Whatever happened to the run-and-shoot? The controversial, quick-strike attack ran its course in the NFL, though bits and pieces of it still exist

THIRTY YEARS AGO, PORTLAND State quarterback named June Jones racked up 3,518 passing yards in a strange offense, that most people never had seen. Jones set a Division II record that season in Coach "Mouse" Davis' system.

Jones knew way back then that his team was onto something good. "I realized that--with the route adjustments--this was the quickest way to move the football," he says.

Even though no one really ever figured out how to stop the run-and-shoot, it left the professional game in the mid-1990s. Despite its past achievements, we won't see NFL teams utilizing the offense anytime soon. Well, at least not exclusively.

Jones, who now runs the high-octane offense as head coach of Hawaii University and also used it when he was in the NFL, says this: "It was hard going back to another type of offense," he says. "It was as if you weren't trying to score every play."

One college run-and-shoot team seemed to score every play, or at least every drive. The Houston Cougars rolled up astronomical offensive numbers behind quarterbacks like 1989 Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware and David Klingler. Coach Jack Pardee's Cougars hammered SMU 95-21 in one 1989 contest, churning out 1,021 yards of total offense in the process. The offense still works at the college level. Jones' Rainbows have made two bowl appearances in three years with one of the nation's most lethal offenses.

What's the key to running the offense successfully? "Having a guy that can throw the ball," deadpans Jones before adding, "Most of it is familiarity: How do you react when the defense does this? Or when they do this? You need to be able to answer the game-day calls."

After Neil Lomax became Davis' next prolific quarterback at Portland State, the offense spread from the college ranks to the USFL and eventually the NFL. The run-and-shoot's most common offensive set uses four receivers, a single running back, no tight end, and a quarterback in shotgun formation. The offense adjusts the play call depending on the defensive look. It has the flexibility to control the clock via short passes, draws, and other running plays. If the defense takes away the short game, the quarterback can look deep.

Despite succeeded for the most part at the NFL level, the run-and-shoot drew criticism at every turn. While most fans loved the quick-strike attack, purists hammered away at it. They claimed that it wasn't real football, and that no team would ever win a Super Bowl using it. Longtime coach Buddy Ryan even dubbed it "the chuck-and-duck".

The run-and-shoot first entered the NFL in 1987. Houston Oilers head coach Jerry Glanville hired Jones as his quarterbacks coach. After six straight losing seasons, the Oilers went 9-6 in a strike-shortened campaign. They won their first postseason game since 1979 before falling in the divisional playoffs.

Quarterback Warren Moon became a perfect fit at quarterback. Throwing to skilled receivers like Haywood Jeffires, Drew Hill, Ernest Givens, Webster Slaughter, and Curtis Duncan, the Houston attack became unstoppable. The Oilers reached the playoffs seven straight seasons, from 1987 through 1993.

The run-and-shoot fanned out across the league, though it never became a widespread phenomenon. Detroit Lions head coach Wayne Fontes added both Jones and Davis to his coaching staff in 1989. Detroit improved from 4-12 to 7-9 in the teams first season running the offense.

Glanvitle left the Oilers to become the Atlanta Falcons' head coach in 1990, Jones joined his staff a year later. In their first year together in Atlanta, they reached the playoffs with an 11-5 mark running the you know what. Meanwhile, Pardee took over for Glanville in Houston. Having run the offense to perfection with the University of Houston made him the ideal Oilers head man.

The- run-and-shoot peaked in 1991, The Oilers, Falcons, and Lions all reached the playoffs and placed fourth, fifth, and ninth in points scored, respectively. All three teams won their first postseason game as well. The Lions' "Silver Streak" carried them all the way to the NFC Championship Game. There they fell 41-10 to the eventual Super Bowl champion Washington Redskins, who had eliminated the Falcons 24-7 one round earlier.

