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The prevent defense is a defensive alignment in
American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...
that seeks to prevent the offense from completing a long pass or scoring a
touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...
in a single play and seeks to
run out the clock In sports, running out the clock (also known as running down the clock, stonewalling, killing the clock, chewing the clock, stalling, time-wasting (or timewasting) or eating clock) is the practice of a winning team allowing the clock to expire thr ...
. It is used by a defense that is winning by more than a touchdown, late in the fourth quarter, or in specific situations, such as third-and-very-long if it seems clear that the offense must pass the football to gain long yardage. The alignment uses five or more
defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...
s (or players in that role), preferring fast players over large players. They back up so far that they concede short-yardage plays but try to ensure that no receiver is uncovered downfield or can get behind them.


Implementation

The prevent defense concedes short gains, such as four to eight yards per play, as long as the clock keeps running, but aims to prevent plays resulting in longer gains. Safeties and cornerbacks pull back to a "safe zone" five to ten yards off the
line of scrimmage In gridiron football, a line of scrimmage is an imaginary transverse line (across the width of the field) beyond which a team cannot cross until the next play has begun. Its location is based on the spot where the ball is placed after the end o ...
, and the
free safety Safety is a position in gridiron football on the defense. The safeties are defensive backs who line up ten to fifteen yards from the line of scrimmage. There are two variations of the position: the free safety and the strong safety. Their dut ...
often plays as far as twenty yards back. The defense does not jam receivers on the line. The prevent defense employs
zone defense Zone defense is a type of defense, used in team sports, which is the alternative to man-to-man defense; instead of each player guarding a corresponding player on the other team, each defensive player is given an area (a zone) to cover. A zone def ...
, in which each defensive back is responsible for an area of the field rather than a specific player. The backs watch the
quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...
's eyes to determine where he intends to pass the ball. When used late in the fourth quarter to run out the clock, the sidelines become an important area to defend, as a player who receives a pass near the sideline can run
out of bounds In sports, out of bounds (or out-of-bounds) refers to being outside the playing boundaries of the field. Due to the chaotic nature of play, it is normal in many sports for players and/or the ball to go out of bounds frequently during a game. T ...
and stop the clock. The defender's priority is less to prevent a reception than to keep the receiver in bounds following one. This keeps the clock running and reduces the amount of time the offense has to score.


Packages

The prevent defense uses five or more defensive backs. ;Nickel defense The
nickel defense American football, a nickel defense (also known as a 4–2–5 or 3–3–5) is any defensive alignment that uses five defensive backs, of whom the fifth is known as a nickelback. The original and most common form of the nickel defense features ...
has five backs, so named because the
nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...
is the five-cent coin. ;Dime defense The
dime defense In American football, the dime defense is a defensive alignment that uses six defensive backs. It is usually employed in obvious passing situations. The formation usually consists of six defensive backs, usually two safeties, and four cornerbac ...
has six backs, two linebackers, and three down linemen. ;Quarter defense The quarter defense has three down linemen, one
linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...
, and seven defensive backs. ;Half-dollar defense The half-dollar defense has eight defensive backs, no linebackers and three defensive linemen. The rare package is used when the offense needs to score a touchdown on the very next play, such as with a desperation
Hail Mary pass A Hail Mary pass is a very long forward pass in American football, typically made in desperation, with an exceptionally small chance of achieving a completion. Due to the difficulty of a completion with this pass, it makes reference to the Catho ...
. In theory, ''dollar defense'' (nine backs) and '' twoonie defenses'' (ten backs) are also possible but, for practical reasons, are almost never used; similar scenarios may involve linebackers replacing defensive linemen. Professional teams may not have enough defensive backs on the roster to play the quarter or half-dollar defenses, so wide receivers sometimes fill the extra positions, particularly in late-game situations when the receivers' offensive skills can be put to defensive use. When the defense concedes short plays, an offense that can practice
clock management In gridiron football, clock management is an aspect of game strategy that focuses on the game clock and/or play clock to achieve a desired result, typically near the end of a match. Depending on the game situation, clock management may entail pla ...
effectively can score without executing the long pass the defense seeks to prevent. Some coaches avoid using the prevent defense and choose instead to continue playing the same defensive schemes that seemed to be working well to that point.
John Madden John Earl Madden (April 10, 1936 – December 28, 2021) was an American football coach and sports commentator in the National Football League (NFL). He served as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders from 1969 to 1978, who he led to eight pla ...
once said, "All a prevent defense does is prevent you from winning." By conceding to the offense many easy gains for short yardage but no big play, the prevent defense can make the end of the game uninteresting for fans. The attempt to prevent a long-yardage play can be a victim of individual effort, as happened to the
Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...
in the 2012 AFC Divisional Round playoff game. With less than 40 seconds to play, the
Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays its ...
needed a touchdown to tie the game and faced a third down from their own 30-yard line. Broncos safety
Rahim Moore Rahim Shaheed Moore (born February 11, 1990) is an American football free safety for the Arlington Renegades of the XFL. He was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the second round of the 2011 NFL Draft. He played college football at UCLA. Early ...
allowed Baltimore receiver
Jacoby Jones Jacoby Rashi'd Jones (born July 11, 1984) is a former American football wide receiver and return specialist. He played college football at Lane College, and was drafted by the Houston Texans in the third round of the 2007 NFL Draft. He played ...
to get behind him and catch a 70-yard touchdown pass from Joe Flacco. The Ravens went on to win the game in double overtime.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prevent Defense American football formations American football terminology