Alright, we have 5 pages in this thread right now, which is cool. That tells me there are some people interested in the offense and how they can use the minor sample of plays in the NCAA game in their offense. Those of you who know me from reading my posts about the R&S know that I can write some pretty lengthy articles on it and this one will be no different. It will be long! So sit back and get ready for a long and in-depth read.

I think most already know how the R&S came to be - Tiger Ellison - a High School coach in Ohio basically created the beginnings of it and Mouse Davis took it from there. Mouse coached High School ball in Oregon for 15 years and used this offense to take advantage of his smaller players and changing the game from a game of muscle and size to one of intelligence {finding openings in Zones/ knowing how to beat your man when in Man coverage} and speed, taking advantage of smaller, faster receivers and forcing team's to either cover them w/ LB's or 3rd and 4th string DB's.

During Mouse's time in High School his teams were 79-29 and won the 1973 State Championship as well as setting many records. From there he moved to , where he went 42-24. In the 28 years prior to Mouse arriving at the Vikings were a pathetic 90-152-7. Suffice to say that Mouse turned a perennial loser into a winner. In the 5 years after he left, the Vikings went 19-33-1.

In 1982 Mouse went to the CFL and installed his offense for the Toronto Argonauts, who went 2-14 the year prior to Mouse's arrival and they made it to the Grey Cup that year, losing 16-32, but the following year, still using the R&S, they won the Grey Cup, which is the Super Bowl for the CFL.

In 1984 Mouse joined the USFL and the Houston Gamblers. Jim Kelly and his "Mouseketeers" lit up the league, throwing for 5,219 yards and 44 TD passes. In two seasons in the R&S, Kelly compiled 9,842 yards and 83 TD passes, hitting on 63% of his passes and averaging a whopping 8.53 per attempt.

It was during these years that a lot of people stood up and took notice of the R&S Offense. And one of the things that I believe ultimately hurt it was that Mouse was very eager to teach it to other coaches. While this shows the kind of person he is, it also pulled back the curtain for defensive coaches. What was once a huge mystery to them now was better understood. It didn't shut the offense down, but it certainly didn't help by having defenses knowing what to look for.

From 1989 to 1996 the R&S was in the NFL, w/ the - and using it at various times. All three teams made the play-offs when using it and in 1991 they finished 9th, 5th and 4th in points scored respectively. All three had great success running the ball as well, which is one of the worst misconceptions about the offense. In 1991 the averaged 4.1 per carry and scored 16 TD's and gained 1,366 yards rushing. The averaged 4.1 per attempt, gaining 1,664 yards and scoring 6 TD's and the , w/ Barry Sanders, averaged 4.3, gaining 1,930 yards and scoring 19 TD's. And this was the worst year for the R&S team's in terms of running the football. They usually averaged between 4.4 and 5.1 per carry. That year the went 12-4, the went 10-6 and the went 11-5.

Through the 1996 season, when the w/ June Jones were still running the R&S full time, the offense was still the same as when Mouse Davis first came up w/ it. A few subtle changes were made along the way however, including the Back Shoulder Fade that is now so common in football. This happened by accident in 1985 on the when QB Bob Gagliano tried to hit a WR down near the goal-line. The CB jammed the receiver, forcing Gagliano to throw it to his back shoulder. As soon as he saw the play, June Jones said: "That's got to be a play!!!" And the Back Shoulder Fade or Stop Fade was born.

Once Jones arrived at he began tinkering w/ the offense, including placing the QB in Shot-Gun full time and lining up in Trips more often and reducing and almost completely eliminating the motioning of receivers. When Jones took over in 1999, was coming off an 0-12 season and had lost 18 games in a row and they were 118th out of 118 team's in total offense in 1998. In Jones' first year they finished 9-4, then the biggest turn around in college football history and their offense was # 2 in the country.

The Run & Shoot has been used by a lot of teams from little league to High School to College to the Pro level. It's won championships in High School and Div. II and III levels as well as in the CFL and made the play-offs year after year in the NFL and has set records everywhere it's been. As much as I respect June Jones and his desire to take down-trodden teams and turn them around, just once I would like to see him at a big-time school w/ big-time talent. He's a tremendous coach - as can be witnessed by his W-L record and all the former college and pro players who sing his praises. He knows how to attack defenses and he's a great teacher of the game. He excels at teaching technique and June Jones at some big-time school would result in a National Championship, in my opinion. When he took over at they were on the verge of dropping the football program altogether, then in 9 years he had them in the . At he took a team that hadn't been to a bowl game in 25 years and has gone to 3 straight, winning 2 and defeating a heavily favored team 45-10.

So... w/ all that said, let's jump into the minimal amount of R&S plays in the game and how you can use these to your advantage.

