2012 Irish D or the 2002 Silver Bullets?
All season this year, I've been in the camp of the Notre Dame Fightin' Irish. I'm a stat guy, and this team has walked the walk statistically on the defensive side of the ball. This is the most efficient football team based on Jimbo's Defense Rating that I devised this season. It's absolutely been a special season and I have recognized that since pretty early on. The Irish have a quality of being able to win games, even when they don't play to the best of their ability. It certainly reminds of a Craig Krenzel-led Buckeye Squad that took home the crystal football. The Irish will have their chance in early 2013 to match that Ohio State team and win another National Title for its storied program. Until then however, there are a lot of interesting discussions to be had. Stay tuned to Jimbo Says! for other pieces similar to this one. I'll probably be writing a prediction of Ohio State vs Notre Dame if they played this year as well as how a possible playoff system would go down.
Let's start off with the ND defense of this year. They certainly pass the look-test. Led by Senior LB Manti T'eo, the Irish have been nothing short of dominant throughout the season. Allowing only 6 points to Michigan, 13 to Stanford, 13 to Oklahoma and only 13 to USC. Coming into the season, this team's strength of schedule was hailed as one of the toughest in the country. While it still undoubtedly remains top-25 in the country, with the disappointing seasons of Oklahoma, USC, Michigan and Michigan State, it seemed to take away a little luster from the Irish schedule. Here are some of the key stats for the ND Defense:
| ND Defense | ||
| Rush Yds | 92.42 | (5th) |
| Pass Yds | 194.83 | (22nd) |
| Total Yds | 287.25 | (6th) |
| Points | 10.33 | (2nd) |
Even at first glance, this ND team was extremely impressive on the defensive side of the ball. Team's that they played against averaged the following on offense:
| ND's Opponent's offense average | |
| Rush Off | 158.49 |
| Pass Off | 240.29 |
| PPG | 24.5 |
The Irish were unbelievable at shutting team's offenses down and keeping them below their season averages. Still, Notre Dame was not the most opportunistic team in the country when it came to forcing turnovers.
| ND Defense | ||
| Sacks | 33 | (19th) |
| INT | 16 | (T-14th) |
| Fumbles rec. | 7 | |
| Takeaways | 23 | (T-37th) |
Still, maybe the most staggering statistic and the strong point of the Notre Dame defense was their Red Zone defense. This was epitomized by their multiple goal line stands against USC last weekend. Here are some of the key stats:
| ND Defense in the Red Zone | ||
| % of scores | 64.00% | 5th |
| RZ points | 95 | |
| RZ Drives | 33 | |
| RZ Tds | 8 | |
| RZ Fgs | 13 | |
| Rush TD Allowed | 2 | |
| Pass TD Allowed | 7 |
The 2 Rush TD allowed all season is absolutely unbelievable.
These Ohio State Buckeyes passed the look test as well. There were many future NFL players on this unit, including: LB Matt Wilhelm, S Mike Doss, DT Kenny Peterson, LB Cie Grant, DE Will Smith, CB Chris Gamble as well as young LB's Bobby Carpenter and A.J. Hawk. The Buckeyes run defense was unbelievable that season, but let's take a look at the numbers a little closer:
| OSU 2002 Defense | ||
| Rush Yds | 77.7 | (3rd) |
| Pass Yds | 243.1 | (95th) |
| Total Yds | 320.8 | (23rd) |
| Points | 13.1 | (2nd) |
Although the NCAA didn't record the sacks on this team, you can bet they were top 10 in the country in it with players like Will Smith and Kenny Peterson on the defensive line:
| Sacks | NCAA didn't archive this, but it was very high | |
| INT | 18 | (23rd) |
| Fumbles rec. | 12 | (53rd) |
| Takeaways | 30 | (33rd) |
Ohio State's Red Zone statistics from that season are also not available, but here are a few other misc. stats.
| Rush TD Allowed | 5 | (1st) |
| Pass TD Allowed | 14 | (T-8th) |
| Total TD Allowed | 19 | (T-1st) |
Side by side comparison of both teams:
| Rush Yds | Rush Tds | Pass Yds | Pass Tds | Total Yds | Total Tds | Points/ Gm | Takeaways | |
| ND | 92.42 | 2 | 194.83 | 7 | 287.25 | 9 | 10.33 | 23 |
| Ohio State | 77.7 | 5 | 243.1 | 14 | 320.8 | 19 | 13.1 | 30 |
So as you can see, ND seems to be a little bit better statistically. Of course you must factor in strength of schedule and that's difficult to do. Also, Ohio State ranked really well in 2002 in many of these, but it was a different year statistically for ND in 2012. This is exemplified here:
| National Rank | ||||||||
| Rush Yds | Rush Tds | Pass Yds | Pass Tds | Total Yds | Total Tds | Points/ Gm | Takeaways | |
| ND | 5th | 1st | 22nd | 5th | 6th | 1st | 2nd | T-38th |
| Ohio State | 3rd | 1st | 95th | T-8th | 23rd | T-1st | 2nd | T-33rd |
So if you look at it based on how these teams fit into their respective seasons, it changes things a little bit! In my opinion, these two units are extremely similar, but I have to give a slight edge to the Irish this year because they are better against the pass and are unbelievably stout in the Red Zone. Ohio State was a little bit more opportunistic with turnovers, but these are 2 top-15 defenses of the last decade, any way you split this. They can prove it all wrong or correct in the National Championship game this year on January 7, 2013!
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