re: Best SEC Defenses/Offenses of last 5 years

quote:

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Call me a homer, but I maintain that the 2011 LSU defense was better. Statistically their numbers were not significantly different with Bama having a slight edge in a few categories.

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While I think the 2011 LSU defense was a great one (and in my opinion, 2nd only to Bama that year), I think the numbers were a bit more significantly different than you do...and I think they had an edge in more than just a few categories:

Per the NCAA 2011 FBS Stats Website:

Rushing Defense
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Bama #1 2.43 ypc, 72.15 ypg
LSU #4 2.74 ypc, 90.07 ypg

Passing Defense
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Bama #1 49.1 comp %, 4.34 ypa, 111.46 ypg
LSU #8 52.4 comp %, 5.49 ypa, 171.43 ypg

Total Defense
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Bama #1 3.32 ypp, 183.62 ypg
LSU #2 4.08 ypp, 261.5 ypg

Scoring Defense
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Bama #1 8.15 ppg
LSU #2 11.29 ppg

First Downs Allowed
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Bama #1 10.08 fdpg
LSU #3 15.14 fdpg

3rd Down Defensive Conversion Efficiency
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Bama #1 24.46%
LSU #19 33.97%

Red Zone Defensive Efficiency
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Bama #1 0.59
LSU #100 0.88

LSU did lead Bama in Turnovers Gained (#16 to #77) and Tackles for Loss (#11 to #16)...

That being said, statistics never tell the whole story...

quote:

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The non-common opponents that LSU faced had much higher ranked offenses

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Agree with you here as y'all played both Oregon and West Virginia that year...but, from a statistical standpoint, I don't think it skewed the numbers so much that LSU's defense would've overtaken Bama's that particular year...