A14| Saturday/Sunday, September 7 - 8, 2019 ** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.**
LAST YEAR, the Cleveland Browns
did something peculiarly archaic.
For a series of plays during a win
against Atlanta, Baker Mayfield
lined up flanked by three running
backs in the wishbone, a formation
that’s more than a half-century old
and obsolete at the highest levels of
football.
But inside this anachronism was
a window into the present and fu-
ture of football: the war for space
on the field. And more than ever,
NFL offenses are winning that bat-
tle.
Football coaches distill the goal
of every scheme down to the idea
of space. The most fundamental
goal for every offensive play is to
create it—space is where wide re-
ceivers get openand playmakers
thrive. The objective for every de-
fense is to constrict that same
space.
But the space is finite because of
a simple geometric fact. Football
fields are 120 yards long and 53
yards wide. That’s 57,600 square
feet for players to operate in, yet
for most of professional football
history, offenses have struggled to
maximize all of it. They packed for-
mations tightly and limited them-
selves to narrow lanes down the
field. They were architects given a
sprawling plot of land who confined
themselves to small parcels of it.
The realization that there was
more space to exploit has spurred
an offensive boom in the NFL. Of-
fenses averaged more points per
possession and yards per play in
2018 than ever. They are challeng-
ing defenses to cover the entire
football field like never before.
“That’s where the offenses are so
much better now,” said Hall of
Fame quarterback and Broncos gen-
eral manager John Elway. “Stretch
the field—but also do it horizon-
tally.”
This awakening is on full display
as this season begins. It’s behind
how Sean McVay revitalized the
Rams and why Patrick Mahomes ex-
ploded under Andy Reid in Kansas
City. The best talents in the league
are finally being given the room
they need to succeed.
But it would’ve never happened
without decades of tinkering that
led to this point. Fifty years ago,
college football was upended by an
idea that began this way of think-
ing. It was a formation called the
wishbone. Texas used it to win 30
consecutive games, and other pow-
erhouses like Alabama and Okla-
homa soon followed en route to na-
tional championships of their own.
The wishbone was based on the
concept of the triple-option. A
quarterback could hand off, run the
ball himself, or later pitch it to an-
other running back. Passing was aBYANDREWBEATON
just a few years ago that would’ve
been laughable because he played
in the Air Raid at Texas Tech and
then coached it at his alma mater.
The Air Raid was long considered
heresy in the NFL because it chal-
lenged established norms so bluntly
that coaches concluded it would
never work in the pros.
NFL teams slowly opened their
minds to the ideas coaches like
Kingsbury espoused. In 2001, NFL
teams used the shotgun on just 14%
of plays, according to Football Out-
siders. In 2006, it was still just 20%.
By last season, that had skyrock-
eted to 64%.
The savviest offenses embraced
schemes that could trace their lin-
eage through all of this and were
premised on a full-fledged assault
of the entire football field. The
Chiefs lined up in the shotgun on
81% of snaps last year. The Rams
used at least three wide receivers a
whopping 93% of the time. The Pa-
triots played faster than any team
in the league.
The college game had come to
the pros. The full space of the field
was being utilized. NFL offenses be-
came better than ever.SPORTS
The NFL Had a Space Race. Offenses Won.
After a century of
evolution, teams have
finally solved football’s
most basic equation
rarity. But this antiquated offense
was also futuristic: it took advan-
tage of the vast width of a football
field. Running was no longer lim-
ited to a singular direction. Defend-
ers had to make a choice between
going after the guy with the ball, or
the one who would later receive it.
But the wishbone shunted an-
other dimension. Because passing
was an afterthought, wishbone
teams didn’t push the ball verti-
cally. When Texas went undefeated
in 1969, the Longhorns ran for
3,630 yards and passed for 1,091.
“The best offenses use the
width—and the depth of the field,”
McVay says.
Other scheming minds looked for
an edge by revolutionizing the pass-
ing game. The “West Coast Of-
fense,” which Bill Walsh used to win
three Super Bowls with the San
Francisco 49ers, attacked the edges
of the field with a preponderance of
higher percentage, shorter-length
passes. Observers likened it to re-
constructing the running game into
a passing attack.
Other twists opened up the verti-
cal element. In 1980, the Chargers
broke the NFL record for mostpassing yards in a season, and by
1985 they had five of the six most
prolific passing years ever. They did
it with a self-explanatory offense
called “Air Coryell.” Their coach,
Don Coryell, wanted to air the ball
as far down field as frequently as
possible.
