We've had several on this page complain about this defense. We've heard the "nothing has improved", "this is the same defense as last year" comments, but I still think those people are in the minority.
I've been checking in weekly on our Total Defense ranking and we have gradually improved as follows:
Week 1: #28
Week 2: #23
Week 3: #21
We are only going to keep rising in this ranking as the pretenders start to fall out of their top ranking positions as the season goes on and they don’t do as well when it’s not FCS competition.
Measuring negative plays, tackles for loss, sacks with pace of play factored in
Most Aggressive/Disruptive defenses through Week 3
1) Ohio St
2) Oklahoma
3) Washington St
4) Okla St
5) Clemson
6) USC
7) Virginia Tech
8) Wisconsin
9) Arkansas
10) KSU
11) Ole Miss
12) Texas Tech
— Pick Six Previews (@PickSixPreviews) September 19, 2022
I also saw this gem from Pick Six Previews. It really speaks to Jim Knowles saying he wants an aggressive and swarming defense, and this will only get better once we have Michael Hall (baby Aaron Donald) back.
Cheers to this new defense, our cornerbacks getting better, and hopefully celebrating a top 10-15 defense by season's end!
