Wildcat By The Numbers Week 17

I'll still track the success of the Wildcat for however long Miami stays in the playoffs, but here are the final, complete tables for the regular season.

	Plays	Run	Pass	Yards	Yds/Play	FDs	TDs
Week 3, @NE	6	5	1	119	19.8	1	4
Week 5, SD	10	9	1	48	4.8	3	1
Week 6, @HOU	7	6	1	77	11	0	1
Week 7, BAL	5	5	0	4	0.8	0	0
Week 8, BUF	7	7	0	34	4.9	3	0
Week 9, @ DEN	4	3	1	-5	-1.3	0	0
Week 10, SEA	6	6	0	80	13.3	0	2
Week 11, OAK	10	10	0	52	5.2	1	0
Week 12, NE	8	8	0	25	3.1	1	0
Week 13, @ STL	2	2	0	2	1	0	0
Week 14, @ BUF	6	6	0	5	0.8	1	0
Week 15, SF	1	1	0	16	16	1	0
Week 16, @ KC	4	4	0	57	14.3	1	0
Week 17, @ NYJ	10	8	2	55	5.5	3	0
Total	86	80	6	585	6.8	15	8
Avg./Game	6.1	5.7	.4	42	-	1.1	.6

	Plays	FDs (non-penalty)	FD%	TDs	TD%	Run Avg
Non-WC Plays	863	280	32%	30	3%	4.0 yds
WC Plays	86	15	17%	8	9%	6.3 yds

	Runs	Yards	Avg	FDs	TDs
Ronnie Brown	52	305	5.9	9	5
Ricky Williams	26	153	5.9	5	1
Patrick Cobbs	2	47	23.5	1	0

It had become clear that Miami was purposefully holding back on their Wildcat plays in the weeks leading up to the showdown against the Jets. That conservative strategy proved to be a very smart idea, as Miami unleashed 10 Wildcat plays (tied for the most times it's been used in a game), with several new wrinkles added in.

For the first time since Week 9, the Dolphins attempted a pass out of the formation (two actually). The plays were designed beautifully, and if not for some terrible execution (Ricky's wide open drop, Ronnie's off-target pass) the numbers for this game would have been even better.

Still, the formation did its job, picking up 3 first downs, and leading to another big play for Ronnie Brown. It has been three weeks in a row now that the formation has yielded a running play of over 15 yards.

The touchdowns have dried up over the second half of the season, but the big plays are still there to be had.

One thing that is very interesting to me about the season-long performances of both Ronnie and Ricky in the Wildcat is how similar their outputs were. Yes, Ronnie had twice as many carries as Ricky, but their per carry averages are exactly the same, and they picked up first downs at the same clip as well. Ronnie saw the endzone more often out the Wildcat, but that is because he saw most of the redzone touches from the formation.

Baltimore completely shut down the Wildcat the last time they played. I don't have high hopes for its success this time, unless they can sneak off an unexpected pass play.