Still, there was a lingering ques-
tion: how could an offense attack
defenses in every direction on every
play? The solution was hiding in
plain sight—in college football. It
just took shockingly long to trickle
up to the pros.
In 2000, the same season the Ra-
vens won the Super Bowl with one
of the best defenses in NFL history,
something far more important hap-
pened: Northwestern won a bunch
of football games. The Wildcats
didn’t invent the spread offense,
but when a bunch of eggheads
started using it to topple power-
houses, the whole football world
had to pay attention. They beat No.
7 Wisconsin, thumped No. 18 Michi-
gan State and then toppled No. 12
Michigan 54-51.
“I saw them almost scoring at
will,” Michigan coach Lloyd Carr
said afterward.Variations of the spread prolifer-
ated across college football. Teams
lined up wide on every play with
four or five receivers. They played
almost exclusively out of the shot-
gun. The most radical teams ad-
opted an extreme version known as
the “Air Raid,” which played at hy-
perspeed and eschewed the idea of
striking a balance between running
plays and passing plays.
For defenses, this became a
nightmare. When Baker Mayfield
and Patrick Mahomes squared off in
college, the final score looked like it
belonged in a basketball arena:
Oklahoma 66, Texas Tech 59.
Other innovations pushed that
even further. The run-pass option
took the premise of the triple-op-
tion and replaced the pitch with its
evolved counterpart: the pass. Jet
sweeps transformed wide receivers
into road runners who could take
handoffs streaking across the field.
“Teams are continuing to trend
that way and find ways to get guys
the ball in space,” said Cardinals
coach Kliff Kingsbury.
Kingsbury understands this trend
better than anyone. He’s now the
coach of the Arizona Cardinals, andJOHN HINDERLITERWeather
Shown are today’s noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.City Hi LoW Hi LoW City Hi Lo W Hi Lo WToday Tomorrow Today TomorrowCity Hi LoW Hi LoWAnchorage 58 52 sh 61 53 c
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Austin 101 68 pc 99 71 s
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Boise 88 61 s 70 51 t
Boston 69 59 r 75 57 pc
Burlington 69 54 c 66 50 pc
Charlotte 91 68 s 89 71 s
Chicago 76 60 pc 68 59 sh
Cleveland 74 58 pc 71 54 c
Dallas 99 76 pc 98 75 s
Denver 8857pc 8256t
Detroit 75 58 pc 71 54 c
Honolulu 92 80 sh 91 79 pc
Houston 101 73 s 99 74 s
Indianapolis 77 60 s 74 61 sh
Kansas City 81 66 pc 80 66 c
Las Vegas 105 79 s 97 75 s
Little Rock 91 71 s 95 74 s
Los Angeles 86 64 s 78 63 s
Miami 92 79 pc 91 81 pc
Milwaukee 74 59 c 67 58 c
Minneapolis 69 54 c 66 56 sh
Nashville 87 63 s 89 67 s
New Orleans 99 78 s 97 79 s
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Phoenix 108 85 s 101 78 s
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Portland, Maine 62 51 r 70 50 pc
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Santa Fe 88 54 t 83 54 t
Seattle 73 60 pc 70 59 r
Sioux Falls 66 56 r 66 59 r
Wash., D.C. 84 66 s 83 68 pcAmsterdam 64 49 t 63 49 sh
Athens 87 71 pc 88 70 s
Baghdad 105 76 s 102 77 s
Bangkok 92 79 t 92 78 sh
Beijing 95 68 pc 97 68 s
Berlin 68 52 c 66 53 sh
Brussels 63 48 sh 63 45 sh
Buenos Aires 66 46 pc 66 48 pc
Dubai 106 90 pc 104 89 s
Dublin 62 48 pc 65 53 pc
Edinburgh 59 43 pc 64 51 pcFrankfurt 62 49 sh 64 47 pc
Geneva 69 50 pc 61 46 pc
Havana 91 72 pc 92 74 pc
Hong Kong 91 81 t 91 81 s
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Jakarta 90 74 s 91 75 s
Jerusalem 81 67 s 81 63 pc
Johannesburg 67 42 s 70 49 s
London 67 46 pc 66 52 pc
Madrid 83 59 s 84 57 s
Manila 88 79 t 87 79 t
Melbourne 52 44 pc 57 43 sh
Mexico City 76 54 pc 74 54 t
