of inside game to counter it.

mmason said...

I know this is way off topic, but I'm watching Jared Dudley light up the Lakers right now with 19 first half points! It's a beautiful thing to behold. Takes some of the bummer off the loss to the Crimson...but only some.