Miami Dolphins' Wildcat formation brings the Single-Wing offense back to the NFL

At least 9 different NFL teams have used the "Wildcat" formation (the Dolphin's name for the single-wing offense), recently popularized by the Miami Dolphins upsetting the New England Patriots in Week 3 of the 2008 season. Ronnie Brown rushed for 4 touchdowns and threw a 5th touchdown in the 38-13 upset. They only called the formation 6 times.

Once the dominant offense in football

The single-wing offense, although currently out of fashion with high school and higher level coaches is one of the soundest, most proven offense in football. It was invented by Pop Warner, who was the winningest college coach of all time until just recently. From its invention in 1912 until some time after the advent of the T-formation in 1940, the single wing was the dominant offense in football. Tom Harmon, the Heisman Trophy winner from Michigan in 1940 was a single-wing tailback. Almost all college national championships and NFL championships in that period were won by single-wing teams.

The T-formation worked well back then mainly because the defenses were all geared up to stop the single wing. Now, the exact opposite is true. The defenses are geared up to stop the T-formation. Today, the typical offense at the youth and high school levels is a pro set I (tight end and flanker on one side; split end on the other; fullback and tailback in the backfield). In response, the typical defense is a 5-2-3 with a strong safety as a third linebacker on the strong side of the offensive formation. That is a very poor defense for stopping the single wing, which is why most of my readers have been kicking butt with the single wing around the U.S. and Canada. See the reader comments for my book Coaching Youth Football.

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