Bang Goes The Shotgun

The San Francisco 49ers' shotgun offense went off with a loud bang last Sunday for the second time in eight days and blew the Los Angeles Rams into a heap of confusion, 35-0. Only the Sunday before it had done the same thing to the league-leading Detroit Lions, and it is getting harder and harder for the most stubborn dissenter to deny that coach Red Hickey is generating a serious revolution in professional football.

The way the 49ers started off on Sunday at Kezar Stadium was typical of how the shotgun operates. After returning the kickoff to their own 19-yard line, the team lined up in its shotgun formation. On the first play Quarterback John Brodie rolled out for a pass, was thrown for a two-yard loss and was replaced by Bobby Waters. From the same formation, Waters handed off on a reverse to Wingback C. R. Roberts, who went 28 yards down the middle. Waters was immediately replaced by Quarterback Bill Kilmer, who faked a pass and ran five yards over right guard.

Alternating the three quarterbacks on every play, the team moved 81 yards in 10 plays to score. The next time they got the ball they went 80 yards in 11 plays for a second touchdown. The Rams, who were facing the shotgun for the third time in less than a year, were thoroughly bamboozled, not so much by the shotgun itself as by the problem of trying to adjust on the spur of the moment to the different techniques of each quarterback. By the time the first half ended, the 49ers had scored three touchdowns and missed a 12-yard field goal, but the 21-0 score didn't tell half the story. The 49ers had picked up 18 first downs, seven rushing and 11 passing, to the Rams' three. They had gained 317 yards, 130 rushing and 187 passing, to the Rams' 42—39 of them passing. Brodie, Waters and Kilmer, shuttling in and out in that order, had completed 14 out of 17 passes. Not once in the entire game were the 49ers forced to fall back on the orthodox slot-T formation used by every other NFL club but the St. Louis Cardinals, who run their T from a double wing.

Coach Red Hickey's shotgun was first fired late last season in an upset victory over the Baltimore Colts, but it didn't really start everyone buzzing until a week ago Sunday when Hickey started shuttling his quarterbacks. The 49ers rang up 49 points against the confused Lions and kept them so far off balance that their offensive unit was held scoreless for the first time in 115 games.

Each of the three 49er quarterbacks is on the San Francisco payroll this year specifically because he can operate out of the shotgun as well as the standard T. Yet each is different from the others. Brodie is a splendid passer and can run a little if he has to. Kilmer is a wonderfully brave and deceptive runner but completely unpredictable and an uncertain passer. Waters is fast enough to be used as a defensive back. He can also throw a good pass and is self-assured enough to have earned the nickname "Cool" Waters.

"Red [ Hickey] shuffled them in and out so fast that they mixed up our defensive keys," Detroit Coach George Wilson complained later. " Brodie ran once and passed 12 times. Kilmer passed seven times and ran 16. Waters ran seven and passed once."

Joe Schmidt, the Lions' superb linebacker who calls the signals for the defensive unit, explained, "When you are going against one quarterback, you can begin to follow his thinking and get a line on him. Bill Kilmer hurt us most with his roll-out running. So you start to get that figured out, and another guy comes in who does something else."

The shotgun has been likened to the old Pop Warner double wing that was introduced at Stanford more than 30 years ago, but it has one major variation: there is no blocking back. Actually, it looks more like the short punt formation from a spread that numerous teams have used through the years when they were behind and thinking only of trying a pass for a desperation touchdown. George Halas, the founder of the Chicago Bears, used an approximation of the shotgun a generation ago, but it is Red Hickey's shuttling quarterbacks who have given the shotgun the added charge it needed to be a success in the sophisticated ranks of the pros.

The 49ers line up for the shotgun with the quarterback five yards behind the center. The guards and tackles are spaced a little more widely than for the regular slot T, and both ends are split out—one three to five yards, the other end 10 to 15 yards. The flanker halfback is another 10 to 15 yards outside the tight end. The fullback and one halfback line up as wingbacks just outside the two tackles.

The several alternatives