Coming into this season, Oregon fans had some pretty high expectations for the Ducks’ defense.
Of course, with dominant players like Noah Sewel and Brandon Dorlus being paired with high-upside guys like Justin Flowe and Christian Gonzalez, why wouldn’t you be encouraged by the possibilities? On top of that, when you bring in Dan Lanning — the defending champion defensive coordinator — and Tosh Lupoi to run that side of the ball, then prospects are certainly high.
So far, we’re yet to see the ceiling, though.
Of course, giving up 49 points and a 90% third-down conversion rate in the first week of the season is going to skew your stats a bit, but in the first three weeks, we’ve yet to see a dominant unit that can instill fear in opponents. There are areas where the Ducks are good, like their rushing defense, but there are also places where Oregon ranks last in the FBS level.
When you look at it from a numerical standpoint, how do the Ducks stack up compared to the rest of the nation, though? That’s what we wanted to see as we get set for Pac-12 play.
Here’s a look at where Oregon ranks nationally (out of 130 FBS teams) in key defensive stats after the first three weeks of play: