Prevent Defense

[c20916]

Why in the world do defensive coordinators even put the prevent in thier playbook, I watched 3 games this weekend where teams just marched down the field at the end of the game and the other team scored.

Jax just marched down and scored to tie the game, Seattle marched down twice and scored, and Tenn did the same at the end of the game.

All the prevent defense seems to do is prevent an 80 yard pass for a TD, other than that they rush 3 people and drop 8. What good is it if you give the QB 6-8 seconds to throw? An NFL WR can get open in 8 seconds, yet teams contiune to do this. If I am a DC the only time I use the prevent defense is if there is one play left in the game and you know the other team is going for the hail mary. Other than that I put in my dime package and continue to play defense like I have all game pressure the QB and play tight coverage.

I just get tired of seeing teams march down the field at the end of the games, b/c usually the team I bet on is the one that is in the prevent just letting these teams score.

 

[Valuist]

The coaches don't care about covering the spread. They'll trade a score for burning time off the clock. Their biggest fear is giving up a quick score. It is funny to see a team play great aggressive defense all game and then go into the soft prevent and give up a ton of yards and points.

To me, the prevent is the equivalent of the closer in baseball. You can have a starter going along great w/out a high pitch count, or a set-up guy who pitches great in the 8th inning, but they feel they HAVE to bring the closer in. The only explanation I've ever heard for this is that the manager (or coach in NFL) is afraid if they mess up, how will they explain it to the media?? They will (in their minds, at least) be embarrassed. But going by the book, they can always say "we did what we were supposed to do." The prevent is the same thing. From a coaching standpoint, its the "safe" thing to do.

 

[c20916]

I understand they don't care about covering the spread, but in the case of the NYG and the Pitt game a TD and 2pt conversion ties the game, and in both instances the other team scored. The SF game I can see the prevent your up 21 points not thinking the other team will come back, they almost did, but I could see them going into prevent.

 

[Valuist]

I'm not disagreeing; I think its a terrible strategy. I'm just explaining why, in their minds, they think its the thing to do.

 

[hildog]

You stole my signature

I agree with you on the prevent defense strategy. It is out-dated and ineffective. It should only be employed when there is five minutes or less and you are up by more than one score. If you are not up by more than one score, you should play whatever defense got you that small lead. If you are up by more than one score, you want to force the team trying to come back to use up as much clock as possible and timeouts by forcing everything into the middle. The problem is that teams are so adept at running two-minute offenses and they also know that they can pick huge yardage up the middle.

I've had the blind squirrel signature up for at least six months. How long have you had it up? Madjacks isn't big enough for two blind squirrels trying to find nuts

 

[TheShrimp]

I like the prevent, but I think teams go to too early or when not ahead by enough.

If team A is down by a TD on their own 20, I don't like the prevent for team B unless there's about 1:00 and they have NO timeouts. Teams will go into it when the other team has 1:45 and 2 time outs. That's giving them way too much time.

In the SF game, SEA had to score, get a 3 and out, score again and recover an onsides kick to make it even interesting.

In the TENN and CIN games, both teams were taking 10+ yard shots at the endzone with time running out. That's a high stress situation. Not sure the giants were even in the prevent, though.

eagles went to it at the end and won. people tend to forget the times it works.

 

[c20916]

I just put it up today b/c of the avatar, I can take it down, no big deal to me.

 

[Valuist]

Shrimp--

Agree that it works most of the time in terms of winning the game straight up. But it does allow for back doors quite often and tends to make games closer than they should be. Just another reason why the NFL is a dog-oriented league, and as a bettor we should always try to make a case for the dog first.