marshall was better than briggs and the same size. how old are you by the way?

the run and shoot.

lock it down.

Try to follow. Only two men are generally given credit for CHANGING the game in the past quarter century.

I never said that they were the only men who fostered innovations in Pro Football.

LeBeau, as great as he is , came AFTER Ryan. Prior to Ryan, the blitz was occasionally used to pressure the QB. After Ryan it became much more of a staple in the game. Buddy, like Hannah said, was the FIRST football coach to realize that the defense had the offense outnumbered. The FIRST. That is the essence of genius. Being the FIRST. Buddy was the FIRST to design an entire defense arround the blitz.

Likewise, Walsh designed an entire system that stretched the field, not VERTICALLY, but HORIZONTALLY.

You can name a list of coaches, as you have, who have done great things and who were excellent coaches. None of them, however, can match Walsh and Ryan when it come to changing the game!

When Bill Parcells says that “The 46 defense did (even) more to change the game than the WCO” that might strike you as a bold statement, but it’s the reality of the situation.

You miss the point: I said there have only been two GENIUSES, from an X and O standpoint in the past Quarter Century. You quote me as saying this:

Don’t tell me that Dick Lebeau, or Sam Wyche, or Tony Dungy were never credited for CHANGING the game. Maybe so by YOUR accounts… but not to the rest of the football world.

See the diffrerence? Again and listen CLOSE: I’m not saying that those two (Ryan & Walsh) were the only ones to introduce an innovation to the game. OK.

Nobody, in the history of the NFL has EVER called Tony Dungy an X and O genius. OK. fact is, the Tampa Two was developed by both Dungy AND Monte Kiffin. The fact that a lot of teams use it doesn’t mean it “CHANGED THE GAME”, at least on the level that Ryan did. It’s a copycat league and a number of teams use the “Cover Two” defense. There are a lot of different schemes and variations on those schemes in the league.

Dick LeBeau led a team to the SB BEFORE Buddy Ryan. Son, are you kidding me? Ryan was the D-Line coach of the SB WINNING Jets, long before LeBeau led his team to the SB. Beyond that, back then, he wasn’t using the “zone-blitz.” As I tried to explain to you earlier, the zone-blitz came about AFTER LeBeau (like everyone else) saw how effective the blitz was a staple of a defensive philosophy, thanks to Buddy Ryan.

Fact is I DO give LeBeau credit. I said so in my 7:14 post. He didn’t, however, CHANGE the game like Ryan did in the early 80’s. Yeah, he’s still coaching now and Buddy is long gone so I hope he’s doing more than Buddy.

Wyche? Nice wrinkle. But comparing that to something like the WCO is kinda ignorant. The WCO was an entire system. The “No-Huddle” is just that. It’s almost like the “Shot-Gun” formation. You either line up under center or in the Shotgun. You either huddle up or you don’t. It’s a nice wrinkle but hardly changed the game like Walsh did. Bill Walsh is probably rolling over in his grave over that kind of thinking.

See your problem SackMan is that you don’t comprehend too well and you PUT WORDS IN MY MOUTH (that I never said)! Like this:

But, I guess… according to you… that has no impact on the league or football history.

I have NEVER said that! EVER. But that doesn’t stop you from putting those words in my mouth.

In closing (try to follow along), this was my original statement:

The only two geniuses in the last quarter century, from an X’s and O’s standpoint, were Walsh and his WCO and Buddy and his 46.

Later I said that there were only two men given credit for CHANGING the game in the past quarter century.

Perhaps this is where your confusion comes from. You need to read BOTH of those statements together. When I later commented on only those two “Changing the Game” I meant at the level that they did (GENIUS).

Obviously, others have impacted and “changed” the game, so to speak. Just not at the level of those two.

There is NOTHING I have said that says that nobody else had any impact in the game or even changed the game. NOTHING. Really. Check my posts at 1:27 & 7:14. All those words you put in my mouth are just that: WORDS YOU PUT IN MY MOUTH!

The reason I make that statement (about genius and changing the game) is because of this:

A) Buddy Ryan was the FIRST coach to show that constant pressure on the QB through the blitz can not only be effective against an offense but also can dominate an offense. It was Ryan’s philosophy about “Pressuring the QB” which lies at the heart of his 46 defense. As Rex Ryan (who still runs the scheme) puts it:

“The 46 philosophy is designed around a simple concept: Pressure wins games.”

Nobody, before Buddy Ryan, in the history of the game, ever designed and ran a defensive system whose primary goal was to get as much pressure on the QB and the offense.

The actual scheme (who rushes from where) comes AFTER the goal of “Pressure wins games.”
So when you discount the “scheme” in that it’s not used very much now you miss the point about “Pressuring the QB.” ALL teams now understand the importance of this concept. The fact is, the only game the Patriots lost in 2007 is the one game whereby their QB was pressured throughout the game.

Ryan was the FIRST to coach in this manner from the defensive side of the ball. Those that do things “first” are usually considered pioneers or geniuses in their field. It DOESN’T mean that those that follow, for years and then decades, won’t come up with ideas of their own. It just means that, from a football standpoint and an X and O standpoint, Ryan was a genius and that’s why Bill Parcells (no slouch when it comes to Pro-Football) syas that the 46 did more to change Pro-Football than the WCO.

Speaking of the WCO, Walsh was the first to realize that an offensive can control the clock AND hit big plays using a short, quick horizontal passing game.

Walsh: Almost all teams use some variation of his WCO in their offense (some more than others)
.
Ryan: All teams, in varying degrees, NOW recognize (thanks to Ryan) the need to pressure the QB, as oppsed to just letting him comfortably sit back in the pocket and pick the defense apart.

Through their genius, those two men did the most to CHANGE the game of Pro-Football in the past quarter century.