[vhawk01]

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If you were coaching the titans, with a historically great defense, why would you try to control the ball a lot and minimize the amount of possessions your historically great defense plays? It seems like you want your defense to play reasonably often, to lower the variance that occurs within a game. A team like the jets is the one that wants to keep its defense off the field as much as possible.

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I dont claim to know a whole lot about football, but would I be wrong in saying that this is probably completely wrong? 1). Why would you want the other team to have the ball more? More possessions and more time on the clock typically would mean more points, or am I wrong? 2). Wouldn't a historically great defense be good at staying off the field, if you know what I mean?

I've never heard of a gameplan wherein the defense manages to control the clock...

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Well, I think he is making the point that taking more chances with your offense is a reasonable strategy when you have a phenomenal defense, at least as compared to when you have a terrible one. If I'm the QB of the Titans or the Ravens, I know that my defense is capable of papering over my mistakes, so I'm more free to take chances.

Of course, you could make the exact opposite argument, in that since your defense is so good, you dont NEED to score that much in order to win, and only by throwing pick 6's and giving the other guys a short field are you really going to get hurt. I dont think its actually possible to "theorize" as to which of these two approaches is correct, its probably one of those things where you have to try and find some data.