Air Erhardt Offense born with 1990 Giants

Good read here, and a real benchmark kind of a moment not only for the Erhardt-Perkins offense but surely for Bill Belichick who was on the Giants when this evolution happened.

With tough run defenses like the Bears and 49ers the Giants were forced to alter their smash mouth approach by opening up the passing game enough to keep the defenses spread out and on their toes. This was really one of the major steps toward the modern Patriots offense which will employ spread looks but is unafraid to run out of them, or utilize a horizontal attack.

Ultimately one of the core values of the offense always remains “maximizing the time of possession”. That takes greater value than necessarily just being “smash mouth”.

“Any offensive coach would like to throw the ball,” Erhardt said. “But as you change people, you do different things to win. Bill keeps saying we’re not in the entertainment business; we’re here to win.” Robinson said it was a Catch-22 situation. “I think any of us is capable,” said the sixth-year receiver. “But are we a big-play offense? We haven’t opened up because we haven’t anyone to open up to. But can we have someone like that if we don’t open up?