The LESSON from tonight?

[TheLongshot]

We didn't go into prevent anything until we were up by three scores and they only had five minutes left in the game. By then, you don't care if they keep moving the ball if they are only picking up 5-10 yards a pop and eating time off the clock.

They found success because they finally figured out how to move the ball against our defensive plan, not because we "let up".

Jason

[Ibleedbandg]

WE WON, BE happy

[TheLongshot]

I have never understood, and possibly will never understand the philosophy of, "If what you are doing is SO wildly succesful that you dominate the other offense and completely shut them out, then in order to play the best defense possible you should completely reverse what you were doing".

It is illogical, irrational, has never made sense, and really has never been effective. Its one thing to do it with 3 minutes left, its another with 20 minutes left. Further, if a team is up by 4 scores, WHY is it a big risk to allow a big play, considering the team is STILL up by 3 scores.

It just defies common sense. Fortunately the offense put the nail in the coffin there.

It is too bad that most everything you said is false. What worked in the first half wasn't working in the second half when they proved that they could throw the ball down the field. That changed everything.

Jason

[Touchdown Redskins]

WE WON, BE happy

You and Bill Bellicheck wouldn't get along much.

[redman]

I hate these kind of responses to perfectly reasonable threads. We have been losing games we lead in late all season by going into that idiotic prevent defense and you say there is nothing wrong with it?

I truly cannot stand these homers who come in and say you cannot offer any criticism if we win. "Hey we won so everything was perfect!"

No, it wasn't.

Sorry pal, we won but we came damn close to givin it away.

Prevent defense was not what you saw. In fact, we never ran it except for the very last play of the game, and even then we may have rushed four.

Give the Vikings credit for adjusting and finally getting their passing game going - by the time it happened though we already had a huge lead and what we were giving up was helping us kill the clock.

[DesertWrestler]

Prevent defense? I think some people need to Wiki what Prevent Defense actually is. Cover 2, last I checked, isn't "Prevent".

[CM916]

Williams explained after the game that we were trying to let them get garbage yards to run the clock out. It does make the game look a lot closer than it actually was but so long as the offense keeps doing its job, giving up late scores doesn't matter.

EDIT: This has bitten us in the ass earlier in the year but not anymore now that we can score in the 2nd half.

[kevin11]

Yeah we did play prevent... Just because we didnt play a cover 3 doesnt mean it wasnt a prevent philosophy. When you stop blitzing, and you drop your LBers very deep, its a prevent. Call it what you will, tie a pink bow around it, and paint it any color you want, its still a prevent defense.

by your definition, if you don't blitz, its a prevent defense. :laugh:

So, Cover 1, Cover 2, and Cover 3 are all Prevent defense, gotcha.

[Voice_of_Reason]

They were trying to trade yards for time. It's a prevent mentality. They did it by playing a large zone cover-2 or cover-3 shell. They actually did it very effectively, giving up underneath stuff and making tackles. The problem with the "keep bringing the house" mentality is that the QB gets lucky once, and you've just given up 7 quick points.

The only place where the plan fails is when your offense, when it gets the ball, goes 3 and out. Which the 'Skins did once before "The Challenge." Then you can start to leave your defense on the field too much. Everything has to work in concert to run out the clock.

[Burgundy Burner]

Fact: The Redskins won the game convincingly.Fact: The Redskins won a conference game on the road.

Fact: The Redskins won on the road - with the paloffs on the line.

Fact: The Redskins won against a team that came in with a five game winning streak.

Fact: The Redskins held the league's leading rusher to 27 yards and a safety.

Fact: The Redskins are winning despite losing key starters on offense and defense.

If the Redskins win the SB against New England by a score of 77-7, someone will complain about not getting a shut-out.

:2cents: :2cents:

My $0.02.

[SeAnTaYlOr2121]

I hate these kind of responses to perfectly reasonable threads. We have been losing games we lead in late all season by going into that idiotic prevent defense and you say there is nothing wrong with it?

I truly cannot stand these homers who come in and say you cannot offer any criticism if we win. "Hey we won so everything was perfect!"

No, it wasn't.

Sorry pal, we won but we came damn close to givin it away.

wow didnt think a redskin fan actually can complain about that game. Calm down buddy, i wonder what he would compllain about if we won the super bowl. Enjoy the victory!

