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Dolphins Legend Ronnie Brown Breaks Down Wildcat Offense Creation
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- Dolphins Legend Ronnie Brown Breaks Down Wildcat Offense Creation
(Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)
Back in 2008, the Miami Dolphin s chose to introduce the NFL version of the "Wildcat" offense to their playbook. The result of the first time it was showcased led to five touchdowns and a huge 38-13 upset victory over the New England Patriots .
The leader of the offense on the field was Dolphins legend Ronnie Brown , who sat down on the "Raw Room" podcast to talk about how it came to be and the result of the five touchdown day it led to.
Initially, Brown was asked if the team thought it would work, and he emphatically said "no." Essentially, they tried in practice, but the results were not anywhere near what they wanted them to be.
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"We had Coach David Lee, you remember, cause Arkansas used to run it ... when they put it in, it was the worst-case scenario at practice. It never worked. All the defense was like, 'Where did you get this high school offense from?' We put it in the worst-case situation to see how people would defend it," Brown said.
Brown indicated that the Wildcat Offense was called due to the Dolphins being 0-2 to start the season. Then, offensive coordinator Dan Henning chose to debut the new style offense to the Patriots, which immediately worked.
Essentially, the Wildcat Offense saw either Brown or Ricky Williams take direct snaps from the quarterback to either run the ball themselves or throw it, acting as a quarterback. The simplicity threw everyone off, including the Patriots.
Former Patriots and Dolphins linebacker Kyle Van Noy also spoke about it, saying that Matt Patricia "lost years of his life" seeing how effective Brown was.
"Ay real talk they would still talk about this game when I was playin at NE. This play had them boys shook cuz they couldn't stop it then they look at the film it was just 34 power jet sweep … Matty P lost years off his life after this game. He had nightmares of Ronnie brown!"
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Clearly, the Dolphins were onto something big, which led to other teams in the league mimicking the style of offense, but nobody else had quite the same success that Miami did in 2008.
Brown remembers being shocked that Henning called the Wildcat Offense.
"He called it in the huddle, and I was looking at Ricky like 'Bro, he really called it.' And I was like 'Bro, don't mess up, don't mess up,' And it worked. I had five touchdowns that game. That was the good and the bad cause people started expecting it to turn into a big play," Brown said.
Regardless of teams catching on, it worked very well. With Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady out for the season, the Dolphins turned their new offense and team into an 11-5 AFC East winner. This was the last time the organization won the division crown.
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Miami would go on to play the Baltimore Ravens in the Wild Card round of the playoffs and would face an early exit, but the Wildcat Offense was something that fans never forgot.
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