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.
