Why do coaches rush 3 defenders vs Hail Mary?

Hmmmm....

i always wondered this, too. you're going to get a diminishing return with guys back on the goaline. sending 6 with 5 on the goaline isn't the worst thing in the world to do, imho, esp if you mix it up a bit

I don't think that was his point...

My HS coach used to say: "Prevent defense prevents you from winning"

Not sure if he was right....

It's like the childhood game 3-flies up.

The more athletic and tallest guy, usually won.

DBs are notoriously shorter than WR in CFB.

Why would you allow a game to come down to a nerf-scrum pop-fly kids game jump ball...when the O has like RC Owens guys and you have tiny speedy DBs.

You always want to make the QB run for his life...hell, I love Hail Marys where teams rush and the QB can't get the ball off and is sacked.

I don't care what team you are...your best players aren't your tiny DBs.

Use your D-line and LBs to ruin the QBs life.

quote:

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My HS coach used to say: "Prevent defense prevents you from winning"

Not sure if he was right....

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UT wouldn't have been in that situation if they played prevent 15 seconds earlier.

Doesn't make it right but the success rate of the Hail Mary is pretty low. I think the 8 defenders in the EZ works pretty well.

You either rush one or two dudes...just to put pressure to throw and not stand there all day...hell you might get a lot of holding with fewer guys rushing...

...and play the rest deep and middle.

Or rush 7 and trust your D-line and the 4- guys standing on the goal line.

But half arse rush and half arse cover?

Who thought of this?

Bruce Arians agrees with you...

And it's worked so well.

Of 30 years of watching football...every time I've seen pressure being brought...it wins.

The QB can't even get it off...

And everytime when the DBs and players back off...it doesn't work.

(And you are acting like I'm the only one in this thread pointing out the obvious)

And there is a thing about experience, experience breeds complacency and false rules - they call in the business world. (you probably don't know much about the business world) - but it's a pattern of copycat...without any real analysis to see if the assumption is true.

And they found coaches are famous for that...just assuming what has been done before is the right way to do things. So don't tell me shite about experience. Nobody experiments about these situations from the last 30 years but high school coaches. It's all stayed the stupid same...prevent prevents nothing is the joke. Comfort in numbers.

This idea you have as coaches as some geniuses is so misguided...they follow the same pattern of their forefathers.

Which is why we've had so much resilience to change and why a guy who goes for it on 4th down all the time in high is seen like a pariah in the football realm. He's a bad guy to them.

Coaching is nepotism and conservative and can't change from history - that's been proven.

So don't tell me about all their history and knowing more...they are indoctrinated and refuse to change...and "their expertise" (code for, not willing to change based on history) has been shown to change college football.

There were coaches 15 years ago that said the spread wasn't real football and wouldn't ever work.

So you stick with your conservative coaches as the authorities.

The coaching profession is about risk management and it takes real guts to make changes to false ideas.

And the current Hail Mary D - is a false idea.