If offensive efficiency might not provide a complete indication of where a football team stands through five weeks of the season, defensive efficiency is not likely to be more accurate through the same span of time.
Does USC, for example, have an efficient defense if it is giving up lots of yards but not that many points? If a team is giving up more points, but it is winning more games because its offense is so good, is that a more efficient defense just because games are being won, or should raw totals and averages be the ultimate measure of how well a defense is performing?
While you ponder those questions, here are the Pac-12’s defensive efficiency leaders through Week 5 of the college football season: