OK, he stopped Manziel. Sometimes - for whatever reason - a particular DC knows exactly what to do to stop a particular offense. I remember when Joe Lee Dunn's name was mentioned every single SEC broadcast.
But he was worse against other particular foes, too. In 2013, he stopped Manziel but then his D gave up 38 to us and 44 to UGA.
One can, of course, argue our 2011 schedule was on the weak side. That much is true. But one would be hard-pressed to say that makes a substantial difference, too. In 2011, the SEC was 6-3 in bowl games and one of those losses was inevitable due to it being two SEC teams playing for the title. The Big 12 was essentially the same at 6-2.
But then comes the inconvenient truth that Arkansas - who lost to both Alabama and LSU by 24 points - pretty much manhandled a Kansas St team that was seven points less than the Big 12 champ and was the 2nd best team in the league. Our 3rd best team blistered their second best team. Wisky and Michigan St may as well have been co-champions, too, since the two teams were 1-1, the differences were six and three points but Wisky won the conference title game so they went to the Rose Bowl.
Michigan St needed overtime to beat a team that Boise St manhandled, USCe beat, and LSU beat by 32 despite only playing about 1/2 of the game.
LSU thumped an Oregon team that Auburn's mediocre defense (for the most part the same team) had beaten in January and thumped WVA, the Big East co-champion who hung 70 on Clemson in the bowl game.
maybe cfb WAS weak in 2011......but that team drilled all but one team put in front of them, too.
2014, I concur.
But to my simple mind CONTEXT is everything. If you go look at team stats, our defense in virtually every game in 2012 and 2013 (save the last two) held teams DOUBLE DIGITS BELOW their average ppg. They not only held them below but by 10 or more points. While I realize ATM got 29 points against us in 2012, that offense averaged 44.5 ppg, meaning we still held them 15 points below their average. Even if we drop their pathetic OOC games, they still averaged 39.3 ppg - and we held them to 29. I'm not arguing this suggests an ELITE defense, but contextually it was still pretty good.
In 2015, only 3 opponents scored more than 17 points against us: Clemson, Ole Miss, and ATM. Our defense was so bad against ATM that it gave up TWO touchdowns and returned THREE pick sixes. The defense scored more touchdowns than they gave up. That sounds pretty good to me. Ole Miss? Well, talk about a freak show. Well, let's look closely at it: Ole Miss was four of 14 on third down conversions and only had 16 first downs. They started their first drive of the game at our 17 and only got three points. They got a touchdown on a drive they started at our 26. They got a touchdown on a drive they started at our 18.
In the second half, they got another touchdown on that insane "nobody with a brain would have thrown this ball" that accounted for 75 yards - a fortuitous bounce was 15% of their yards for the entire game. I just can't really blame that nonsense on the defense. They got another TD of 73 yards on the illegal pass play. So....32% of their total yardage (66 and 73) came on a play that should have been called back and a bounce that couldn't be controlled. That's nearly 1/3 of their yardage for the entire game on TWO PLAYS.
Throw in the fact that the first four turnovers killed us (the last was just cosmetic damage) - I just have a VERY hard time blaming that loss on the DEFENSE. 17 points on three early turnovers and another 13 on an illegal play and a bounce.
Now, Clemson is the best case for 2015 to make that argument, and I don't know if I would go overly far with it. About 80 of Watson's yards and 7 of their points were of the "we're going to let you complete safe passes but use up the clock" variety. So okay, they still got 33 points....for the year they averaged 38.5 (corrected to 38.3 if you drop the title game) and 577 yards (we held them to 550 and as I said, 68 of those were of the "you can have them" variety).
By CONTEXT, we played pretty good on defense but not spectacularly with the 2015 team.
I disagree.
While Ole Miss DID exceed their 40 ppg average (with the aid of turnovers, refs, and bounces), we still held them about 100 yards below their normal yardage output.
Average PPG (vs us)
Wisky 26. 5 (17)
UGA 26.3 (10)
Arky 35.9 (13)
Tenn 35.2 (14)
ATM 27.8 (23)
LSU 32.8 (16)
Auburn 27.5 (13 - speaking of lucky bounces)
MSU 34.4 (6)
Mich St 29.8 (0)
Only TWO TEAMS all year exceeded their ppg output - Ole Miss and Clemson. We held every team not named ATM/Ole Miss/Clemson SUBSTANTIALLY below their ppg output. And then keep in mind that was a horrific schedule to play, so you have to allot for that.
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