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Message: [QUOTE="OttoinGrotto, post: 1380756, member: 297"] A high probability of something bad happening to your offense is still a lower probability of something bad happening to your defense, but that's not even the main thing. Defining something bad matters too. Something bad on offense is losing the ball. The worst case is that you lose the ball and the defense scores. That's really rare. I don't think it's a smart play to let fear of that happening dictate your choices on offense. Something bad on defense is giving up a score, which is pretty common. So contrasting something bad happening on offense, first you'd have to lose the ball, second you'd have to lose it in such a way to give up a score, again all rare things, whereas on defense you already don't have the ball, so something bad and your worst case is giving up a score, which again is a common thing. I know we go around and around on this, but really, worrying about bad things happening on offense is complete nonsense. If something bad happens on offense, you lose the ball. Playing defense by nature is a worse outcome than any choice you can make on offense, because [I]you already don't have the ball[/I]. The only way to score without the ball is to cause a safety, and that's only worth two points. So you have to have the ball, you have to move the ball, and when you get in position to score, you have to get blood from your stone. Having a bad offense doesn't make those opportunities less valuable, it makes them more valuable, because you don't know when you'll get those chances again. You have to maximize them when you have them. Or, alternatively, you can feel good about losing because you kept it close. I'm concerned our program has been comfortable with that for a very long time now. [/QUOTE]

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