Bend but don't break?

[tojo70]

just wondering what everyone thought about this 'philosophy.' I've heard it said and have seen it done by the Bison since 1980. Teams march down the field picking up 3-5 yards a play get inside the Bison 30 yard line and then just fall apart.
My question is, is there really a way to coach/teach this? Can you really teach a team to "let" a team march down the field and then stiffen up and punch it to them? Or am I reading it wrong, and you don't 'let' them march down the field, but you put emphasis on "red zone" defense and just let everything fall into place?
Like I've said, I've seen it done by the Bison for almost 30 years now and it's been a thing of beauty. It's very demoralizing for a team to drive all the way down the field and have to come up with at best a field goal.

[mebisonII]

Isn't the idea that you defend hardest against the big plays? Not so much that you "let" them get 3-5 yards at a time, but you set your defense to make sure they don't pick up 20 yards, which requires a little sacrifice on defending the short gains. Then once you are at the 20-30 yard line, the field is shortened so you tighten up your defense for the stop.

Of course, I don't actually know anything about football strategy, but who lets that get in the way when posting on the internet? :)

[EndZoneQB]

just wondering what everyone thought about this 'philosophy.' I've heard it said and have seen it done by the Bison since 1980. Teams march down the field picking up 3-5 yards a play get inside the Bison 30 yard line and then just fall apart.
My question is, is there really a way to coach/teach this? Can you really teach a team to "let" a team march down the field and then stiffen up and punch it to them? Or am I reading it wrong, and you don't 'let' them march down the field, but you put emphasis on "red zone" defense and just let everything fall into place?
Like I've said, I've seen it done by the Bison for almost 30 years now and it's been a thing of beauty. It's very demoralizing for a team to drive all the way down the field and have to come up with at best a field goal.

It's basically the Tampa2 philosophy. You can give up the underneath plays..and then the field shrinks and it's easier to cover.

[G-city Bison Fan]

Also puts pressure on the other team to be consistantly perfect. More plays = greater chance for their to be a bad throw or bad snap.

[DjKyRo]

It's basically the Tampa2 philosophy. You can give up the underneath plays..and then the field shrinks and it's easier to cover.

What he said. When you have more field to cover behind the safeties preventing the big play over the top, it allows more to happen underneath when the linebackers and corners have to play defense over the middle. As the offense moves down the field, there is fundamentally less field the cover, thus giving the safeties more room to help out on coverage and on run defense.

[Bison Dan]

I agree with the way the Bison run it - just that sometimes they overly rely on it too much at the end of the game. ie EWU. When you give the qb time most qb's will get into a rhythm and they are tough to stop. Send the dogs and put a stop to it.

[344Johnson]

I agree with the way the Bison run it - just that sometimes they overly rely on it too much at the end of the game. ie EWU. When you give the qb time most qb's will get into a rhythm and they are tough to stop. Send the dogs and put a stop to it.

It would be nice if from time to time if we took the Pittsburgh Steeler approach and said, "qb, you know we are coming, but you don't know where from. And thats why your not going to do anything the next 3 downs."

[HerdBot]

just wondering what everyone thought about this 'philosophy.' I've heard it said and have seen it done by the Bison since 1980. Teams march down the field picking up 3-5 yards a play get inside the Bison 30 yard line and then just fall apart.
My question is, is there really a way to coach/teach this? Can you really teach a team to "let" a team march down the field and then stiffen up and punch it to them? Or am I reading it wrong, and you don't 'let' them march down the field, but you put emphasis on "red zone" defense and just let everything fall into place?
Like I've said, I've seen it done by the Bison for almost 30 years now and it's been a thing of beauty. It's very demoralizing for a team to drive all the way down the field and have to come up with at best a field goal.

That is how the Tampa 2 works. They will not give up big plays but have a better chance at turnovers and tighten up. It's not letting them move the ball.(

[ThunderDan]

The same defense that the Vikings use. Works well for them in the 1st half of games, not so much in the 2nd. Problem is that good QB's can get in a groove and slice that D apart once they make some adustments in the 2nd half. Stafford and Freeman did this to the Vikings.

[Civil06]

I don't know much about bending, but I hope our defense breaks a few people (Colton Heagle vs. SDSU style).

[moosbah]

Have you ever heard of a good team that doesn't run a bend but don't break defense?

It's just coach speak.

[tony]

I agree with the way the Bison run it - just that sometimes they overly rely on it too much at the end of the game. ie EWU. When you give the qb time most qb's will get into a rhythm and they are tough to stop. Send the dogs and put a stop to it.

Maybe bad footing and a certain amount of fatigue hurt the pass rush late in the EWU game? Seems like NDSU was all over the QB before the field started turning white.

[CaBisonFan]

If we had sent Heagle once or twice against EWU...game won.