Apologize for the long rant up front.

Although we have had a great deal of success in the W-L column under Meyer, the dirty little secret is that we have rarely been a dominant defense under his leadership.

Although OSU under Tressel would have an occasional meltdown it was almost always to a high quality team/offense, Think UF in 2006, LSU in 2007, USC in 2008 as the worst examples.

But very rarely did we see sustained bad defensive performances and/or those types of games against middling conference foes.

in 2010 Heacock and company (including our currently maligned CB coach Taver Johnson) gave up only 262 yards per game and over 20 points only 3 times all year. 24 to a 12th ranked Miami, 31 to a 18th ranked Wisky on the road and 26 to 8th ranked Arkansas in the bowl.

They gave up 186 points the entire year or 14 a game while playing 4 ranked teams, 2 of them on the road and another in a bowl. They held 8 teams to 14 or less that year.

They only had 1 game where they allowed over 390 yards in a game (404 to Arky in the bowl game)

Compare that to now. We have allowed a team to gain at least 390+ yards in a single game 15 of the last 30 games vs Big 5 teams.

We have allowed over 20 points in a game 45 times in Urban's 86 games here, that's 52.3% of games!!!

Tressel's teams gave up 21 or more only 32 times in 128 games or just 25%

Tressel et al gave up 30 or more only 12 times or just 9.4% vs Meyer giving up 30+ 17 times in just 86 games or 19.8%

Tressel gave up over 390 yards only 14 times after his first year ie his last 116 games or just 12%, and over 500 just once in a win against Minny in 2005

Meyer's defenses have allowed over 390+ 15 times just since the bowl win against ND ie only 36 games, or 42% of the time and over 500 twice in that time frame.

In his entire time at OSU Meyer has allowed 390+ a total of 35 times in 86 games or 41% of the time and over 500 6 times and over 600 once

No matter how you cut it his defense have not been elite for the most part. Some individually great players and good enough to win a lot of games, as long as the offense is dynamic.

I know all about different times etc, but even when measured against is peers Meyer's defense's have rarely reached the levels that Tressel, Heacock, et al achieved last decade.

Tressel never finished outside the top 20 in Scoring D and was in the top 6, 7 of his 10 years. Meyer has been in the top 6 in scoring D only twice in 7 years and outside the top 20 3 times. Tressel's average rank was 8th across the 10 years, Meyers is 21st

In terms of Total D, Tressel's worst rank was 33rd his first year and he finished in the top 15 7 times in 10 years. Meyer's D has finished in the top 15 only 3 times in 7.

Tressel's average rank was 14th, Meyer's has been 28th

Even with the bad running game, if we had a Tressel level D we would have won that game Saturday night.