Above I pretty much covered the Slide Route, so we'll look into the Go and Choice Routes. I will say this; EA has not properly implemented any of these plays, as they have left out too many of the options for the WR's to run. Perhaps it's their engine and it just can't handle it, but the reality is that in real life, there are more option routes that can be run than what is in the game. One small advantage you have is if you can read a defense and see - before the snap - what they are in, you can always Hot Route a guy to what he would do in real life.

The Choice Route is run out of Trips and is designed to get your best WR singled up against one DB on the side of the field opposite of the Trips side. He has the "Choice" of what route to run based on how the defender is playing him. Typically he will have 4 Route Options: An Out at 10-12 yards - a Skinny Post - A Comeback at 15 yards or a Go Route. All of this is based on how he is being defended. So, if the CB playing him is pressing him from inside - basically cutting him off from going inside - he sells the Go Route and at 10-12 yards he then cuts his route off to the Out. This is the base play on the Choice Route. However, let's say the DB is pressing him from the outside, closing off the Out Route, this is where the WR would read the FS and run either a Go or a Post Route.

The beauty in this play is that whatever the defense does will be wrong. And once you run this enough, it will force the defense to slide coverage over to that side of the field, thus opening the Trips side routes. One major problem in the game is trying to see the outside receivers. And let's face it, if you can't see them, you can't throw to them. Another problem is the middle receiver on the Trips side actually has several option routes to run, yet in the game he only has two, a Post or a Deep In. He should have a Go or Seam Route, Post, In and Hook, and the Hook can vary depending on where the defense is. So he basically reads the D and finds the opening between him and the QB, meaning his Hook could happen in a number of places at around 10-12 yards. Yet these aren't in the game. If you Hot Route him to a Hook Route, he will run the Hook and then just stand there even if a LBer is standing right in front of him. So again, total failure on EA's part of implementing this play correctly.

As I mentioned prior, I don't use the R&S in the game because it really isn't the R&S. However, when "practicing" I always look to the two inside guys on the Trips side. For one, I can see them and two, you have both a short and a deeper route to choose from. This year, w/ Super LB's out of the game and no more Psychic DB's, this play could be very good to use if you want to run it. You could even try and move your QB out of the pocket to see the outside WR, but know that doing this could result in more sacks.

Now for the Go Route. This is a play I just love because it is guaranteed to work against any defense you can imagine. Your first read is the inside slot receiver on the Trips side. He runs a quick out. You can gain 3 yards or 90 yards hitting him. It will work against any defense but is great against Cover 3, Cover 1, Man 2 Deep and any blitz they throw at you. You can even get this to work against Cover 2 if you throw it quickly, just remember the CB will be staying at home and a late throw - especially in an EA game - will result in a pick six.

On the Go Route both outside receivers run Go Routes. Their job is to get to the outside, even if the DB is pressing them from the outside, so they can clear space for the quick out and then they run a Fade/Go Route. EA has the single side receiver running a Curl Route. This is wrong. The only time he does not run a Go Route is if he cannot beat his guy deep, he cuts his route off and runs a Comeback at about 15 yards, driving back to the sideline at around 12 yards.

The middle receiver on the Trips side has several option routes, EA has him running a Seam/Go, a Post or a Hook. Again, this is wrong. He should run a Seam/Go, a Post or a Deep In, not a short Hook. You can Hot Route him to the Deep In, but know if you've read the defense wrong you will eliminate his other two Option Routes, thus hurting your chances w/ the play.

The Go Route is great to use as an audible IN THE GAME! Why? Because, if you see a full on blitz, you hit the inside WR on the Trips side for an easy gain. If you see one of the outside CB's blitzing, you hit that WR on the Go Route. You have to throw quickly before the FS or SS can get to him. You can also Hot Route the middle WR on the Trips side to a quick Slant over the middle against a Blitz or against Man.

For those of you interested in using the Run & Shoot in the game this year, do yourself a favor and go to the playbook and find the Shotgun HB Mid Screen. This is essentially a true Shovel Pass and works great against 3 man lines. I will be adding this to my playbook and hoping that I can audible to it from 5-Wide, because it can be very lethal. This adds one more true R&S play to your arsenal.

I truly wish that EA would give us more of the R&S in the game, because it is a beautiful offense that takes time to learn, but once learned can be very effective. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask in this thread or PM me. If you are on X-Box and want to "Lab" to help improve your passing game, I would be happy to do that too. Next w/ end I am flying to Philadelphia to sit front row at Roger Waters - The Wall Live. But after the 16th I'll be available just about anytime to lab.

Hoping this has provided some insight into the offense and I truly would love to dive into more of it, but it's rather useless when EA only has a few actual plays in the game. Perhaps someday they'll implement the entire thing. That would be a lot of fun!