Yep. It's about knowing the situation. Playing prevent in the last minute with a 3 point lead, okay, debate all you want. But up 21 in the 4th quarter, that's where it absolutely makes sense.
Opponent has less than 15 minutes to score THREE TDs and has to stop you from scoring a few times too. Give up 5, 10, 12, maybe some 15 yard chunks. But every tackle in bounds is taking 20-25 seconds off the clock. At worst, they're on their tying drive in the last minute. The clock is your ally, play to it.
John never does... I swear...
Particularly when the defense was on the field quite a bit. Outside of the 1st drive, our possessions were pretty quick today. Regardless, we built a big lead so at that point, you can't let the opposition get behind you. Top, down and outside, in. Unfortunately, we did nothing resembling that.
I can only hope this is something they can shake off and learn from. At this point, I have nothing else to cling to.