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The best defence is a good offence — a clock-managing, ball-controlling offence designed to stay on the field and keep the opposition’s scoring unit on the sideline.

As long as a ball carrier doesn’t go out of bounds, the game clock winds down between plays. A typical run play actually decreases the playing time and makes the game “shorter” because the clock runs while the team is in the huddle.

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You will see teams use this tactic when playing with a lead, when scoring isn’t critical or when they simply want to keep the other team’s offence on the sideline where it can’t hurt anybody.

Conversely, a team playing from behind will want as many opportunities to score on offence as possible. They will likely call higher risk/higher reward pass plays in the comeback effort to hopefully chew up as many yards as possible.

Also, to their advantage, in the event of an incomplete pass, the game clock stops and allows the offence to huddle up and reset without losing valuable game time.