SEC Defense vs. Big 12 Offense
We’re really going to do this again this year. Big 12 fans are going to try to perpetrate the fraud that all of their offenses are so stellar that it just makes their defenses look bad…thus the poor rankings of their defenses. And by said “reason,” they’ve deluded themselves into thinking that SEC defenses are so highly ranked each year is because the conference’s offenses are so miserable the defenses look great by comparison.
Now to get to this spot, we have to ignore virtually every expert in the universe. Sagarin has said the SEC is the number one most powerful conference for four years and still does today (Big 12 is currently fifth). Teamrankings, one of the leading bettor tools on the web, has said the SEC is the number one conference for four years now and still does today (Big 12 is currently fifth). And we’ll ignore the NCAA official stats that say that, on average, the SEC has far more powerful defenses than the Big 12.
So we’ll ignore the facts and the experts and instead discuss the head-to-head games that the conferences have played. But let me preface this by saying that I’m a firm believer that last year’s games don’t mean much, but several Texas fans continually refer to the Texas-Arkansas game as some proof of their theory, so I will look at the results of all the Big 12-SEC matchups since last year.
Result (Game detail below): In five games, SEC defenses played Big 12 offenses with higher conference ranks. In five of five games, the SEC defense held the Big 12 offense to below their average season output in yardage (differentials were from just a few yards to well over 100). In 3 of 5 games, the SEC won. In the remaining two, two Big 12 teams that finished the seasons a combined 21-4 beat SEC teams that finished the seasons 12-12.
I may be wrong, but I think that’s all I’ve got. Stats, power rankings and game results. I’m sure that won’t be convincing to the Big 12 fans, but that may be all I can put together.
Game Detail
September 27, 2008. Arkansas (the SEC’s 10th ranked pass defense and last ranked total defense) travels to Texas. The game is a debacle. Arkansas turns the ball over 3 times and gets demolished by the Longhorns. But Texas’s offense that averaged 475 yards for the season only gained 421. Minor victory when you get beat by 35. But the SEC’s last ranked defense didn’t exactly get rolled over by the mighty Longhorns’ offense as much as the Razorback offense couldn’t hang on to the football.
January 2, 2009. Ole Miss plays Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl. This looks like it could be a slaughter. The Big 12′s number one pass offense against the SEC’s last ranked pass defense. And scoring for Ole Miss would have to be a problem against the Big 12′s third ranked pass defense and fifth ranked total defense. Not so much. Mississippi went for 515 yards of offense (over 100 yards more than their season average) and beat the mighty Red Raiders 47-34. Tech was held to just over 60 yards short of their season average.
January 8, 2009. BCS National Championship Game, Florida vs. Oklahoma. Each conference’s number one offense vs. the other’s number three defense. The Oklahoma offense that spent the season rolling through most of the Big 12, gaining 562 yards per game and scoring 54 points per game was held to 363 yards. Florida gained slightly more than their season average (480 vs. 442) and won 24-14.
September 5, 2009. Georgia at Oklahoma State. Georgia is a lower middle of the road SEC team. #7 Defense & #8 Offense would finish the season with a 7-5 record. Oklahoma State has the Big 12′s #7 offense and #4 Defense and would finish the season 9-3. Georgia played poorly on offense and committed three turnovers, losing the game 24-10. Yet Georgia’s lowly SEC defense held OSU to 69 yards less than their season average for offensive output (307 vs. 376).
October 3, 2009. Arkansas hosts Texas A&M. Arkansas is the SEC’s last ranked pass defense and last ranked total defense. The Aggies ended the season as the number one offense in the Big 12. The game got ugly early with the Razorbacks leader 30-10 at the half. Thus A&M spent the entire second half throwing on the last ranked SEC defense and still was held to just below their season average. This is the same A&M team that put up 39 points and 542 yards on the vaunted Longhorn’s defense.
Dec 03, 2009
UT-Ark: Texas only gained 421 yards…ok well, first off 421 yards is a heck of a lot of yards. Secondly, it was 45-3 after three quarters and Colt McCoy didn't play in the fourth quarter because Mack Brown doesn't run up the score on people. You honestly believe Texas wouldn't have cracked 500 if they were really trying?
Texas Tech-Ole Miss: I fail to see why anyone would thump their chest for allowing 469 yards in game regardless of how many yards under the opponents season average it is. It's still a lot of yards.
