re: Bama's 2011 Defense. GOAT?

Wasn't 2011 Alabama the first defense to lead college football in every single one of the 5 major defensive stats since Oklahoma in the early 70's?

Points allowed per game
Passing yard allowed per game
Rushing yards allowed per game
Total yards allowed per game
First downs allowed per game

etc.

Basically every single metric you can measure defense on they were #1 and that was the first time that had happened in 40 years.

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2001 Miami would like a word...as would 1995 Nebraska.

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Alabama was statistically better than both. The only stat 2001 Miami comes close to 2011 Alabama on is points per game. Miami allowed 9.4 points per game. Alabama allowed 8.8 points per game.

The 2011 Alabama defense was a statistical anomaly. Yeah, you can talk about the weakness of schedule until the cows come home, but any defense allowing that few of yardage, points, and first downs in this day and age should be considered legendary IMO.

GOAT defense in CFB

2011 BAMA is the best defense Ive ever seen. Our LBs were animals.

2011 LSU was nasty too... the number of NFL draft picks on the field when BAMA played LSU that year was ridiculous.

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2011 BAMA is the best defense Ive ever seen. Our LBs were animals.

2011 LSU was nasty too... we just happened to get the best of them on 1/9.

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the number of NFL draft picks on the field when BAMA played LSU that year was ridiculous.

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Post of the year. Most talent on one field in college football history. And we got to see it twice!

Both defenses where great in 2011, it was a presure to watch. Suppose me watching every second of that Bama defense skews my option some. Since I haven't done the same for every great D over the years, but that Bama 2011 D is the best D I've witness over 30+ yrs of watching CFB. Never thought I'd seen a Bama D as good as Bama's 1992 D, but I did in 2011.....

That 2011 Bama D got real upset when they gave up normal 1st downs, alone scores.....

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I can't disagree with that. I think LSUs 2011 defense was #2 that year and #2 in history.

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No. This GOAT discussion has gotten out of hand. It is way too biased with the recent past and lacks perspective in many ways.

As mentioned, bama's 2011 schedule is simply too weak to call that D the GOAT.

Second, people are just remembering them because it was recent. I already mentioned the first AU team that popped into my head for historically great defense. I googled a few things and even found an article from a year ago that said they may have been the GOAT in the SEC.

Reasons:

That Au defense gave up less than 200 ypg and 7.7 points per game. Both better than Bama in 2011. No running back rushed for 100 yards against AU from 1986-1989. They gave up 57 yards rushing per game. Only 1 team all year scored more than 10 points against that AU defense. That one team was a shitty NC team that AU led by 40 points and was shutting out until the scout team played the second half and allowed NC to become the only team the entire season to get in the endzone more than once against AU.

They led the nation in total and scoring D by a significant margin.

They played the best offense in the country in the Sugar Bowl, FSU. FSU average 400+ yards per game, with 4 500+ yard games. In their 5 games before facing AU they scored 45, 66, 59, 41, and 52 points. Against AU they scored 1 TD and managed to kick two field goals thanks to AU turnovers on their on side of the field in the first half, then were shut out the rest of the game.

Oh, after the earthquake game where LSU did not cross midfield the entire game until the final drive with 3 4th down conversions, that AU D was not scored upon again for an entire month. In fact over the final two months of the season following the LSU game, AU gave up a total of 3 tds and two field goals (6 games).

That is just one example of a great AU D. Like I said, this GOAT discussion is way too biased on the recent past.

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That Au defense gave up less than 200 ypg and 7.7 points per game. Both better than Bama in 2011.

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Going by that logic, the 1966 Alabama team is better than both. They gave up 4 points per game, and had 6 shutouts. Heck, Vince Lombardi himself stated Alabama was the best team in the country.

That said, there are plenty of people who feel that 2011 isn't even the best defense in Alabama history - that title, to some, goes to the 1961 defense. Not only did they only give up 2.3 points per game, but they never gave up more than a single score in any game. A defense led by the great Lee Roy Jordan.

1966 is too far back really. The late 80's isn't as you had teams averaging 30 and 40 points a game. Hell, some teams averaged 50+ a game by the late 80's.

At the end of 1988, AU played Florida, UGA, Bama, and FSU who were averaging 30, 32, 28 and 41 points coming into the AU game respectively. 3 of the 4 were ranked. That is an average of 33 points per game of those 4 teams coming into the AU game yet they scored a combined average of 8 vs AU, with none getting into the endzone more than once.

And I backed it up too lil feller.

Maybe if you knew more about college football you would understand the point better.