What's the exact basis for the 1992 Defense not being as great as they were?
Nobody said this, but I'll enter this into the category of "top ten straw men on the Internet."
What was said was - the 1992 defense played in a different time and completely different era and looking back as if they could have held Clemson to 10 points or less last night is preposterous on its face.
The leading passer yardage-wise in 1992 was Houston's Jimmy Klingler who passed for 3,818 yards. You've probably never heard of the guy, and most folks who have are confusing him with his older brother, David (who now has a PhD and is a minister - we attended Dallas Seminary at the same time).
There were nine quarterbacks this year who surpassed that total - including DeShaun Watson. Of course, the immediate comeback is going to be "they play more games now," but Houston played 11 games in 1992 and Texas Tech - whose QB led the nation with over 5,000 yards - only played 12 this year.
Charlie Ward, who was pretty much the DeShaun Watson of his day - a dual threat and in Ward's case he actually won the Heisman - passed for 2647 yards.
And (now everyone brace yourselves) should I point out that neither Shane Mathews NOR (especially?) Gino Torretta was a threat to run the ball if the coverage was blanket? Matthews rushed 195 times for minus 46 yards (these presumably include sack reductions). Gino Torretta rushed 110 times for 32 yards in a four-year career. Bill Oliver made no bones about the fact that our scheme is what won the 1993 Sugar Bowl - because film study showed that Miami ran 14 pass plays for every running play. Thus, we gambled that Miami wasn't even going to try and run on our 'run oriented SEC defense.'
The SEC's leading passer in 1992 was Shane Matthews, with 3,205 yards in 13 games. The SEC's leading passer in 2016 was Austin Allen (Arkansas), with 3,430 yards.....in 13 games. To give you an idea, Matthews played for a four-loss division winner and nearly beat Alabama in the SECCG while Allen lit up our defense for 30 points and threw five interceptions - and the game was never really all that close. Alabama also played Mike White (WKU) and Jake Browning (Washington, ranked 21st in passing yards) and did a great job containing both of them.
Nobody is daring suggest the 1992 defense was not the best of it's time. But the 1961 defense gave up fewer ppg. Does anyone seriously believe they're better than the 1992 defense? Of course not. One former player - I think it was Lee Roy Jordan - said that the early 60s Alabama defense was NOT fast by any means today - but it was the fastest of that time.
The simple truth is that we NEVER in 1992 faced a dual threat even remotely like DeShaun Watson. And let's not forget that the BIGGEST contributor to the success in the 93 Sugar Bowl was the offense holding onto the ball for about 36 minutes.