How many PPG will the defense allow this year?

Dansker

Dansker

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Everyone wants to talk about the offense so much let's talk defense. Total yards allowed is not so much a big deal compared to turnovers or turnover ratio altogether. You also have to look at what we end up allowing yards per play, and points allowed. What do you guys think? Is there a magic number here for these stats with Chinander and company?

I think if we can achieve 25+ turnovers, it's going to be a 9 win season. I believe they hit that mark in their first year at UCF. For comparison both Alabama and Georgia last year held opponents to under 300 yards of offense and under 5 yards per play -- this is the stat I look in on the most, TBH and the top ranked teams defensively usually keep that number low.

If we can allow only 5 to 5.5 yards per play and under 375 YPG, this defense could be really good. Since our offense is going to be moving ridiculously fast tempo wise, we may be asking for more out of our defense this year.

 
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We dont face a ton of high powered offenses this year so I think the number will be lower than it maybe should be.  Its set the over/unders around 20.  

 
Last year we gave up 36.4 points per game. I would say we would be doing good to keep that number down to 21 points per game or possibly lower. That would be an improvement of over two touchdowns per game. 

 
SandhillshuskerW said:
Last year we gave up 36.4 points per game. I would say we would be doing good to keep that number down to 21 points per game or possibly lower. That would be an improvement of over two touchdowns per game. 
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That is a pretty unrealistic goal.  Last year, 21 PPG would have ranked 28th in the country, while NU ranked 115th.  That is with a much slower-paced offense trying to help out the D.  I think NU would do pretty well to shave 7-10 points off last year's average.

 
ColoradoHusk said:
That is a pretty unrealistic goal.  Last year, 21 PPG would have ranked 28th in the country, while NU ranked 115th.  That is with a much slower-paced offense trying to help out the D.  I think NU would do pretty well to shave 7-10 points off last year's average.
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I don't think it's unrealistic at all. New system, some new faces. It's entirely possible. There will definitely be some games that we will give up more than others, but it's possible. 

 
SandhillshuskerW said:
I don't think it's unrealistic at all. New system, some new faces. It's entirely possible. There will definitely be some games that we will give up more than others, but it's possible. 
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I don't think Frost and Chinander really care where the D ranks in scoring D.  They are going to focus more on causing turnovers and efficiency measures like points per drive/play and yards per play.  I would be surprised if Chin's D's ever rank in the top 25% in the country in scoring D.

 
The Murphinator said:
I am going with 28 ppg. I think the defense will be better, but it all depends on how much that secondary has improved.
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The secondary is a big question mark. I'm really interested to see if our line play improves. I mean after last season, can it get any worse?

 
ColoradoHusk said:
I don't think Frost and Chinander really care where the D ranks in scoring D.  They are going to focus more on causing turnovers and efficiency measures like points per drive/play and yards per play.  I would be surprised if Chin's D's ever rank in the top 25% in the country in scoring D.
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It's really hard to predict at this point. I really think that our defense will be very much improved next year compared to last year because we should be more aggressive and attacking rather than sitting back and waiting for things to come to us. I feel that it should result in a much better outcome in most games. I'm a sunshine pumper sometimes, but I still feel that we will be vastly improved.

 
ColoradoHusk said:
I don't think Frost and Chinander really care where the D ranks in scoring D.  They are going to focus more on causing turnovers and efficiency measures like points per drive/play and yards per play.  I would be surprised if Chin's D's ever rank in the top 25% in the country in scoring D.
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You may be right but I doubt they "don't care." I think every statistic is important but in some areas it's inevitable you're bound to give up something with football these days. But I do think turnovers is going to be the hallmark of this defense. Imagine if our offense can cash in on every single turnover the defense creates.

 
SandhillshuskerW said:
It's really hard to predict at this point. I really think that our defense will be very much improved next year compared to last year because we should be more aggressive and attacking rather than sitting back and waiting for things to come to us. I feel that it should result in a much better outcome in most games. I'm a sunshine pumper sometimes, but I still feel that we will be vastly improved.
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And going from 36 points a game to 28 points a game would be VASTLY IMPROVED.  

 
FTW said:
You may be right but I doubt they "don't care." I think every statistic is important but in some areas it's inevitable you're bound to give up something with football these days. But I do think turnovers is going to be the hallmark of this defense. Imagine if our offense can cash in on every single turnover the defense creates.
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"Don't care" was a poor choice of words.  I am sure they care about PPG, but won't be overly concerned if NU isn't in the top 20 in scoring defense.

 
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