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True you can have 3 punters, a kicker, and offensive lineman lined up on the outside and it would still be considered a spread.
But a shotgun 4 wide formation is still a spread.
Andrew Luck
Robert Griffin III
The spread formation is all about getting the defense to "spread apart" against you. It has jack to do with offensive personnel. It gets d out in the NCAA every year because it takes pressure off the QB making the right read and really relies more on your play caller adjusting to the defense. Denver was trying to run the "spread option" which is a spread variant and the Patriots easily shut it down by spying Tebow with a LB so he couldn't run on them. Most spread formations want to force you into going nickel or dime against them, and that's why you're probably thinking of 4-wide shotgun formations as spread formations.
True you can have 3 punters, a kicker, and offensive lineman lined up on the outside and it would still be considered a spread.
But a shotgun 4 wide formation is still a spread.
Here is a definition of teams who run spread offenses:
The spread offense is an offensive scheme in American and Canadian football that is used at every level of the game including professional (NFL, CFL), college (NCAA, NAIA, CIS), and high school programs across America and Canada. The spread offense begins with the quarterback in the shotgun formation most of the time, and often employs a no-huddle approach. The fundamental nature of the spread offense involves spreading the field horizontally using 3, 4, and even 5-receiver sets. Some implementations of the spread also feature wide splits between the offensive linemen. The object of the spread offense is to open up multiple vertical seams for both the running and passing game to exploit, as the defense is forced to spread itself thin across the field (a "horizontal stretch") to cover everyone.
The "Spread Offense" is a generic term used to describe an offense that operates out of a formation with multiple wide receivers, usually out of the Shotgun, and can be run or pass oriented. One of the goals of the spread offense is to stretch the field both horizontally and vertically, and to take what are usually a teams' best defenders (linebackers) out of the game by utilizing three or more receivers.
Today variants of the spread are popular in high school and college football, with more modest versions appearing in the NFL. In college, especially, the offense often depends largely on option and misdirection runs, using all of the skill players on offense. The zone read is often a very popular play in this type of offense because of its flexibility, more so if a team has an athletic quarterback who can run the ball as well as pass. Linemen in the spread are often smaller and more agile so they can block effectively on screens, zones, options, and protect against aggressively blitzing defenses such as the 3-3-5 stack. As the defense, already spread out, begins to focus on stopping the run, the spread creates mismatches and single coverage on receivers, which creates opportunities in the passing game. Utilizing receiver motion along with jet sweeps is also an important part of creating confusion and running a balanced, yet successful, spread offense.
The success of the offense depends on creating mismatches (a linebacker covering a receiver), the ability for the quarterback and the receivers to find holes in the zone, and defensive breakdowns in the secondary (the receiver and quarterback both read that the safety will not rotate over to help the cornerback, so the receiver breaks to the outside or up the sideline with single coverage). Few defenses are able to cope with a well-executed spread run-pass threat, which is one reason why football scores have been rising in recent years.
The spread offense can also be used to benefit the running game. By splitting out three, four or five receivers (thereby spreading out covering defenders) and employing a fast, athletic offensive line, the spread opens running lanes for the tailback, fullback and quarterback. Also, linebackers may be taken off the field to cover the additional receivers, possibly resulting in a diminished ability for the defense to effectively tackle the running back. The primary responsibility of receivers in this case is downfield blocking, rather than pass-catching, as they spring backs for long runs. Spread option offenses rely on a quarterback who can call plays at the line of scrimmage, read the intentions of the defensive end, and keep the ball or pitch it to a back. The offense also uses short passes like a running plays, executing "bubble screens" that begin with a short, nearly-lateral pass to a speedy wide receiver to get him into open space. No-huddle spread attacks are also popular.
One popular variant of the spread is the "Air Raid" offense (pioneered by Hal Mumme), in which the offense may pass on over 80% of its downs. The offense is seen as being complex, though receivers need to know relatively few routes. The complexity comes from the different formations the routes are run out of. The running back in the Air Raid offense serves a useful role as well by catching passes out of the backfield, on screens, and carrying the ball on draw plays.
The problem a lot of people here are having with understanding this is they're thinking of the spread like it's an entire offensive philosophy when it's just one mother ing formation that works as a means to two different ends: You're either going to (1) get a high-percentage pass completion because the formation puts you in favorable one-on-one matchups against the defense if they go nickel or dime on you, or (2) basically makes your QB an extra player if he's able to quickly see that he has no read and can actually run the ball (think Colt McCoy, dude was the leading rusher in games from the QB spot all the time at Texas).
Gold star to Huey Freeman for showing the world how to use Wikipedia. Thanks bro, I could have never figured it out by myself.
It does not matter if its a teams offensive philosophy or just a single play a team runs in a game. The definition is still the same. is not complex.
You need to start
Its a good tool to prove a point.
It's a good tool to prove you don't know what you're talking about so you went to ing Wiki and tried to pass it off like you won the discussion when in reality we'll keep talking and you'll just be the idiot that Wikis when he gets into it with people on Spurstalk.
Like I said, gold star bro. Gold star.
First off, I knew what a spread was long before I looked on Wiki. Just needed to show the definition.
Second, its better than just talking bull like were doing.
Last edited by Huey Freeman; 01-19-2012 at 05:11 PM.
Next time you enter a conversation know what the you talking about. The you were saying may have been true to a point, but in way you were added nothing to to the conversation. You were just talking bull .
no you're ing not.
Yeah you are
No they didn't, they ran the Run N Shoot which, while employing 4 receivers in their formations, is philosophically completely different than the spread. Goddamn you're a ing re .
The object of a spread is to spread the field. It doesn't matter what the receivers are doing. They could be running vertically, horizontally, they can standing around scratching their asses. If you have 4/5 "receivers" (aboard term) you are in a spread.
You're focused way too much on who lines up where and not nearly enough on what happens after the snap.
And you just proved you have no clue what a spread offense is. maybe if you read the ing wikipedia article you posted, you'd know.
The run n shoot is a spread. When I say "spread" I am not referring to the offensive philosophy of Oregon or Mike Leach. A spread is a spread.
You can ing be running the ball and you can still be in a spread formation.
It doesn't matter what happens after the snap. A spread formation is a spread formation. Your spreading the field.
WHAT THE ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?????????
There's no such thing as a "spread formation"
Since you're so good at using Wikipedia I'd like you to find the "spread formation" here in a list of football formations. Have fun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formati...ican_football)
LOL then what is a "spread"?
there's a single set back formation or an empty backfield formation. If you want to call it a "spread formation" then fine, but all that means is you're a dip who had no ing clue what anyone else was talking about.
Which is why you posted this article, right? Because you weren't talking about the philosophy, right?
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