Lindy Infante offense - articles/description/etc.

[Bryan]

Does anyone have any written references that describe Lindy Infante's offense? Like how did it differ from Walsh & Coryell?

[Halas Hall]

https://archive.org/details/historic-gr ... 1/mode/2up

I don't think this is just what you seek, but this link has Infante's 1989 playbook.

[JohnTurney]

Does anyone have any written references that describe Lindy Infante's offense? Like how did it differ from Walsh & Coryell?

My memory was it was similar to Walsh and differed from Coryell.

Looking back at literature of the time I find it referred to as a "controlled passing" offense and "option route" passing offense ...

but Infante -- when hired said multiple --- or "attack the weak point" or whatever"

2024-06-19_17-38-13.jpg (22.83 KiB) Viewed 426 times

What I read, that I didn't know was he said that the Packers ran his offense, or what he called "this offense" when Gregg left Cin to go to GB. Gregg kept Bob Schnelker but this suggests that Schnekler adopted or adapted the "Infante offense" ... and then Coughlin, it would follow, ran it through 1987. This is just based on a comment by Infante.

When I think of controlled passing and option route passing I think more of Walsh than Coryell.

The language seems different, than Walsh and Coryell, for protections and routes and formations, for whatever that is worth.

I also found a quote that said that there were times he'd want to "run the ball down their throat" ... perhaps meaning he wanted to run the ball if he had to, throw controlled passes, and probably go deep, if the defense gave each of those.

The most interesting was the comment that he was going to spread the ball around and not rely on one or two guys which didn't work out because it seemed pretty Sterling Sharpe-centric.

So, this is just my opinion, --- different than Coryell because it was not a down-the-field, chunk-type passing offense, running those 18-22 yard routes of Air Coryell and then later seen with Martz, et al

Someone else may have a better take, though

Edit:
Look a little more --- found game 1, 1988, LA at GB on Youtube ... easy to find, did not post link
not sure about rules on that for forum but had not seen it before.

It showed up just this year. Was never part of my collection and if it had ever been posted
before, never saw it.

Terry Bradshaw mentions the offense several times. Mentions fullback being the runner and the halfback being
the adjuster (my term, what they call the movement guy) who blocks, motions, catches passes, etc.

Also quotes Infante as saying that his system should yield a "59-62% passer" with a '8-yard + pass attempt average'

Also there was apparently some criticism that it was complex, Infante telling Bradshaw it was easy to understand.

They did 4 wide on 3rd and long I noticed and even plenty of 3-wide on early downs, which Walsh really didn't do.
He went to 3-wide on passing downs, as a rule, not before.

So, in looking at it, there are differences in the Walsh offense in those respects. You can watch and see what
you think.

May "all things to everyone" is the idea, I don't know.

Also good looks at Rams 3-4, the 5 LBer Eagle and Hawk packages ... (in 1989 POs added the 5 LBer dime defense)

[Citizen]

Infante had some big ideas, but was bad at implementing them -- and he overlooked that the Packers simply didn't have the personnel to make them work. He had coached exactly one exhibition game when he publicly lamented how slow the players were to learn his system. He said the members of his Jacksonville USFL team were quicker studies than the Packers, which I'm sure won him all kinds of friends in the Green Bay locker room.

And his "run it down their throat" philosophy earned him rushing offenses that finished 26th, 20th, 26th, and 22nd in the 28-team NFL.

[JohnTurney]

Infante had some big ideas, but was bad at implementing them -- and he overlooked that the Packers simply didn't have the personnel to make them work. He had coached exactly one exhibition game when he publicly lamented how slow the players were to learn his system. He said the members of his Jacksonville USFL team were quicker studies than the Packers, which I'm sure won him all kinds of friends in the Green Bay locker room.

And his "run it down their throat" philosophy earned him rushing offenses that finished 26th, 20th, 26th, and 22nd in the 28-team NFL.

To be fair, my take is that "run it down the throat" was if the other team was "giving it to them" ... like if the other team was playing nickel versus their base or whatever ... but you make a good point.

To your other point, Tony Siragusa would probably agree with the overall gist ...

Tony Siragusa says in the book he wrote with Don Yaeger.

"(Lindy) Infante was a guy who only cared about whether his offense looked good or not," "The reality is that Infante was just an average offensive coordinator, and none of us really understood why Jim Irsay made him the head coach. . . . Everybody on that team would have died for Marchibroda. He was completely respected by the players."

Siragusa said the Colts' defense would dominate the offense in practice so much that Infante complained to the defense.

"Infante treated the players with no respect, especially any guy who got hurt," Siragusa says. "If you were injured, you were nothing to Infante. Football players are loyal to a guy until he's disloyal to them, and Infante was disloyal pretty fast to a lot of guys. He was the kind of guy who thought his coaching was better than our playing. As a coach, you have to respect your players, because those guys are the ones putting food on your table. That's how it works."

Siragusa, who said he "didn't have any tolerance for Infante's crap," refers to him as "a bozo."

"I'd look right at him and say, 'Your offense sucks, why don't you work on scoring a couple of points?' Oh, he hated me."

[Bryan]

Thank you everyone for your comments. This is great stuff.

[Brian wolf]

You would think taking a team to an AFC Championship would keep the HC with the team but Marchibroda went to Baltimore instead. The Colts would draft Peyton Manning soon after. If only Marchibroda could have had more time for either team.