09.14.08
by

Prevent defense prevents only winning

By Mike Gibson
Go ahead.
Try it.
Type into Google “prevent defense prevents winning.”
Then type: “prevent defense prevents losing.”
The first search gets you 2,140,000 responses.
The second gets you 274,000.
There’s a reason why there’s such a discrepancy in search results because, maybe, it’s true.
You’ll come up with some interesting search results, too, like the fact that John Madden is widely credited with the origin of that phrase.
In all of my years watching football, I’ve never seen a team lose a game in the final seconds because they blitzed a quarterback and saw him catch them with something underneath the coverage.
Yet I’ve seen too many passes thrown into the end zone with three guys on the receiver where a tipped ball or a freak interference play can win it.
Last year, I saw Brian Griese… Brian FREAKING Griese … take the anemic Bears’ offense 97 yards against the Eagles because Andy Reid sat back in a stupid prevent defense and waited for the Bears beat him.
They did.
On Saturday, on my way to work, I saw Temple sit back in a three-man rush for the final series and wait for Buffalo to beat it.
It had to wait until the final play, but it was inevitable.
I’m not second-guessing now.
I said to everyone within earshot at Maxi’s Bar on Liacouras Walk that the game was over when the Owls went to a three-man rush on the first defensive play of the final series.
“BLITZ!” I yelled at the screen. “BLITZ! BLITZ! BLITZ!”
“C’mon, the best pass defense is putting a quarterback on his ass!” I yelled.
Guess what?
No matter how much I yell, my voice doesn’t carry through a television screen to Buffalo. Only in Poltergeist, but not in real life. This can’t be happening, I said. A coach who has the guts to go for it on fourth-and-1 at his own 34 in a tie game surely has the guts to play just as aggressively on the other side of the ball.
All I could do is turn to the guy next to me and say, “if they don’t blitz, they are going to lose.”
And they did. Hopefully, they learned their lesson.
We’ll see.


A coach who has the guts
to go for it on fourth-and-1
at his own 34 in a tie game
surely has the guts to play
just as aggressively
on the other side of the ball.

Thirty-eight seconds to go and every offensive play Buffalo ran was met with a three-man rush. Drew Willy had all the time in the world to throw.
All … the … time … in … the … world.
Twenty years ago almost to the day, a Temple coach named Bruce Arians almost learned the same lesson Al Golden learned Saturday.
I said almost because he got his wits about him in time to avoid a Temple defeat.
Down 35-30, a Rutgers’ quarterback of similar talent named Scott Erney drove the Scarlet Knights from his own 5-yard line to the Temple 20 in the game’s final minute.
Arians called a timeout and yelled so hard at defensive coordinator Nick Rapone I thought Bruce’s veins were going to burst. I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but soon I found out.
Temple went from covering with eight to rushing with eight. Four straight plays, Erney was sacked. It was a jailbreak of Temple defenders and the Owls were loving every defensive call, coming at Erney on all sides. The game ended with a Temple player, appropriately named Swift Burch, on top of Erney at midfield. Four plays. Four sacks. Thirty yards of losses.


There is no doubt in my mind
if Mark D’Onofrio and Al Golden
decided to send more than Buffalo could block,
we’d be talking about how good
that grass stain looked on Drew Willy’s ass
at the end of the game
and not a fluke catch

“If I was going to go down, I was going to go down with my guns blazing,” Arians said, holding the game ball in the locker room afterward.
“That’s what I’m talkin’ about,” I said then.
That’s what I’m talking about now.
There is no doubt in my mind if Mark D’Onofrio and Al Golden decided to send more than Buffalo could block, we’d be talking about how good that grass stain looked on Drew Willy’s ass at the end of the game and not a fluke catch.
If only my voice could have reached Buffalo. If only they had heard.

16 thoughts on “Prevent defense prevents only winning”

  1. I’m with ya brother. youre 100 percent right. I love Temple football too and i was a student back in ’88 when they played Rutgers that day. Names like Swift Burch and Paul Palmer and Lorenzo Square Billy Wright (the kicker)hold great memories for me, and i loved watching Bruce Arians go full guns a blazin’.WE should be 3-0 but when ya cant “Knock it down” theres something wrong with the players. I saw the replay twice and our D players let that guy GET IN FRONT of them, and then it was an easy jump to the ball. our guys were BEHIND him, as if to prop him up on a ladder to catch the ball.dude we blew that one like we blew UConn (where we should have GONE FOR IT on 4th and 1 in OT).i feel they might be very deflated for Penn St and lay a 48-3 clunker..dave yan, SCAT ’91

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  2. I did see Amara Kamara try to blitz on one of the downs. That’s sending four against five.Blitzing to me is sending the house.HOUSE.I didn’t get on AG last week about the 4th and 1 because I thought it was an error of commission. He was trying to do something.Not blitzing was an error of ommission and sitting back and not forcing them into a mistake.I don’t like sitting back. Never have. Never will.

