In the interest of disclosure, like virtually all of us, I love what Don Brown has done, and continues to do. Very impressive once again that we have risen to the top of the chart with respect to total defense (yards given up).
I do find it interesting, however, that our red zone D is ranked 101st and that our 3rd down conversion rate is just a respectable 38th. When I compared that to Alabama, who is only 23rd in total defense, I see that they rank 5th in red zone defense and 7th in third down conversions. Those are no doubt two of the reasons they are ahead of us in scoring defense, perhaps the most important defensive stat in my mind (harken back to our 1997 defense which I am pretty sure ranked no. 1 in this category).
Got me thinking about why we are not ranked higher in these other categories, especially red zone defense, as you might think that with our high tackles for loss ranking, we would be pushing some teams out of the red zone enough to not be ranked 101st. Seems to me this may be a result of our defensive penalties. They also have clearly hurt us with some critical third and long situations where we have let teams off the hook when they were in trouble. We will need to be better in particular with stopping third down conversions to be successful against our top opponents, especially on the road in East Lansing and Columbus.
I do find it interesting, however, that our red zone D is ranked 101st and that our 3rd down conversion rate is just a respectable 38th. When I compared that to Alabama, who is only 23rd in total defense, I see that they rank 5th in red zone defense and 7th in third down conversions. Those are no doubt two of the reasons they are ahead of us in scoring defense, perhaps the most important defensive stat in my mind (harken back to our 1997 defense which I am pretty sure ranked no. 1 in this category).
Got me thinking about why we are not ranked higher in these other categories, especially red zone defense, as you might think that with our high tackles for loss ranking, we would be pushing some teams out of the red zone enough to not be ranked 101st. Seems to me this may be a result of our defensive penalties. They also have clearly hurt us with some critical third and long situations where we have let teams off the hook when they were in trouble. We will need to be better in particular with stopping third down conversions to be successful against our top opponents, especially on the road in East Lansing and Columbus.
