That’s Gary Patterson’s semi-jocular explanation for why he still acts as his defensive coordinator.
Humor aside, it’s interesting to see how his focus has changed.
Patterson admitted that in today’s quick-strike college game, he’s had to alter his definition of efficient defense. A wise defensive coach, he explained, doesn’t just work against the scoreboard, but also the clock.
“If we get up, and they’re moving the football,” Patterson said, “that’s what I try to do on defense. Make them take nine to 12 plays and 6-8 minutes off the clock.
“You look at the Kansas State game last year. They scored the first time in the second half, but it took 8-9 minutes, and by then the third quarter it was over.
“You can slow-death people either way.”
Bend, but not break, baby. It’s what’s for defense.
Get The Picture 
You better have a defense that’s in good condition if you play that way. When you get the ball back, you can’t go 3 and out every time.
It’s what Spurrier did in the 90s with those Florida teams. Beat you to death in the first half with the Fun and Gun and run Errict Rhett or Fred Taylor for 6 yards a pop in the second half. They also had defenses under Stoops that could attack or make you drive the length of the field.
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Yeah, I think the offense has to move the ball a bit too. Otherwise the first drive by the opposition takes 6-8 mins, but the next one takes a lot less.
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I’m old enough to remember when time-consuming touchdown drives were considered an aspirational goal for offenses of winning football teams. And now they are supposedly a desirable outcome for defenses? Gary Patterson needs to get offa my lawn.
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Maybe it’s lemonade-out-of-lemons, but I guess he technically has a point. A good example is the UT game last weekend. In the fourth quarter, they went the length of the field in about six seconds. Not only did their score give them the lead, but it also essentially gave them a final drive at the end of the game.
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Note: he says the key phrase… “when we get up”. Of course when you have a lead you want the clock to bleed regardless of which unit you have on the field. This obviously doesn’t apply when you allow the opponent to drive the ball for 8 minutes when you are down by 3 in the 4th.
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Yep, Patterson has a couple qualifiers in there. Obviously, he adjusts according to the situation.
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Back to the 3 and out deal.
What really grinds my gears is when we manage a 2 or 3 score lead, then you can easily see the change in defense where the opposition is obviously being given 5 yard screens all the way down the field. They score. Then, yes, they turn up their defense (nobody ever sees it comin) and we drop a pass, run a draw for 2 yards, run another handoff for no gain, then punt. Yep, you guessed it. We continue to lay down the D in “prevent” translated as “we are still ahead but the game is over, all we gotta do is play touch football because we were so good we had y’all beat so we know we’re better but now we’re just gon try an do ape moves for the tv camera when we manage to tackle somebody” and so it goes…..
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