Team Defense

[StoopTroup]

I was looking at some stats....

41st?

Is this acceptable?

Discuss?

http://t.foxsports.msn.com/college-football/stats/team-defense

[OkieThunderLion]

OU's defense is around 20th best in the country. Acceptable but not championship level.

[OkieThunderLion]

http://www.adjustedstats.com/ratings-stats/cfbdeftotaladj.php

[BoulderSooner79]

OU's defense is around 20th best in the country. Acceptable but not championship level.

Agreed. It was a transition year to M. Stoops and he made due with existing players that didn't fit the scheme he really wants. I think that is why we are bringing in JUCO DT's to get there more quickly. The current D could actually have been enough to win a championship this year if the offense was unstoppable, but KSU and ND proved that is was not.

[8timechamps]

Agreed. It was a transition year to M. Stoops and he made due with existing players that didn't fit the scheme he really wants. I think that is why we are bringing in JUCO DT's to get there more quickly. The current D could actually have been enough to win a championship this year if the offense was unstoppable, but KSU and ND proved that is was not.

Yep. Mike was working with an entire roster of players recruited to a different scheme. He was able to "fix" some issues with moving players around, and made others transparent in the process. This defense was serviceable, and saved by a solid offense on a few occasions. Unfortunately, the offense wasn't able to do the same on a couple of occasions.

[OUster]

Stats are nice to look at in this pre-game period when nothing is really happening. In doing so, it is of note that OUr offense and A&M's aren't too far apart. However, their defense is ranked about 20 spots behind ours...statistically. This fact, coupled with the lack of offense played in the SEC, gives me a small bit of "happy" heading into the final week before the game.

Of even less significance, living in Texas, the associate in the office next to me has always been an Aggie fan. We have avoided talking about the game on purpose. We are both pretty passionate about our respective teams and the wrong taunt by either of us will be purposely misinterpreted and screaming will ensue. It has been an uneasy past coupla' weeks. I really hope I don't have to hear any **** when I get back to work following the game. Good thing is we both hate Texas and laugh at the fact Orange clad *******s have invaded our city for the Alamo Bowl.

[Widescreen]

However, their defense is ranked about 20 spots behind ours...statistically. This fact, coupled with the lack of offense played in the SEC, gives me a small bit of "happy" heading into the final week before the game.

People don't seem to be discussing this fact. Lots of people bagging on our defense for giving up some plays against good offenses but aTm's defense is worse than ours against mediocre offenses.

[Soonerwake]

People don't seem to be discussing this fact. Lots of people bagging on our defense for giving up some plays against good offenses but aTm's defense is worse than ours against mediocre offenses.

Agree. We gave up 24.2 a game while playing 4 of the top 10 offenses, the aggots played 1 top 10 offense and gave up 22.5. Just because they are in the SEC does not mean they are some NFL defense and we have a bunch of losers. Just listening to these A&M people makes me think we won't score a point and our defense is crap.

[fadada1]

this year was like '99 - putting players into spots they weren't designed to play. thankfully, the offense already had players designed to play this style... and why we won 10 games. i predict dramatic improvements on defense for next year and into the future.

[OkieThunderLion]

OU's defense is better than A&M's. Though their offense is better. Should be a good game.

[Soonerwake]

In fact, their pass D is ranked in the bottom 50 while only playing 1 top 10 pass offense. Our pass D ranked around 25 while playing 4 of the top 7 pass offenses.

Now, is our D where it needs to be? Not even close, but I have faith that our coaches will get it back.

[8timechamps]

OU's defense is better than A&M's. Though their offense is better. Should be a good game.

How do you figure? I think OU's offense is better, and OU's defense is slightly better. I know nothing about their special teams, but 2 out of 3 in my book.

[OkieThunderLion]

How do you figure? I think OU's offense is better.

They have better numbers against better defenses.

[8timechamps]

They have better numbers against better defenses.

Statistically, you're right (which I didn't realize until you mentioned it). Also, good point about better defenses, but I don't know how to compare what A&M would've done in the Big XII versus what OU would've done in the SEC.

Outside of the first quarter of the Alabama game, I didn't see A&M light up the really good defenses in the SEC, so I'm not 100% sold on their greatness. However, you have convinced me that their offense is better than I thought at first glance.

[LRoss]

If the rankings are based on ypg or ppg, I don't think they're very good indicators.

OUr offense being up-tempo and using very little clock effectively extends the game in terms of number of plays and possessions.

Of course OU isn't the only team that does that, and of course I agree that the D isn't where most of us wish it could be, but ypg or ppg defensive stats are inherently skewed in favor of teams with running, ball-control oriented offenses.

[MojoRisen]

We should be used to their uptemp offense from practicing against ours all season. This should be a tough game - looking forward to it. Top 10 finish would be nice and a primetime Victory for finishing up recruiting!

[bluedogok]

Statistics are fools gold....If the vaunted SEC defenses had to play Big 12 offenses every week of the conference season, their defenses would not be as highly ranked. I do think they have better talent overall and get that talent based off reputation but face it, most SEC offenses (outside of A&M) are decent to mediocre to bad. The media and some poster point to head-to-head games but since when does a top SEC team schedule a comparable level out-of-conference team on a one week turnaround, they don't. Most of the big time out-of-conference match ups are either season openers (like LSU-Oregon, Alabama-Michigan) or bowl games where they have a big window to devise and implement a defensive scheme. When they had an in-season turnaround, they struggled against A&M after A&M got rolling, even the A&M loses were very close games.

That being said I want improvement in the defense, but as Switzer stated, the defensive studs like Gerald McCoy aren't there right now and hopefully Mike can improve on that.

[OkieThunderLion]

Statistics are fools gold....If the vaunted SEC defenses had to play Big 12 offenses every week of the conference season, their defenses would not be as highly ranked.
This is the site for you...

http://www.adjustedstats.com/ratings-stats/cfbdeftotaladj.php

Adjusted to neutralize level of competition.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

This is the site for you...

http://www.adjustedstats.com/ratings-stats/cfbdeftotaladj.php

Adjusted to neutralize level of competition.

Regardless of the adjustment, he's right. Statistics can't take into account overloads, thus they can hide the root cause of our problems. We've been bad against the run for a 1/2 decade, but BV overloaded his scheme to commit more players than normal to stop the run. This resulted in us "looking" good against the run and horrid against the pass. Mike came in and has played more straight up man to man which boils it down and shows you an accurate picture of your talent level. The result is that the same guys in an un-overloaded scheme are giving up almost 4.5 yards per carry instead of 3 or less.

If you watched the Baylor/UCLA game, that Baylor #6 LB/S hybrid Dixon would have started for us at OLB and it wouldn't have been close.