College Football - Week 2 (Sept. 11th)

[Old Style]

Does anyone know if internet radio for college football games is blacked out like it is for baseball?

Nope. At least in my experience I've never had any problems.

[fiver]

 

I understand the word isn't new, but people using it in public is. I saw it again last night in a publication that never used it before. As for your last point, not really. The so called sharps bet against each other all the time.

 

Agree...oddsmakers make it tough for even smart money to agree all of the time. Historically, the term was used only by those in the gambling world...it's evidently becoming more mainstream. I used the term because the line was moving contrary to what most people thought would happen (70% of those on covers.com were taking Auburn -2, yet the line kept creeping the other way until it was Auburn +1). This leads me to believe that sharps thought they saw something that favored MSU in the matchup and were betting heavily opposite of the squares....or i guess wealthy MSU homers could have altered the line...

[SpongeWorthy]

I really hope Lebron shows up to the Ohio State game. I'm assuming he'd be in some sort of box and I hope ESPN can show the crowds reaction to him somehow...I doubt they'd put him up on the jumbotron, sadly.

[Guest]

I really hope Lebron shows up to the Ohio State game. I'm assuming he'd be in some sort of box and I hope ESPN can show the crowds reaction to him somehow...I doubt they'd put him up on the jumbotron, sadly.

 

He'd probably show up wearing Miami Hurricanes gear.

[SpongeWorthy]

That'd be glorious.

[Old Style]

Anyone watching Marshall-WVU?

[SpongeWorthy]

welp Marshall

 

Nice drive though.

[Old Style]

Stupid prevent defense.

[Derwood]

nice try Marshall

[Old Style]

Damn. Barely missed FG ends it in OT. Marshall still winless against WVU.

[SpongeWorthy]

Put that kicker on suicide watch.

[dew1679666265]

Stupid prevent defense.

 

I'll bet if teams quit running the prevent defense, the number of late comebacks would decrease – and perhaps significantly. Prevent should really only be used if you're up two or more scores late in the game.

[SpongeWorthy]

Here's my problem with that theory:

 

Every time a team drops 7 into coverage on a final drive it's called prevent defense. Any other point in the game and it's just defense--it's not like just rushing 4 is some exotic look, you don't even blitz most of the time. You probably have some extra DBs out there but they're all playing the same areas of responsibility as they usually do and if you played a "normal" rush 4, drop 7 defense as you normally do but with a regular number of LBs you're bound to get picked apart too. If you're sending your safeties way back, then yeah, you're in a real prevent.

 

Also, you never hear about all the times a "prevent" defense ended in a pick or turnover on downs on a team scrambling for a final score. Those get lost in a shuffle.

 

Now that being said, a well designed/timed blitz in those situations can be a thing of beauty. The good coordinators dial those up.

[SpongeWorthy]

Also, in the situations we're talking about the offense is always going to go for it on 4th down unless they score or kick a field goal. In a vacuum those drives are going to be more successful than "regular" drives because there's no marginal downside to turning it over on downs (you're gonna lose anyway) and you have more opportunities to convert.

[Old Style]

Well if the team was playing an aggressive attacking defense all night, then starts playing very passively and dropping everyone into coverage with a late lead what do you call that?

[dew1679666265]

Here's my problem with that theory:

 

Every time a team drops 7 into coverage on a final drive it's called prevent defense. Any other point in the game and it's just defense--it's not like just rushing 4 is some exotic look, you don't even blitz most of the time. You probably have some extra DBs out there but they're all playing the same areas of responsibility as they usually do and if you played a "normal" rush 4, drop 7 defense as you normally do but with a regular number of LBs you're bound to get picked apart too. If you're sending your safeties way back, then yeah, you're in a real prevent.

 

Also, you never hear about all the times a "prevent" defense ended in a pick or turnover on downs on a team scrambling for a final score. Those get lost in a shuffle.

 

Now that being said, a well designed/timed blitz in those situations can be a thing of beauty. The good coordinators dial those up.

 

I'm not lumping "prevent" defense into simply rushing four and dropping seven. The prevent part of it is playing super soft with the corners. Giving 10-15 yards of cushion to ensure nobody gets past you is a fine concept if the offense has limited time or needs to score twice. You simply shouldn't play that soft in the coverage if there's really more than a minute left in the game and it's a one-score ballgame.

 

I'm not looking for blitz packages and whatnot at the end of games, I just think DCs go to the super soft coverage way too early oftentimes. John Chavis was bad about that at Tennessee. I can think of a few games we lost because we allowed teams to move down the field 15-20 yards at a time before we'd challenge them.

 

As far as the successful times, there certainly are times when it works. My assumption is, however, that it fails far too many times for it to make sense to use all the time late in games.

[dew1679666265]

Also, in the situations we're talking about the offense is always going to go for it on 4th down unless they score or kick a field goal. In a vacuum those drives are going to be more successful than "regular" drives because there's no marginal downside to turning it over on downs (you're gonna lose anyway) and you have more opportunities to convert.

 

You definitely have to take that into account, but what are the percentages on a lot of those plays? I'd say more often than not teams are looking at 4th and 5 or more and the conversion rate on those can't be very good. There are definitely plenty of times when a team gets to 4th and 2, goes for it and gets it when they otherwise would have punted, though.

[bcl412]

Houston scores a lot of points.

[dew1679666265]

Houston scores a lot of points.

 

Kevin Sumlin should get a major BCS job soon.

[Tracer Bullet]

did anyone else think the refs sort of stopped calling any penalties, including what looked like a blatant hold or two by WVU there at the end?

[Soul]

did anyone else think the refs sort of stopped calling any penalties, including what looked like a blatant hold or two by WVU there at the end?

 

including what looked like a hold in the end zone at the beginning of the final drive. They call that one & it's game over.

[Tracer Bullet]

did Chris Fowler age 15 years since last week or was I just not watching close enough? yikes

[Careless]

Did they just say Wisconsin uses a 350 lb fullback?

[Derwood]

nice opening drive by Northwestern

[Guest]

Marcus Lattimore is so good Steve Spurrier might forget to rotate his running backs.