Moon set an NFL record that still stands with 404 completions in 1991. Most went to his sensational receiving corps. Jeffires (100 receptions for 1,181 yards and seven touchdowns). Hill (90-1,109-4), Givens (70-996-5), and Duncan (55-588-4) terrorized secondaries all season long. The team threw for an NFL-best 4,804 yards. No other club topped 4,200.

Jones explains what makes the offense so hard to stop: "Nobody converts routes the same way as in this system. You run off what the defense gives you. In other offenses, you might have an 'out' called. If they're defending the out, most teams still run the out, and the quarterback needs to throw the ball somewhere else. We read the coverage and run the play accordingly."

While the phenomenal passing numbers drew most of the attention, several run-and-shoot running backs also fared well. Barry Sanders topped 1,300 yards every season but one while the Lions ran the offense. Mike Rozier, Lorenzo White, and Gary Brown all topped the 1,000-yard mark in the Oilers' run-and-shoot, and Craig Heyward and Erric Pegram did the same with the Falcons. Houston Cougars running back Chuck Weatherspoon ran for 1,146 yards on only 119 carries in 1989; his 9.6 yards per carry set an NCAA record.

But just when it looked like the run-and-shoot would become the hot trend, things went south. The Lions (5-11) and Falcons (6-10) both fell apart in 1992. The Oilers, though, kept rolling along that season, going 10-6 while gaining the third-most total yards in the NFL. But then they squandered a 35-3 third-quarter lead to the Buffalo Bills in a 41-38 wildcard loss. Critics of the offense had a field day, concluding that it couldn't protect a lead.

Although that one game hurt the offense's reputation, the criticism made little sense. The Houston defense deserved most of the blame. Furthermore, the Oilers featured a strong running attack that season led by Lorenzo White (265 carries, 1,226 yards, a 4.6 per-carry average, seven TDs). Nonetheless, the criticism stuck.

The Oilers, meanwhile, recovered and had a 12-4 mark in 1993. But another postseason defeat ended the year in disappointment. One outspoken run-and-shoot critic had joined the Houston coaching staff. Ryan, then the Oilers' defensive coordinator, continually poked fun at offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride for running an offense he considered unmanly. Things came to a head when Ryan punched Gilbride during a nationally televised regular-season contest.

The Oilers scrapped the offense the following season when they stumbled to 2-14 and fired Pardee after 10 games. For all its achievements, Houston never reached the AFC Championship Game as a run-and-shoot team and went just 37 in postseason contests.

But the offense added one more big-time NFL achievement in 1995. With Jones now the Falcons' head coach, they featured three 1,000-yard receivers in Eric Metcalf, Terance Mathis, and Bert Emanuel. But after the Green Bay Packers beat Atlanta 37-20 in the wild-card game that season, a run-and-shoot team never again reached the playoffs.

Atlanta stumbled out of the gate the following year, and Dan Reeves took over for Jones as head coach. Since the Lions had already abandoned the offense, that change ended the NFL's run-and-shoot era.

When the Falcons experienced success with a ball-control running attack a couple years later, their new defensive coordinator, Rich Brooks, took an indirect jab at the previous staff's offense. "The defensive players appreciate the fact that when they come off the field, it's not going to be three quick passes and your fanny might be back on the field 45 seconds later."

That describes the biggest--and most justifiable--knock against the run-and-shoot: The quick-strike offense enabled opponents to dominate the time of possession. That wore down defensive players. Among the NFL teams that ran the offense, only the 1991-93 Oilers fielded strong defenses.

So the offense vanished from the league. Or did it? "They're still using it. They're all running it," says Jones, who has added both Davis and Glanville to his coaching staff this season. "Some of them are running it over half the game. The concepts are still there. Every NFL team has some aspect of it."

Teams still use four wide receiver sets with one back, as well as other aspects of the offense. Yet no one runs it all the time. "Why don't they run it the whole time?" says Jones. "Because they don't have someone like Mouse, Kevin Gilbride, or myself. We're some of the few guys that could do it full-time."

Regardless of whether it ever returns as a full-time system, the run-and-shoot left its mark on the NFL game.

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