The Lifecycle of a Scheme: How The Innovative Becomes Mundane

A short time ago, I wrote an article examining how the Wildcat was used successfully against more-talented teams (taking a hint from a Malcolm Gladwell piece). The dynamic was similar to other David-Goliath matches: a "lesser" team adopted an unconventional method to best a "better" opponent.

However, there's another issue to be considered: What happens when Goliath adapts?

Teams create (or reanimate) schemes to disrupt the equilibrium of the league. Unsuccessful teams, seeking to change the status quo, change the way they play to use what talent they have, exploit another team's weaknesses or simply to confuse successful teams.

Buffalo's "no-huddle" offense ran plays in quick succession to prevent other teams from substituting players on defense. In the '90s, the team rode this offense to four consecutive Super Bowl appearances.

The Wildcat creates confusion on the part of opposing teams, increasing the likelihood that the offense has a successful play. Last year's Dolphins, one season removed from a 1-15 debacle, used this offense to gain a division title.

Bill Walsh's West Coast offense exploited the talents of weaker-armed, but accurate, quarterbacks. Walsh's achievement as a coach need not be recounted here.

We can track the life cycle of schemes like we can any other organism. They're born, they struggle for dominance, and they die. At some point, all of these schemes lose their value to the unsuccessful teams.

Why?

Basically, Goliath discovers the benefits of the sling. The bigger, better teams learn that the scheme exploits certain inefficiencies, and begin to run the scheme with more talented players.

For example, a good portion of the league now runs a variation of the West Coast offense. With good teams now using it (and defenses preparing for it), its use to less-talented teams is severely reduced.

At this point, several things can happen to original underdog.

-The original team can acquire better personnel.

Bill Walsh, although he developed the West Coast Offense in Cincinnati, took his scheme to the 49ers. He then drafted highly-skilled players (Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, etc.) to run it and began winning Super Bowls.

-The team could once again become unsuccessful.

Buffalo, having lost its Super Bowls, regressed, and has not seen much success since.

-The team could innovate again.

This is unlikely, as finding a scheme that works is incredibly difficult.

A parallel can be drawn to the film industry, where there is a great divide between Hollywood and independent film-making.

To make up for the lack of whiz-bang effects and bankable movie stars, independent filmmakers will often mess with the realities of the medium. They use such techniques as non-linear storytelling, multiple endings, and breaking the fourth wall.

Hollywood will occasionally co-opt these techniques, though. Nonlinear storytelling, once reserved for arthouse cinema, has been used in such major movies as "Pulp Fiction" and "Memento."

Now, nonlinear storytelling is used as shorthand to indicate that a director wants to muse about reality and perception. What was once avant-garde is now mainstream.

Scheme changes can often bring about short-term success for a franchise. However, without continual improvement, a team could find itself skewered by the very revolution it helped to create.