Winning.
Loose, passive, scaredy-cat defenses invariably give the offense the edge, leaving huge marshmallow-soft holes in the middle and along the sideline. A couple of quick outs, a seam route to the tight end rumbling down the middle, a quick time out, and the opponent's quarterback looks like Peyton Manning while the faithful are screaming at the tv and cursing the defensive coordinator's parentage.
I HATE that. Keep playing the tough, agressive football that got you the lead in the other 56 minutes.
Local sports fans got a shining example of the sure-fire ineptitude of prevent defense in Thursday's Blazer game. The sport was different, but the principle was the same. The home team, down two games to none, built a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter but nearly urinated it all away by getting careful and cautious and methodical, playing, of all things, a prevent offense, dribbling down slowly, tap, tap, tapping the ball, a couple of tentative passes, then a last-second, off balance desperation shot just before the 24 second clock expired.
They did this about six straight times down the floor until Dallas got within two. The Blazers had the ball and barely got it in bounds, the Mavericks fouled, and then Portland sank the free throws, narrowly winning a game they should have won handily.
Prevent defenses and slowdown basketball usually flirt with disaster in just that way.
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