Excuse me if I'm being slowpoke, but I just was able to pick up Madden 10 the other day and tried out the KC playbook that contains the pistol. I was disappointed to learn the Pistol consisted of 11 plays- none of which touch on the basic concepts of the actual Pistol formation.
When the offense is rolling (which it is most of the time these days), the pistol gives a team the best of both worlds: It has at its disposal all the
Urban Meyer/Rich Rodriguez spread offense stuff, like the
zone read and
other gadgets, as well as the advantages of a "traditional" I-formation or pro-style single-back attack (which Madden does include with a couple dives, power O runs, counter runs and play action). Among these are that the runningback, aligning as he does behind the quarterback, tips no hand to the defense on the direction of the play, and the offense can get both good downhill running and play-action off those looks. The play that's really made the offense offense go the last two years is one Ault added to take advantage of quarterback Colin Kaepernick's running ability:
the veer.
What stirs the drink in the pistol is the flexibility involved with it. While the offense can go to the power off-tackle runs that most conventional Madden formations already showcase, while also featuring the zone-reads, faking, and choice runs that have recently made Tim Tebow a heisman winner, Alex Smith a #1 pick, and Pat White an exotic Wildcat specialist.
The Pistol is designed to create the best of both worlds: The big, traditional
bruising power attack.
And the quick hitting veer runs, and the play-action designed to
keep defenses in a bind.
Madden was good to implement the Pistol, but I urge EA and Ian Cummings to continue adding to the formation in future editions and make the formation whole with QB choice runs and other option runs that make the Pistol what it is. This isn't trying to rip on the game, because I enjoyed it, but I feel like we're doing this formation a big disservice.
10-12-2009, 09:53 PM
