A bit late on this rant, but why do defenses do this late in the game when protecting a lead???

[18IsTheMan]

In the UGA/GaTech game after Tech scored late to go up 14, I said to my family "Well, that'll do it. With how this game has gone, there's no way Georgia has time to score 2 TDs." Then, Tech went with SUPER soft coverage, giving the UGA receivers tons of space, and Beck just dinked and dunked UGA all the way down the field for a 75 yard TD in less than 2 minutes. It was really academic from that point on as the crowd was fired up and you could see the UGA players just ignited on the sideline.

 

[Piscis]

I think the idea is to not give up the explosive play and a quick score. I don't agree with it.

 

[The Reel Ess]

They've done analytics on it. The better teams don't do that, at least not to the extent that they're giving up chunk plays.

 

[18IsTheMan]

I think the idea is to not give up the explosive play and a quick score. I don't agree with it.

They've done analytics on it. The better teams don't do that, at least not to the extent that they're giving up chunk plays.

Yeah, I know the thinking is to not get beat with a big play, and I guess that makes sense if there's like 30 seconds left in the game, but 5 and a half minutes left in the game seems way early to go with this strategy. It was maddening to watch.

UGA completed passes of 21, 17, 11 and 17 yards, to mostly wide open receivers with no defender close by.

Maybe Tech was counting on their offense being able to grind out the clock, but they weren't counting on a fumble to give UGA the ball back.

 

[Piscis]

Yeah, I know the thinking is to not get beat with a big play, and I guess that makes sense if there's like 30 seconds left in the game, but 5 and a half minutes left in the game seems way early to go with this strategy. It was maddening to watch.

UGA completed passes of 21, 17, 11 and 17 yards, to mostly wide open receivers with no defender close by.

Maybe Tech was counting on their offense being able to grind out the clock, but they weren't counting on a fumble to give UGA the ball back.

The fumble happened on third and 1. If tech doesn't fumble and gets the first down they win. You have to give UGA credit, they play every game for a full 60 minutes at 100% effort. It would have been easy for UGA to pack it in when tech went up by 14 with 5 minutes to go.

 

[ThinnyJ]

We are the epitome of playing not-to-lose instead of just playing to win. The only thing a prevent defense does is prevent me from enjoying the end of a game we should win.... That's how we have lost SOOO many games through the years

 

[18IsTheMan]

The fumble happened on third and 1. If tech doesn't fumble and gets the first down they win. You have to give UGA credit, they play every game for a full 60 minutes at 100% effort. It would have been easy for UGA to pack it in when tech went up by 14 with 5 minutes to go.

Yep, I noted the fumble above.

But, still, going with that kind of defense with 5:32 left in the game was a terrible decision.

Just don't understand changing your philosophy with that much time left in the game. Just keep doing what has been making you successful all game. Particularly after UGA had a couple chunk plays, if I were Tech, I would have "screw this, we're going back to what we were doing before."

 

[18IsTheMan]

We are the epitome of playing not-to-lose instead of just playing to win. The only thing a prevent defense does is prevent me from enjoying the end of a game we should win.... That's how we have lost SOOO many games through the years

It very nearly cost us the A&M game in 2022.

The end of the Clemson is kind of a blur to me. Not sure if we were in prevent D or not, but they moved down to FG range in the blink of an eye. Better than their offense had moved the entire day. Fortunately we came up with the pick, but we were flirting with disaster.

 

[Piscis]

It very nearly cost us the A&M game in 2022.

The end of the Clemson is kind of a blur to me. Not sure if we were in prevent D or not, but they moved down to FG range in the blink of an eye. Better than their offense had moved the entire day. Fortunately we came up with the pick, but we were flirting with disaster.

If not for that tipped pass at the end, Clemson was flying down the field and was already in fg range. Overtime was coming at the very least, possibly a heartbreaking loss if they had scored a td. The int. wasn't a break on the ball type of thing either, it was sort of dumb luck and a combination of a bad throw and the receiver tipping the ball and the defender making a great catch.

 

[Slim Chickens Gamecock]

Oh we have made an art form of it over the years. It’s called playing not to lose vs playing to win. Prevent D is death.