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  3. This is devastating. We are now in a position where we can literally run the table, tie with Buffalo (if it loses once) and then lose the East on a tie-breaker. We needed this one a lot more than UConn. A lot more.

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  4. I think it will take weeks for me to get over this, but hopefully not for the guys. Anyway, I agree about the clock thing… When Buffalo snapped the ball I was thinking “start the clock… okay, seriously start the clock… OKAY, START THE CLOCK NOW!” So ridiculous..

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  5. Gabi,It’ll take me years. This was sooooo stupid on our part, it didn’t need to happen. I just watched the tape again. The first instinct of our defenders was NOT to not the ball down, but to tackle the guy.Tell me this:WHAT FREAKING GOOD DOES IT DO TO TACKLE THE GUY IN THE END ZONE???All three of you guys should have been jumping to knock that ball DOWN, not up, where it could have benn caught.AG said after the game that the team works on this all the time.Don’t tell me they do, Al, show me they do.We make too many mistakes in the game to convince me we work on anything.Do we work on kicking the gall out of bounds, too?Do we?

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  7. Great photo of you, Gabi, by the way. It captures your true beauty. I’m sure you are going to State College. I’ll head to the Fox and Hound (work is a four-letter word). (:

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  8. I know, the kick out of bounds started the ball rolling on that last play and it was all downhill from there. It’s so upsetting because they guys had such a great game up until then. To me, it’s a more upsetting loss than UConn last year… Thank you for the compliment on my picture by the way 🙂 Unfortunately, I will not be able to make it to the State Penn. It’s my dad’s birthday and parents’ anniversary. But rest assured I’ll be watching.Go owls!

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  9. Yeah, I’ve got to find a place where there will be all (or mostly) Temple fans to watch the game. I’m dreading going back to the Fox and Hound because it’s all Blue and White.I don’t think any of the bars on campus have the Big 10 network.

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  10. What about the South Philly Tap Room?I know they have Temple swag along the bar. I’d check with them and see if they’re going to get the game.Oh. by the by. Anyone have any good sign ideas? College Gameday is in my neck of the woods in Auburn, and I want to obviously throw up a Temple sign and try and get it on the air (I’ll be the guy wearing a Temple football jersey). I’d appreciate any ideas, and will try to get them ESPN cameras to notice.-Chuck ’06, DMB alum.

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  11. Chuck,I’m not familiar with the South Philly neighborhood or parking down there, but I’m very familiar with the Temple campus so I’d prefer something there. My guess is that South Philly has its share of PSU front-runners. Me and Jimmy Rollins will look for a place with Temple fans.As far as a sign, how about:TEMPLE FOOTBALL … WHERE’S OUR HAIL MARY?

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  12. Thanks for the sign idea.I’m guessing then the Draught Horse might be the best bet on campus to catch it, either there or Maxis. Any place that gets the NFL package should easily have it I’d think, since the Big 10 network is readily available on basic Direct TV. Living in Alabama, I haven’t kept up with whose got the Big 10 network and whatnot with Comcast. I know I’ve got to find the game down here somewhere Sat morning, I think I might have to try Buffalo Wild Wings or something myself to watch it. I think we might have a legit shot in this one and we’ll surprise a lot of people.-Chuck ’06, DMB alum

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  13. unbelievably, Maxi’s does not get the Big 10 package. I think the same TV setup is true for the Draught Horse but I’ve posted a response to a story on the Temple News site about the DH and asked for them to put the Big 10 package in for this Saturday. We’ll see how customer-friendly the new management is …

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  14. Remember what I wrote in response to your “1 Headline Down, 12 To Go” post? I wrote that making such predictions was sure to jinx the Owls… well… they have since lost the 2nd and 3rd headline.I think you should remove that post… at least until after the season. It is making me very uneasy, sir.

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  15. I’ll remove it until the Penn State game if you promise not to call me sir again. If we win the Penn State game by the predicted score of 28-21, I’ll restore it.

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  16. Deal… No “sir.”

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