Oregon (2010-2014) Counters the Notion That Going Up Tempo Prevents Good Defense

tl;dr Oregon's defensive greatness is obscured by all the garbage yards and points they've allowed as well as the fact that they play in a conference that's known for some of the country's best offenses.

Oregon gives up more yards and points than the best of the SEC, but that's largely due to two factors.

First, the PAC 12 is geared towards offense; thus Oregon has faced plenty of teams that have no trouble putting up yards or scoring quickly. Contrarily, defense and rushing attacks have been the SEC's highlights.

Second, Oregon is one of those teams that goes up big on most of their opponents, which forces their opposition into passing situations. Teams that are trailing by a large margin will have more passing attempts and get more yards through the air. Additionally, teams typically put in their backups or "let up" after going up several touchdowns.

We sometimes talk about inflated stats. How about the opposite?

One more thing, many posters like to stress yards when making arguments about defenses, but points wins games. A defense that gives up yards but generates many turnovers and limits scoring is not bad.

Oregon's Unadjusted Scoring Defense
CFB Stats
2014: 22.5
2013: 20.5
2012: 21.6
2011: 24.6
2010: 18.7

A team that typically averages 6-7 touchdowns per game in scoring can afford to average giving up 2-3 touchdowns per game.