Florida-OU: Your best argument. Nobody can deny that Florida did an amazing job shutting down the OU offense. However, you cite Florida gaining 480 yards in that game. That's an incredible number undoubtedly, but Oklahoma's defense gave up 400+ yards against five Big 12 teams, let's not go saying gaining 480 yards against that Defense was something that was out of the blue.
Oklahoma State-Georgia: Georgia played a good defensive game for the most part, but why are we jumping to conclusions based on the first game of the season? Is it not out of the question to think that a team isn't in midseason form in week one?
Texas A&M-Arkansas: You said this: "Thus A&M spent the entire second half throwing on the last ranked SEC defense and still was held to just below their season average." Held just below their season average…for a team that averaged 465 yards per game. And oh by the way, from your assessment you make it sound like Texas A&M compiled a ton of yardage in the second half, but they gained a little more than half of their yards in the second half of that game.
You made five arguments in this post, three of them were completely asinine and one was an ok argument for a game the SEC team lost. You made one legitimate argument in this post. One out of five ain't bad.
Dec 03, 2009
The argument I've been received is that Big 12 Defenses are ranked low because the offenses are so amazing that it would make any defense look bad. Numerous comments have also said that SEC defenses aren't any good, but look good because SEC offenses are so bad. Yet in 5 of 5 games a lower (conference) ranked SEC defense held a higher (conference) ranked Big 12 offense to fewer yards than their season averages. Poor offenses and poor defenses beat "amazing" Big 12 offenses and defenses when similarly ranked teams met. This year the score was 47-19 and your best offense met our WORST defense. The two times the Big 12 won was when one of your top teams met one of our middle teams. But MY argument is asinine. :right:
As for Mack not running up scores or stats. Don't make me laugh. Kansas game. Texas up 37-13…McCoy still in throwing the ball with 12:00 left in the game. Colorado game. Texas up 31-14 with 8:00 to play. Colt in the game and still throwing – taken out for the final possession (1:42 left in the game). Missouri – Texas up 35-7 at half. McCoy in until 12:00 of the fourth throwing the ball. Shall I go further?
Go try to sell that stuff at Hook 'em Horns or wherever else you came from.
Dec 03, 2009
37-13 with 12 minutes left, and 31-14 with 8 minutest left is a bit different than 45-3 at the start of the 4th quarter.
Also to compare the Aggy/Texas game to the Aggy/Arkansas game is ridiculous. You have to be smart enough to know that stats/records don't really matter in huge rivalry games. By that logic Mark Ingram ran for 35 yards (or whatever) vs Auburn, so he must suck now.
Stop spinning everything to make Florida look good. Nobody is saying they're a bad team. And I haven't heard a tenth of the media coverage about the Big 12's big time offenses this year, as I did last year. You're just grasping at straws.
If I felt like wasting money I could make a blog to perpetually suck Colt McCoys dick and spend my entire life writing articles that make the Big 12/Texas/Colt McCoy look better than everybody else in the country too.
Dec 03, 2009
First logic problem….overlapping years. You can't have that comparison.
Second logic problem….small sample size. You would need to have every Big 12 team play every SEC team in order to get some valid results.
Third logic problem….you assume every game plan is the same week, week out for every opponent. Hardly the case.
Apples and Oranges. Love the effort, but the SEC arrogance is showing.
Dec 03, 2009
Look up – answered all of these. Large sample size is the NCAA rankings across all teams/conferences/games. Your brethren claimed those weren't fair because it's not head to head games and ALL the Big 12 offenses are so amazing that it skews the numbers. Don't look so "amazing" against the average SEC defense. And, as I said (TWICE now), included last year because 1) Texas-Arky has been used in about 20 comments/e-mails and 2) we heard this same ridiculous argument about last years' stellar offenses.
Dec 03, 2009
How did Florida do vs Ole Miss last year?
Scoreboard.
Dec 03, 2009
And Ole Miss pantsed the team that beat Texas. What's your point?
Dec 03, 2009
So then its settled…Ole Miss was the best team in the country last year? They beat Florida who beat Oklahoma and Alabama, and they beat Texas Tech who beat Texas. Damn that Ole Miss team was a team for the ages!
Dec 03, 2009
I didn't know Bill O'Reilly was a Tim Tebow fan.
Who won the Unitas Award today? Why isn't there an article about that? I'm sure you're preparing one about why Tebow should've won.
Dec 03, 2009
Nope – actually wrote a congratulations article the second I saw it and said it was well deserved. It's the Golden Arm trophy. I don't refute that he's had a fantastic year passing the ball. Tons of yards through the air. Tebow is the most outstanding player in college football. Perfect fallback award for McCoy.
