Yes, we all hate it, but why do we play prevent late in the game?

First, when the people look at our defense, they see the yardage stats, and points stats. While I regard points as the only stat remotely considering when judging a defense that plays bend but don't break (lets face it, the pats have played bend dont break defense for years, and people here still can't get used to it), there is such a thing as garbage time.

Many people here love stats. Well stats are misleading. This is the case for quite a few games that we played this year, but I'll use the colts game because it is the most recent.

The pats defense gave up a couple of long drives for scores. Minus the garbage time when we are up by 3+ scores, those are the only two drives that the colt's offense had success, and the rest of the game our defense did what was expected against a poor offense.

After the pats last TD: here are the colts offense numbers when it was like what? 31-3????

Time..................quarter.....TOP................... yard started at...plays....yards......result

The pats offense?

299 yards and 3 TDs occured when the pats played prevent defense, when it was 31-3, with 8 minutes to play.

So why play prevent?

1. When the opponent has the ball on offense, the main idea of the prevent defense is to not let the BIG play happen (which mccourty failed on that last drive Dan had when he threw to garcon), keep the guy who catches it IN BOUNDS therefore the time will run out nicely.
2. When the time starts running out, and they get a score, much of the time is gone, and Brady and the offense get the ball afterward, furthering running out the clock, and possibly getting a score.

Playing prevent occurs when the opposing team has no chance at all to win the game. I KNOW its frustrating, but it IS effective in having the game end sooner, while possibly building a lead. possibly. But the main thing is to run out the clock, which you saw the pats offense doing a lot by the end of the game no?

What are the stats for Dan Orlovsky without the padded stats?

54 yards passing, 0 TDs. 0 INTs (I can't count the defenses stats in garbage time either if I want to be fair).

If you want to add the 86 yard TD drive, then Dan has 140 passing yards in non-garbage time.

If you want to judge a defense, judge them without the garbage time stats. Because those really don't matter when you are up by 3-4+ scores.