Kyle Shanahan has a deep level of respect for Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy and his offensive approach.
Shanahan was asked on the latest episode of NBC Sports Bay Area's “49ers Game Plan” how he would describe the Cowboys' offense and if it was a West Coast system.
“Yeah, I would say that,” Shanahan told Greg Papa. “Mike is an awesome dude, he’s been running this system for a while. It’s always a little different with each quarterback but I’d say theirs is a little more West Coast than ours just from the type of dropback game they have.”
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The West Coast Offense was a system of short and accurate passes developed by Bill Walsh during his tenure with the Cincinnati Bengals and the 49ers.
After Walsh retired from coaching in San Francisco, his replacement, George Seifert, continued to use the system to great success, winning Super Bowl XXIV and Super Bowl XXIX. The latter Super Bowl-winning team featured Shanahan’s father, Mike, as offensive coordinator, who continued using similar offensive schemes for the rest of his coaching career.
For the younger Shanahan, his offensive philosophy and McCarthy’s both go back to those early years.
“The philosophy of it, the formations, that’s kind of where it started out,” Shanahan explained to Papa. “Learning all those formations, the verbiage or it and stuff going back to the early San Francisco days which my dad eventually had. He changed it a little bit when he went to Denver, and it has been…I don’t even know what our offense is now.
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“I definitely wouldn’t call it West Coast; I think there’s a little bit more in it. But we all originate from the same spot over these two decades or whatever it has been, it just goes into a completely different spot, but he's an original with it.”
While both offenses feature plenty of short and precise passes, modern passing concepts also are present. Dallas, with the likes of Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb at quarterback and wide receiver, has plenty of deep passing schemes in the playbook.
San Francisco relies on its power run game as much as its passing game, with Jordan Mason competently filling in for the injured Christian McCaffrey so far this season.
Still, the showdown between the two storied franchises carries extra weight as both teams struggle to keep pace in the NFC playoff picture. A win heading into the bye week would greatly restore morale for the 49ers, who have had a series of uneven performances to start the season.