Dolphins find success again with wildcat formation

MIAMI — Reports of the demise of the "wildcat" formation, made famous by the Miami Dolphins this season are premature — they were able to score two touchdowns out of it in a 21-19 victory over the Seahawks.

Running back Ricky Williams ripped off a 51-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter after taking an inside handoff from fellow running back Ronnie Brown to give Miami a 14-0 lead. In the fourth quarter, Brown scampered 16 yards into the left corner of the end zone for the touchdown that put his team ahead by eight points with 5:38 to play.

The Dolphins ran out of the formation seven times for a total of 82 yards and now have amassed 368 yards on 49 plays in the seven games they have utilized the wildcat, including eight touchdowns. They are averaging 7.5 yards per play, but their production had slowly declined each week since rolling up 119 yards and four touchdowns on six plays in a 38-13 rout of New England in Week 3. The Denver Broncos held Miami to minus-4 yards on five attempts last week in a 26-17 Dolphins victory.

"We executed better. That's the key," said Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington, who lines up as a wide receiver in the formation that uses an unbalanced line with Brown taking the direct snap out of the shotgun. "You have to execute and you have to be ready for all the different looks. We really don't know how a team is going to defend it. ... I think our guys did a great job seeing the front and finding their blocks."

Seattle was prepared for some of the plays, particularly the one where Williams comes in motion from the left slot and either takes the handoff on a sweep to the right or serves as Brown's lead blocker when he keeps it. The Dolphins were held to 11 yards the three times they tried that play. Dan Henning, Miami's offensive coordinator, added a few wrinkles this week that the Seahawks weren't ready for, setting up Williams' touchdown run by running the same play twice. The strategy involved placing Williams next to Brown in the backfield, with running back Patrick Cobbs on the other side acting as a fullback so Brown could give the inside handoff to Williams.

"We had a few things up our sleeve. It was just a little variation of the wildcat. We had guys lined up in a different place," Brown said. "Teams have been playing us a little bit differently and they are giving some different looks, so we wanted to switch that over and give those guys a different look and get some different plays in."

The change was effective, at least according to one Seattle defender.

"We did whatever we could to get a guy on a guy," Seahawks strong safety Deon Grant said. "If they had more guys than we had, we knew we'd be hurting. A couple of plays, they had it set up perfect and they won the battle."