Could someone with some football knowledge explain...

[BrentVU]

... the strategy behind cornerbacks giving wide receivers a "cushion" of ten yards or more?

I know it is done when you might have a QB whom you don't think can make the long flare pass. I know it is done when you might have a speedy wide receiver that you don't want to let run around a cornerback deep. It seems to invite the quarterback to throw to the outside for a 7-yard (or more) gain, and there might be some cases when you don't mind that, or you're willing to play the percentages.

I remember Bruce Fowler used to employ it a lot when Bobby Johnson was head coach. We saw it a lot against Alabama, which matched their fleet receivers against Vandy's suspect corners, and it mostly didn't work... of course, against Alabama, you pick your poison. Vandy seemed to be fearful of the deep ball, but the strategy didn't seem to stop Alabama from beating Vandy deep.

I'd like to hear someone talk about this strategy and why it's good or bad. (Clark Lea talked about it some in his postgame presser last week.) The average fan always looks at it and asks, "Why in the world are we doing that?"

[geeznotagain]

Bend, don't break. Similar to Chinese water torture IMO.

[commadore]

You do it when the speed and/or athleticism of the DBs doesn't match the receivers. You fear they will simply run by your DBs. Problem is, that means they are open for the first ten yards or more of the route and if our guy closes, then they DO run right by them. Alternatively, you can come up close, cut off the short route, but most likely get burned on any long pass.
Almost a permanent prevent defense or death by a thousand cuts.

[Johnmn555]

Almost a permanent prevent defense or death by a thousand cuts.

When the receiver catches the ball 10 yards down field with the DB backed off him 10 yards and then runs for another 15, it's not death by a thousand cuts so much as death by about three.

[commadore]

Almost a permanent prevent defense or death by a thousand cuts.

When the receiver catches the ball 10 yards down field with the DB backed off him 10 yards and then runs for another 15, it's not death by a thousand cuts so much as death by about three.

When you are playing Alabama, yes. When you are playing Elon, Hawaii, or Northern Illinois not so much.

[Johnmn555]

If we need to play with a cushion against Elon, Hawaii and NIU, things are worse in our defensive backfield than we had thought.

[Podge91]

It's not just the cushion. I watched our DBs start SPRINTING back as soon as the ball was snapped.

I suspect the coaches threatened them with terrible consequences if a receiver got behind them, knowing that this would result in big play TD after big play TD.

Instead, they hit a succession of easy 10 yard passes (that were often extended through YAC) that got them to within striking distance.

I hated to see it, but it probably kept the score down (if you call 55 points "keeping the score down") by reducing the number of quick-strike TDs they had.

[commadore]

If we need to play with a cushion against Elon, Hawaii and NIU, things are worse in our defensive backfield than we had thought.

If you go back and watch those games, that is exactly what we did. Their QBs were just not as accurate to keep them going.