I didn't publish it because it would attract more of the same comments from Texas fans. I haven't hear an original thought in days. Big 12 is better. Stats don't mean anything. You skew by looking at NCAA stats other than total yards. Unit rankings don't mean anything. Oh and – what about that game 22 games ago where you guys fumbled five times and lost by a point. :thumbsup:
Dec 03, 2009
How can you take the first game of the season Georgia/Okie Lite and then say they held them below their season average. It was the first game of the season. LOL They should've never given you the internet.
Dec 03, 2009
They have a season average, right? You're one of those people that says – when we played such and such, they were in the Top 10 – aren't you? Even if that team lost five over the season and is out of the rankings? They were the same team then. If they had an anomalous game and earned 1000 yards one game, but averaged 300 for the season – that's the team they were. It's the reason the NCAA keeps rankings and they are utilized in every game analysis since the history of statistics. If not, why even keep records or anything?
Dec 03, 2009
You're a genius. Does last year matter or not?
Trophy case. Beat your conference's champ for the crystal.
Dec 03, 2009
I never said last year didn't matter. And our conference's champ was a fluke. I heard Tebow begged the BCS to put Oklahoma over Texas because he was scared to play them last year. No such luck this year.
Dec 03, 2009
No Michael, I have never said anything negative about Tim Tebow. I think he's a great player, I kind of feel bad for him because the media rubs him in everyones face so unless you're a Florida fan you're bound to get tired of it. I can say unequivocally that if it was Colt McCoy they were doing that with, Texas fans would eat it up. Though I must admit some of Tebow's antics seem a little phony, but maybe I am a bit biased.
My argument with all the "stats" that you post is that you spin it to make the SEC/Florida/Tebow look better. SEC has higher ranked pass defenses so Tebow's overall stats, while lower than Colt's must mean he's better since he played better defenses. You fail to mention that the Big 12 has far superior pass offenses than the SEC so it stands to reason that the Big 12 will have lower-ranked pass defenses.
Another thing that you failed to mention in your Tebow vs McCoy "analysis" is that 10 of Tebow's 17 TD passes came against his OOC foes: Charleston Southern, Troy, FAU and some other cupcake. Against those super tough SEC defenses, Tebow had 7 passing and 8 rushing TDs. Not exactly superstar numbers.
So, in summation Michael, I don't have a problem with admitting Tebow is a great player. I have a problem with your biased reporting and articles. And for christ's sake son…YOU WERE BORN IN TEXAS!
Dec 03, 2009
Yeah they were the same TEAM, but as it was said before, you can't really expect a team to be in mid-season form in their first game, especially when it's a game against a fairly respectable opponent. Not a team you're favored to beat by 72 points.
Dec 03, 2009
Did you ever watch a Georgia game and see just how bad that defense was? They shut OSU down for much of that game.
Dec 03, 2009
I am currently in the process of writing the honest appraisal of Tebow I think you guys are looking for. Sick as a dog with a cold, so it's taking some time. The switching between Excel and Firefox is much slower today than it's been in the past.
How do you know I was born in Texas?
Dec 03, 2009
Forget it – I know. Totally forgot about those links.
Like I said – a little slow on the uptake today.
Dec 03, 2009
I actually like the Longhorns and what they stand for and I like McCoy. And I think the worst thing for Tebow has been the neverending stream of nauseating stories about him. I keep telling my girl – we love him, but if he played for FSU or Bama or Texas (or whoever), we'd be sick of him too. But he hasn't asked for it and he's handled it all with grace. Gator Nation can't help but love him. Put a lot of my last couple of weeks into this and I've never even seen the kid from farther than 100 yards. And, contrary to many commenters belief, I'm far less of a nerd than I seem and have a life.
I wish the Longhorns luck this weekend (don't think you're going to need it). Hope we get a chance to play this out in LA.
Dec 03, 2009
Uh….have you looked at some of the past Johnny Unitas winners? Golden Arm maybe, but it's for the best college QB of the year:
Tommie Frazier
Charlie Ward
Tony Rice
Rodney Peete
Those guys were the best QB's and players of the year. They didn't throw for ridiculous passing yards. So how do you defend that?
Dec 03, 2009
I didn't choose the award or the voters. Is there any consistency to any of these voters or even their votes year-to-year? If Gerhart wins the Heisman, we're both gonna shrug and say "WTF were they thinking"?