[Nafniksder]

What game were you guys watching, some people will always find something to cry about. WE WON, end of discussion. If you want to talk about something talk about how we held AP to 3yds per carry. Talk about how we ran that Buddy Ryan 4-6 with the young players we have playing defense. Best game we played all year and people are ****ing on here. Shut out in the 1st, we also would have had a shut out in the 1st half of the Giants game had it not been for Landry's penalty. Talk about that and stop looking for fault in your team. HTTR

[Nafniksder]

Fact: The Redskins won the game convincingly.Fact: The Redskins won a conference game on the road.

Fact: The Redskins won on the road - with the paloffs on the line.

Fact: The Redskins won against a team that came in with a five game winning streak.

Fact: The Redskins held the league's leading rusher to 27 yards and a safety.

Fact: The Redskins are winning despite losing key starters on offense and defense.

If the Redskins win the SB against New England by a score of 77-7, someone will complain about not getting a shut-out.

:2cents: :2cents:

My $0.02.

Preach brother, preach. HTTR

[Dirk Diggler]

It is illogical, irrational, has never made sense, and really has never been effective. Its one thing to do it with 3 minutes left, its another with 20 minutes left. Further, if a team is up by 4 scores, WHY is it a big risk to allow a big play, considering the team is STILL up by 3 scores.

Because I would rather be up 3 scores with 8 minutes left, then with 15 minutes left.

[SonnyJ]

I'm still trying to figure out how never letting the other team get closer than 11 points is almost losing a game. :confused:

Could the OP explain that one?

[Dirk Diggler]

I just watched and charted the 2nd half of this game, when we were supposedly playing prevent the whole time. Nothing could be further from the truth.

We actually played more 8 man fronts than 7 man fronts in the 3rd qtr. We only ran cover-2 3 times by my count in the 3rd. We mixed it up and continued to blitz 50% of the time but they picked up most of them and started to make some plays. To their credit, they passed us into a more conservative approach about midway through their 2nd TD drive which concluded with 10 minutes left in the 4th. Fact is, we were still mixing it up on D for the first 20 minutes of the 2nd half. When Minny got the ball back with 5:00 to go down 18, we went into a prevent.

[Dirk Diggler]

I'm still trying to figure out how never letting the other team get closer than 11 points is almost losing a game. :confused:

Could the OP explain that one?

It's called "being fit for a straight jacket"

[JJredskins00]

We scored 30+ Points?

[thelarkascend1ng]

We scored 30+ Points?

on the scoreboard ... it looked so wrong, but felt so right!

[DariusCyrus]

I hate these kinds of posts. What do you think New England was doing up 28 against Miami today? And they have the greatest coach alive. So spare me.

Fact is, the only way Minny was coming back was if we started turning the ball over and/or giving up big plays. There was no way that a mistake prone QB like Tavaris Jackson was leading 4 drives against us for scores against any type of defense, prevent or otherwise. Blitzing like crazy in the second half could have been the quickest way to put them back in the game. Minnesota has produced a surprising # of big plays in the passing game this year and it comes from being overagressive on defense.

you're right man :applause: ...

the quickest way that the Vikings were to get back into the game was a big play on their part and when you're blitzing and playing man to man on defense, its the quickest way the offense would be able to score..

[Chump Bailey]

Fact is, the only way Minny was coming back was if we started turning the ball over and/or giving up big plays.

Which is exactly what was transpiring Dirk. The defense was faltering and Minnesota's was gaining momentum. If not for that brilliant 12 man on the field challenge involving the turnover by the staff, the outcome could have been much different.

There was no way that a mistake prone QB like Tavaris Jackson was leading 4 drives against us for scores against any type of defense, prevent or otherwise. Blitzing like crazy in the second half could have been the quickest way to put them back in the game. Minnesota has produced a surprising # of big plays in the passing game this year and it comes from being overagressive on defense.

Jackson was very sharp mid to late third onward and the reason why was because more often than not we were not disrupting and pressuring him. Given time and the opportunity to set himself he is capable of making very good passes and hurting you as a result.

[Mackdaddydean]

Yeah we did play prevent... Just because we didnt play a cover 3 doesnt mean it wasnt a prevent philosophy. When you stop blitzing, and you drop your LBers very deep, its a prevent. Call it what you will, tie a pink bow around it, and paint it any color you want, its still a prevent defense.

ITS NOT PREVENT IF ITS NOT PREVENT! LOL. You can say "I don't like how we started to play more deep coverage" or "I don't like that we stopped stacking the line as much" or "I don't like that we started allowing the underneath stuff"....thats all fine. But it wasn't prevent defense so it cannot be stated as such.

EDIT: Oh and Merry Christmas!