Sports Reference has us at #57 by points allowed per game at 20. Be nice to improve on that but heading into the teeth of our schedule I doubt thats a possibility. My optimistic thoughts of Arnett's return tsking us to top fifty were ill advised
Defensive rankings so far
- Thread starter Howiefeltersnstch
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Take away the garbage scores we allowed while in run out the clock mode and it'd be top 50. I think 50 is probably about where we'll end up. Arnett is a huge improvement but our DL is thin and suspect. Secondary actually looks good but no one is guarding for 10 seconds with no QB pressure.
Our offense scoring in 2 minute drives doesnt help the D either. Feels like a Mike Leach team. Not that I'm complaining about the O.
Our offense scoring in 2 minute drives doesnt help the D either. Feels like a Mike Leach team. Not that I'm complaining about the O.
Some of that is coming from how much we've been up in the games. 7 of the 60 points so far were from the Taylor end zone fumble. 10 were in the second half against ULM after we were up 48-3. SC touchdown in the first half was short yardage turnover, and we were in prevent/wasting time mode for the 4th quarter points.
I still would like to see more pressure, and I'm not saying we're happy giving up all those points to SC, but some of these points are situational
I still would like to see more pressure, and I'm not saying we're happy giving up all those points to SC, but some of these points are situational
Definitely improved. If we could develop a top notch pass rush it would be top 50 easily. And they have been put in some bad situations like early against SC plus playing prevent sucks also
Also have to factor in that many teams ranked ahead of us in defense have not played any good competition so far
For example Iowa the #1 defense has played Northern Illinois, Iowa State, and Northern Iowa
For example Iowa the #1 defense has played Northern Illinois, Iowa State, and Northern Iowa
Do the rankings take into account "garbage time", where the winning team essentially lets the other team score because it doesn't matter? SC's last touchdown was pretty much like that with no serious defensive effort to keep them from scoring.
Exactly. For 2025 full year stats 20 points would have put you between 25 and 35. So no doubt things will change. A lot of those teams ahead of us will be hit with reality soon and fall lower.
When the game is on the line, the defense seems to be playing very well. Just my 2 cents.
I think that the reality with Arnett is that he’s never been an elite DC because he just doesn’t bring in the talent as a recruiter that’s needed to be elite. Hell, a big part of his reputation comes from making something out of a defense that we all thought was going to be pretty bad years ago.
That said, he has a knack for getting guys to compete, and that’s all I was looking for this year. A defense that doesn’t lose games for you, and we’re at least that I think. Possibly a notch or two better
That said, he has a knack for getting guys to compete, and that’s all I was looking for this year. A defense that doesn’t lose games for you, and we’re at least that I think. Possibly a notch or two better
This is my optimistic outlook as well. When we were making our comeback against SC, the defense nutted up and were a big part of making the comeback possible.
I don't need a raking to tell me we are way better on that side of the ball than last year.
Stolen and modified from STM, If you could guaranteed we would give up 20 points every game, would you take that guarantee now knowing what we could do offensively?
Well, ULL never did anything until they were down 40+.
Minnesota had a defensive TD that adds 2.3 ppg by itself.
USC had an interception on our first drive that set up a TD or FG, and a few other short fields created by early struggles on offense.
Overall, not sure that scoring defense is really a stat that’s worth a damn after 3 weeks, especially if its a middling number like we have. If it was really good or really awful, maybe you could draw more conclusions from it.
In general, we’ve played pretty well defensively for the vast majority of the first 3 games, with a few first half drives against SC being the only exception (some due to a single dumb play here or there).
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