Milan 76 58 pc 69 51 pc
Moscow 71 53 pc 73 55 c
Mumbai 86 80 sh 85 80 sh
Paris 69 50 pc 66 47 pc
Rio de Janeiro 81 67 s 83 68 pc
Riyadh 109 82 pc 109 82 s
Rome 80 63 pc 80 64 t
San Juan 88 77 pc 89 78 pc
Seoul 86 73 t 84 71 pc
Shanghai 86 71 pc 88 73 pc
Singapore 91 80 pc 91 79 pc
Sydney 65 49 s 66 49 s
Taipei City 93 78 t 91 76 t
Tokyo 8780pc 8779r
Toronto 7250pc 6648s
Vancouver 71 56 c 69 56 sh
Warsaw 74 57 c 69 57 t
Zurich 63 48 sh 58 46 tToday TomorrowU.S. Forecasts
International
City Hi Lo W Hi Lo Ws...sunny; pc... partly cloudy; c...cloudy; sh...showers;
t...t’storms; r...rain; sf...snow flurries; sn...snow; i...ice
Today TomorrowWarmColdStationaryShowersRainT-stormsSnowFlurriesIce<
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CityDallasEl PasoBillingsPortlandMiamiSan FranciscoSacramentoOrlandoAtlantaNew OrleansHoustonPhoenix
San DiegoLos AngelesLas
VegasSeattleBoiseDenverMpls./St. PaulSt. LouisChicago
Washington D.C.BostonCharlestonMilwaukee HartfordWichitaIndianapolisClevelandBuffaloAustinHelena
BismarckAlbuquerqueOmahaOklahoma CitySan AntonioDes MoinesSioux FallsJacksonBirminghamCheyenne Philadelphia
RenoSanta FeColorado
SpringsPierreRichmondRaleighTucsonAlbanyTopekaColumbiaAugustaFt. WorthEugeneSpringfieldMobileTorontoOttawa
MontrealWinnipegVancouver CalgaryEdmonton70s60s 80s50s100s100s90s90s90s 90s80s80s90s80s70s70s70s70s70s70s60s60s60s 60s60s50s50s50s ANDY RUIZ JR. shocked the
boxing world when he
stopped Anthony Joshua in
the seventh round to win the
heavyweight title at New
York’s Madison Square Gar-
den in June.
In a move just as strange
as Ruiz’s victory, the rematch
will be held in Diriyah, Saudi
Arabia, on Dec. 7 in a bout
billed as “Clash on the
Dunes.”
The move comes as Saudi
Arabia faces international
scrutiny on issues related to
human rights and the king-
dom’s role in the Yemen war,
gender equality and local
laws that repress women and
media freedom following the
murder of Saudi journalist Ja-
mal Khashoggi.
At a news conference in
New York on Thursday, the
participants defended their
decision and talked about
how impressed they were
with their hosts when they
visited Saudi Arabia this past
week.
“This is a decision we
didn’t take lightly,” said Eddie
Hearn, managing director of
Matchroom Boxing, the fight’s
promoter. “They are trying to
showcase to people that their
country is changing. Every
country has problems. But
from what I see, I believe
they are trying to make a
change.”
But the decision ultimately
came down to money.
Joshua earned $25 millionSaudi Arabia to Host Fight
BYJIMCHAIRUSMIfor the first fight, compared
with $7 million for Ruiz.
Hearn said both fighters will
earn significantly more for
the rematch, but declined to
offer specifics. When pressed
again for details, Hearn
smiled. “A lot,” he said.
Golf’s European Tour, auto
racing’s Formula E and World
Wrestling Entertainment have
all held major events in Saudi
Arabia in the past year.
Although Ruiz now holds
three major heavyweight
belts (WBA, IBF and WBO), he
had little leverage in negotia-tions, since the contract he
signed for the first bout con-
tained a rematch clause that
allowed Joshua and Hearn to
dictate terms.
Ruiz said he would have
preferred to have the rematch
in the U.S., and didn’t want to
fight Joshua in the United
Kingdom, so that made Saudi
Arabia a palatable neutral
site. “At first, I was a little
iffy [about going to Saudi
Arabia], but as soon as I got
there, it was different. It was
beautiful out there. Beautiful
people,” Ruiz said.MIKE SEGAR/REUTERS
Andy Ruiz Jr., left, and Anthony Joshua will battle on Dec. 7.wsj_20190907_a014_p2jw250000_4_a01400_1____xa2019.crop.pdf 1 07-Sep-19 06:09: