dc4azcats wrote:
Sacks go to rushing yards not passing yards as an FYI. And I did take into account the turnovers which turned into 28 points for Assu. And you might want to rethink this: "When their offense was on the field and our defense was out there, they only outscored us by 17 points. If we do that the rest of the season, we win the Pac-12." Maybe I'm missing something but if the other teams offense outscores your D by 17 points and doesn't turn the ball over and give the other team 28 points you will lose the rest of your games.
As for the pick and choose stats? Stay with me on this as you and scummy seem to have some difficulty in understanding this. Assu played Stanford (#10), UW (#12) and Utah (#11) who rank bottom 3 in the conference when it comes to pass offense and total offense and that includes Utah's game vs Oregon this past Saturday. Nationally they rank in the bottom 21 of 128 teams in total offense. Sorry if I wasn't sold on Assu's D like everybody else.
If Wazzu and Arizona don't turn the ball over then I think both will have success moving the ball through the air. Whether that turns into a W or not, time will tell.
I am well aware of how sack yardage is recorded. All I said is those yards are not reflected in the passing yards we gave up, which they aren't. Losing 9 yards per sack is a lot and killed a lot of their drives. Another sign of our defensive improvement is the first four games of the year we averaged 1.5 sacks a game. The last five games we are averaging 4 sacks a game.
When Notre Dame's Offense was on the field they scored 31 points
When ASU's Defensive was on the field they scored 14 points (for a 17 point difference)
When ASU's Offense was on the field they scored 41 points
When Notre Dame's Defense was on the field they scored 0 points (41 point difference)
If you take away the points we scored off of turnovers our offensive scored 27 points. I am not sure how you don't get that. You think your defense (or OSU and WSU defense) will hold ASU's offense to 17 points or less? I think that is going to be pretty tough.
That's exactly what I am talking about picking and choosing your stats. Last time I checked you win the game if you score more points than the opposing team. Nowhere did you put that Stanford, Utah and Washington were the 8th, 9th and 12th scoring offense. Picking and choosing which stats help your argument the most. ASU didn't just hold them below their scoring averages, they held them to their lowest output of the year. Every team in the Pac-12 except Arizona had the opportunity to do what we did and couldn't. Those teams flaws weren't just there for the ASU game, those teams have been that way for the entire year (minus the Miles injury). If you can't see that ASU's defense is improving, than nothing is going to convince you.
I don't have any doubt that UA and WSU can move the ball on offense, but once again the point of the game is scoring points. UA and WSU are 10th and 11th in red zone offense while and ASU is #2 in red zone defense. On the flip side ASU is #2 in red zone offense while WSU and UA are 8th and 12th in red zone defense. Those two teams can run up and down the field but if they have to settle for field goals instead of touchdowns, then they are going to lose the game.
BTW I think ASU has the 4th best defense in the conference (4th in scoring, 3rd in total, 4th in sacks & tied for 5th in turnovers forced), behind Stanford, USC and barely behind Utah.