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L.C.
General User
Member Since: 8/31/2005
Location: United States
Post Count: 10,470
Status: Offline
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| Evaluating Ohio Defenses |
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Posted: 12/22/2019 6:32:56 PM |
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The easiest way to compare defenses is to look at total points and yards given up, so let's start there. MAC stats go back to 2005:
2005 30.5 pts, 452.5 yards
2006 18.1 pts, 302.9 yards
2007 29.9 pts, 407.5 yards
2008 27.2 pts, 348.6 yards
2009 21.3 pts, 348.5 yards
2010 23.8 pts, 353.4 yards
2011 22.1 pts, 361.4 yards
2012 24.8 pts, 388.8 yards
2013 27.5 pts, 405.8 yards
2014 24.8 pts, 394.3 yards
2015 25.3 pts, 377.7 yards
2016 22.6 pts, 360.2 yards
2017 24.2 pts, 371.6 yards
2018 24.6 pts, 390.9 yards
2019 27.0 pts, 401.5 yards
Looking at these, I can break it into a few eras:
Early years: 2005-8 26.4 pts, 377.9 yards
Peak Defensive years: 2009-12 23.0 pts, 363.0 yards
Cover 4/Burrow years: 2013-18 24.8 pts, 383.4 yards
Cover 4/Collins year: 2019 27.0 pts, 401.5 yards
Another way to look at it is how the defense did at critical points at the ends of games, when the game was on the line. I went through the play by plays, by year, to find games that were close, and looked to see if the defense got critical stops. If the games weren't close, I didn't include them. I found the following, by year:
2005 1-0 Pit win 16-0
2006 3-0 ULL, EMU, Miami
2007 1-3 win over ULL, Losses to Wyoming, Toledo, Arkon
2008 1-2 win over Kent, losses to Wyoming, Temple
2009 4-0 BG, Ball St, Buffalo, NIU
2010 0-1 Loss to Toledo
2011 4-2 wins over Temple, BG, Miami, Utah St, losses to Buffalo, NIU
2012 3-1 wins over Penn St, Marshall, UMass, loss to Miami
2013 0-1 loss to CMU
2014 3-3 wins over NTSU, Akron, Miami, loss to CMU and NIU, Fail against Kent but won anyway
2015 2-2 Wins Marshall, Akron, losses Minnesota, App St
2016 4-3 wins Miami, Kent, Toledo, Akron, losses Tex St, EMU, CMU
2017 1-1 win EMU, Loss to buffalo
2018 1-2 win Kent, loss to UC, NIU
2019 0-5 losses Marshall, NIU, Miami, NIU, Fail against Buffalo, but won anyway
Breaking those out by the same eras:
Early years: 2005-8 6-5
Peak Defensive years: 2009-12 11-4
Cover 4/Burrow years: 11-12
Cover 4/Collins year: 2019 0-5
By either measure, the defense peaked in 2009-12, and the 2013-2018 period is very comparable to the 2005-8 years. This year was a year like no other in terms of the defense winning games that were on the line.
“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” ― Epictetus
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