OSU Defense vs.BCS conference teams. (not including Big 10)

Submitted by Eric on

Ohio St. Defense vs. BCS Teams outside of the Big 10, dating back to 2006.

 

Texas   2006                 326 YDS           UT started redshirt frosh Colt McCoy

FLA.     2006                 370 YDS          

WASH. 2007                 346 YDS           Washington was 4-8

LSU      2007                 353 YDS

USC     2008                 348 YDS

Texas   2008                 468 YDS

USC     2009                 313 YDS           USC started a true freshman QB

 

AVG.                            360.5 YDS A GAME

 

Ohio State won 2 of those games  Texas in ’06 and the 4-8 Washington team from ’07. OSU is 2-5 vs. their last 7 BCS conference opponents from outside the Big 10.  They are giving up an average of 360.5 yds and over 25 pts a game. 

EDIT:  I also found it interesting that, for a team with such a great rush defense, OSU did not have a single player in the top 70 in sacks, tackles or tackles for loss. 

What do you guys think? Is this due to bad offenses?  OSU keeping the defense off the field?


OSU Defense

Comments

Hemlock Philosopher

December 29th, 2009 at 2:57 PM ^

How about beefing this bad boy up with some Oregon stats and OSU offensive stats versus BCS teams (I'd also throw Boise and Utah in there, since they are pretty decent too). Here's a start: Oregon has played Oklahoma, Boise, Purdue and us twice and Utah, South Florida and Okie State once over the past five years. They went 1-1, 0-2, 2-0, 2-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, respectively. Over all BCS or top contender record: 8-3, 4-0 against the Big Ten.

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jmblue

December 29th, 2009 at 3:09 PM ^

I guess your point is that their D didn't played well in those games, but 25 points and 360 yards isn't that much in this era. The bigger problem is that their offense has stunk against these teams.

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Eric

December 29th, 2009 at 4:08 PM ^

My point is, OSU's defense isn't all it's cracked up to be. They do well against the mediocre Big 10 offenses and not so much against other BCS opponents. Also, a 360 yard average would put them somewhere around #57 in the country in total defense as opposed to the top 10, where they have consistently been over the past few years. Also, giving up 25 points a game would put them somewhere around #60 in the nation.

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funkywolve

December 29th, 2009 at 4:37 PM ^

your comparison isn't really that valid. OSU's sample is taken almost exclusively against teams that finished in the Top 25 at the end of the year (Washington being the exception), if not Top 10, with 2 of the teams being National Champions. Their defense against Top 25 non-conference opponents might rank #57 in total defense and #60 in scoring, but the other 118 teams in the rankings played a regular schedule (which I'm pretty sure means that 90% of their games weren't against teams that finished the year in the Top 25). While one would love to have a defense that dominates Top 25 teams, over the course of a season a great defense is probably going to have the most problems against the better teams. They'll pound the weak teams to really help their stats and not fare as well against the better teams. Is the OSU defense the measuring stick of D1 football? Probably not. Part of it is the big ten has been down for a while, but OSU's defense is darn good. Good enough for them to win something like 5 straight big ten titles. I can only hope that UM's defense can get to a level like OSU where they are putting one of the big ten's best defensive's on the field year in and year out.

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Eric

December 29th, 2009 at 9:27 PM ^

So what you're saying is, exactly what I said. You can't count on the defensive rankings to mean anything in a bowl game vs. a top 25 team. I think the bigger point is that OSU is winning the Big 10 and consistently losing to the winners and 2nd place teams in other conferences. The Big Ten is just bad right now. People were pounding their chest about putting 7 teams in bowl games last year. 1-6 is how the Big Ten came out of that. it's a bad conference. My whole point is that OSU is the big fish in a ,currently, very small pond. OSU couldn't beat the 5th place team from the Pac 10 at home, yet I hear the Big 10 apologists talking about how they'll go to Pasadena and beat the Pac 10 champion. Explain this to me. Oregon will shred that "darn good" defense. I just hope that OSU can keep from embarrassing the conference in another BCS game.

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McFate

January 1st, 2010 at 9:05 PM ^

What I thought he said was that it's kind of goofy to take average stats (against top-ten teams) -- and then try to insert it into an NCAA ranking of teams (that aren't playing almost exclusively top ten teams). I don't think it's fair to spin that criticism of your work into saying the "stats are not meaningful" -- it's not that they have no meaning, it's that you're really kind of abusing them for your comparison.
OSU couldn't beat the 5th place team from the Pac 10 at home, yet I hear the Big 10 apologists talking about how they'll go to Pasadena and beat the Pac 10 champion. Explain this to me. Oregon will shred that "darn good" defense.
Doesn't seem like it worked out that way. Actually, I recall several folks here (in comments on blog posts) saying that Ohio State's performance against Oregon was going to be a preview of how Ohio State would be embarrassed by Michigan's offense once RR go the program into gear. Hopefully that's not the case. And even granting narrowing the scope to Ohio State's performances against only non-Big-Ten BCS opponents, I am not sure it's all that damning to the Ohio State defense specifically. They held Texas (last year) and Southern Cal (this year) to well below their average point output. I think Ohio State's weakness in those games has been more offense than defense.

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