You're not willing to budge on just about anything, are you? "we held them to 24, you seem mighty proud of those 2 points." Yes actually, I am. Just the fact that Auburn's production was comparable between the two schools shows, and this is going to be hard for you to take, Oregon's defense is just as good as LSU's Two common opponents, both times Oregon held the opposition to less points than LSU. Get that in your head. No, the pac-12's defenses are NOT as good as the SECs from top to bottom, but our defenses are VERY comparable at the top. Look at Stanford for further support. Pac-12 teams are tired of hearing about how SEC teams are ranked highly. Page 2: Frightful -- the 10 BCS teams that load up on cupcakes - ESPN Page 2 FIVE SEC teams ranked in the top 10 for loading up on cupcakes. There's plenty of reasons why your teams are ranked high every year. 1) you load up on cupcake opponents in the offseason, 2) you only play an 8 game conference schedule, leaving one more spot for a Lousiana-Monroe or a Chatanooga. Not impressed. Record means a lot when ranking a team. See Boise State and TCU. The pac-12's 9 game conference schedule means an additional 6 losses for the conference to pick up every year, making it harder for on-the-edge teams to stay in the top 25. Going off that point though, I applaud LSU for scheduling this game and i can't wait for it to be played.
We can load up on OOC cupcakes because our conference games are so tough, junior. We don't need to beef-up our schedules to make up for an inferior conference. That's also why the SEC continues to dominate in championship games. By the time we get there, we've already played several games of that magnitude during the regular season. Just another day, for us.
Hey, you were adamant about your statements, I am adamant about my responses. There is that possibility. But I did not disparage Oregon's defense, just defended your charges against the SEC. The thrust of your post was that SEC defenses outside of Auburn and LSU were weak. I had to shoot that one down. Facts are facts. Two schedules. LSU versus better ranked defenses and versus over twice the ranked teams. LSU finishing #12 in total defense despite that and Oregon finishing #34. Get that in your head. Now we get to what is bothering you. You are tired of hearing about SEC dominance of Division I. Amigo, all it takes is for someone to dethrone them on the field. We are giving opportunities to all comers. Well, the pollsters are impressed, because they know that an 8-game SEC slate is a workout against the best teams in college football. Dude we play the last three National Champions (Alabama, Auburn, and Florida) every year. And mix in games against Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina and the rest and we end up playing 5 or 6 ranked teams every year in-conference. Weak OOC? Well, we are starting on the road against Oregon and playing West Virginia on the road, too. Another two ranked opponents. We mix in powerhouse opponents with the cupcakes, just like you and everybody else. Exactly. Boise State would be a second-tier team if they played an SEC schedule. Hey, we have to win a division before winning a championship. The SEC champion has to play a SEC championship game on top of the regular season, risking its record against a contender. Not the Pac-10. It should be a dandy. :thumb:
So your argument is that LSU's defense looked better than Oregon's when playing against better defenses? What? Oregon's defense has to fight off west coast offenses all season with NFL QBs. Your argument that a defense is impressive because it plays in a conference with good defense makes no sense. On the other hand, Oregon's defense performs well in an offensive-minded conference. Your #34 statistic on Oregon may be true for yardage allowed, but last time i checked the winner of the game isn't decided by how many yards you accumulate. Oregon ranked #12 in the nation in points allowed. LSU ranked 11th. You're sitting on top now and it's deserved. Think about it from our perspective though - we've watched for the past few years as the SEC destroys Big 10 and Big 12 teams in the championship. Can't win the big game if you don't get there. Oregon played the SEC way more competitively than any other conference has. That was a nail-biter, down to the wire game. Just FYI as well, The newly formed Pac-12 does have a championship game now on top of the 9 game conference format - we'll see how this works out. If that game boosts our top team from the #3 to #2 spot it will be well worth the investment. You won't hear any sympathy from Oregon about how other conference's teams have to play in a championship game - we found out in '01 that even if Nebraska loses that game they'll still take them over the Ducks. I'm sure the view is nice from the top, all I'm saying is you have to play in the games to win them, and this national perception that the pac-10 is "weak" makes it difficult for teams to get into bigger games. I believe it was '09 that the Pac-10 went 6-0 in bowl games.
No. You insisted that since Oregon gave up fewer point to Tennessee and Auburn than LSU, that makes Oregon's defense superior. I pointed out that there are a lot more factors involved in rating defenses. Mostly I just noted that your disparagement of SEC defenses were not based on stats or rankings, but upon resentfulness of recent SEC dominance.
Red, How is that not a fair comparison? Two common opponents in 2010 is the only real way to compare the offenses and defenses of LSU and Oregon. The only difference (and this is a big one), is that LSU actually had UT at home! Oregon played at Tennessee. I'll leave Auburn out of this, as that game is a wash statistically. LSU- 16 434 total yards 2 TD 1 FG TOP 29:53 UT- 14 217 total yards 2 TD TOP 30:07 Oregon- 48 447 total yards 6 TD 2 FG TOP 28:47 UT- 13 333 total yards 1 TD, 2 FG TOP 31:13 As you can see, Oregon was much more efficient in their offense. More yards and 32 points more than LSU in less TOP. Defensively, Oregon gave up 116 more yards, but less points. That's the bend but don't break D that Oregon plays. Most of those yards are between the 20's. Points are what matters. To dismiss this argument doesn't make sense. Sure Tennessee wasn't the best team, but Oregon & LSU both played them, making it a fair comparison. But LSU had them at home. Btw, I don't know if you've seen it yet, but Vegas has Oregon as the early favorite for the game. Opened at 3 points. I'm sure it'll close once money gets put down.
I didn't say it was an unfair comparison. I said it wasn't the only valid comparison. But if you want to repeat yourself again, you can. I've made my point.
It's actually a comparison of LSU and Oregon's offenses vs. the same SEC defense (comparable statistically to LSU's). Oregon wins that comparison. What does it all mean? Nothing I suppose. It's a new year, new team, new coaches (for LSU) and new players. 1st games are impossible to prepare for. You can prepare for a scheme, but you have no idea what players do what, as there is not much film to look at (that's useful) with each team current personnel. We do know from last years teams that Oregon's scheme worked better against UT than LSU's did.
