We all hate prevent defense. All it prevents, the old saying goes, is winning. But there are times when the best possible thing to do is to roll everybody back, play your defensive backs in the parking lot, and throw any kind of aggressiveness right out the window.
The Purdue Boilermakers had the opportunity to make this decision with seven seconds left in their game with the Syracuse Orange. And it could be said that they failed the decision matrix about as spectacularly as they possibly could. Up 29-25, they played single-high press man with a blitz against quarterback Garrett Shrader, and Shrader knew exactly what to do with that: Throw a game-winning touchdown pass to Oronde Gadsden II.
Which, of course, is exactly what happened.
GADSDEN FOR THE LEAD!!!! 🍊🍊🍊 pic.twitter.com/sqrmz4dRbJ
— 247Sports (@247Sports) September 17, 2022
It could be said that some of the better football minds out there were not happy with the coverage.
How was Purdue in press Cover 1 with inside leverage with 12 seconds left, up four, with Syracuse ball on the 25? Gregg Williams-esque https://t.co/YsHC2JJEQM
— Chris B. Brown (@smartfootball) September 17, 2022
Gregg Williams-esque? Verily. This allows us the opportunity to bring up the play that led to Williams’ firing as the Jets’ defensive coordinator. We move back to December 6, 2020. With five seconds left against the Raiders in Week 13, the Jets were trying to pick up their first win of the season, and they were well on their way to doing so. They were up 28-24, and Derek Carr had to get the ball in the end zone from the Jets’ 46-yard line for anything to happen in an impactful sense.
Of course, when your defensive coordinator is Gregg Williams, and you want a guy to call a Cover-0 (no deep safeties) jailbreak blitz just to make sure something good WILL happen for the Raiders… well, you’ve got the right guy.
HENRY RUGGS FOR THE GO-AHEAD TD!!!!#LVvsNYJ | CBS pic.twitter.com/82kLmV1e5a
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) December 6, 2020
Yeah, that’s man-across coverage with no deep help and an eight-man blitz against rookie receiver Henry Ruggs Jr. who ran a 4.27 40-yard dash at his scouting combine. Seems less than optimal, but what do we know?
ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky was similarly unimpressed with Purdue’s defensive concepts.
Lol why would Purdue be playing press man cover 1 in that situation?
— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) September 17, 2022
While I am not one of the better football minds out there, I will add that the blitz element of this defensive strategy pretty much doomed this thing before it even happened.
And it was not Purdue’s only boneheaded play of the day to Syracuse’s benefit.
Oh and Purdue also did this.
Purdue after scoring a go-ahead TD with 51 seconds left committed *seven* penalties (one of which was declined). pic.twitter.com/A3veZRHp41
— Richard🇬🇾Johnson (@RJ_Writes) September 17, 2022
Syracuse remained undefeated with the 32-29 win, while Purdue dropped to 1-1. And when you give up a gimme touchdown with the worst possible coverage, and you go on a penalty spree at the worst possible time, and you allow a THICC-SIX touchdown by throwing when you shouldn’t, it’s pretty clear that you’re doing everything you can to prevent winning.
