Our defense is BCS caliber as Baylor, TCU, and ATM will see

[SMU 86]

They will take it to them.

[gostangs]

not so sure about the D line - but LB's are there it seems to me - albiet a bit undersized. They are very fast and very aggressive - but when you have a BCS TE blocking upfield - along with some pulling guards and RB's - i just am not as optimisitc as you are. If we get one of those games I will be happy.

[Junior]

i'm more concerned about our secondary at this point.

[SMU 86]

We shut down Pitt and they had BCS TE blocking. I think we can do the same with Baylor, ATM, and TCU. We have the talent and the coaches. I don't think you will see 4 or 5 TD's not counting field golds put up on us against those teams. If so that would concern me going into the Big East. We don't just have a good CUSA defense we have a good BCS defense IMO.

[ojaipony]

I'm as optimistic as any PonyFan, but I'm not so sold on this yet.

Define "BCS caliber".

Could our defense compete with Alabama, LSU, USC? Uh, not sure. Could they compete and hang with aTm, TCU, Baylor, Texas, etc? Yes, absolutely. If we keep Baylor, aTm and TCU under 40, I'd bet we win. Could we keep USC under 40? No, I don't think so.

Best in CUSA this year, though, and I'll take it.

To compete with the elite teams (top 10), we would need an upgrade defensively across the board especially at the safety and DL positions.

But, what do I know.

Pony up!

[WordUpBU]

We shut down Pitt and they had BCS TE blocking. I think we can do the same with Baylor, ATM, and TCU. We have the talent and the coaches. I don't think you will see 4 or 5 TD's not counting field golds put up on us against those teams. If so that would concern me going into the Big East. We don't just have a good CUSA defense we have a good BCS defense IMO.

Pitt 2011-

#88 of 120 in Total Offense
#74 Rushing per carry (3.53 per carry)
#77 Passing
#83 in Scoring Offense
#120 of 120 in sacks allowed
93rd in pass efficiency

SMU will have a good defense but Pitt is arguably the worst team to use as an example of how your D can shut a good offense down. Pitt was not a good offense. Their pass protection allowed 13 more sacks than the number 119 team in the nation and their run game is 94th in yards per carry. Factor out the sacks and replace them with the average of all 120 teams and it's still middle of the road at 4.3 or so. Combine that with a horrendous 93rd in pass efficiency and you have a terrible offense that can't seem to do anything right.

I would be more impressed by SMU's losing efforts against Southern Miss and Tulsa than that. So Miss was one long run and a bunch of stalemate. Take away that one play and it's 13 offensive points all game.

Tulsa was 4.9 yards per play for over 90 plays with the offense deep sixing the d with poor field position.

Despite the W/L result those games are much bigger feathers in your cap.

[Alaric]

We shut down Pitt and they had BCS TE blocking. I think we can do the same with Baylor, ATM, and TCU. We have the talent and the coaches. I don't think you will see 4 or 5 TD's not counting field golds put up on us against those teams. If so that would concern me going into the Big East. We don't just have a good CUSA defense we have a good BCS defense IMO.

It won't matter how good our D is if our offense can't move the ball and get first downs (I'm cautiously optimistic about our offense but if we suck on offense, and we have a LOT of unknowns, our defense will get worn down and end up getting trampled just like they ended up against A&M last year).

[westexSMU]

I am optimistic also about this D too, but I think it helps not to brag about how good it is going to be now. Lets see how we play at Baylor. There was a lot of talk last year before the A&M game about how good we would be. We haven't exactly tackled great in many games to start the season lately. The talk means nothing if we get our [deleted] handed to us like we did last year at A&M. Hope the team is ready to play.

[Stallion]

I think our games last year against A&M and TCU are good yardsticks. We gave up 41 ppg and about 475 per game. Is that terrible? No considering the competition. But its also not indicative that we were a strong BCS level defense against that level of competition. Both games were on the road and Baylor and A&M are breaking in new QBs-so factor that in too. But there were large segments of both the A&M and TCU games where our defense simply couldn't stop those teams

[SMU 86]

We have the players and the coaches to be a BCS caliber defense IMO. We are there IMO.

[CalallenStang]

If we could only figure out how to play against the no-huddle...

[leopold]

Our LB's are BCS caliber - multiple sources have them possibly challenging as a group as potentially one of the best in the country.

The rest of the group could be hit and miss, however.

[sbsmith]

They will take it to them.

You're overestimating our defense. Frankly, Baylor and A&M are too strong up front and too fast at the skill positions for us to handle. TCU isn't quite as good up front (making them a better matchup for us) but has the best QB of the bunch and a lot of speed at wideout. All will get their points and yards and whether we win any of those games or not will come down to Garrett Gilbert.

[Alaric]

I think our games last year against A&M and TCU are good yardsticks. We gave up 41 ppg and about 475 per game. Is that terrible? No considering the competition. But its also not indicative that we were a strong BCS level defense against that level of competition. Both games were on the road and Baylor and A&M are breaking in new QBs-so factor that in too. But there were large segments of both the A&M and TCU games where our defense simply couldn't stop those teams

A&M wouldn't have been as successful if our offense (and kicking game) wouldn't have continually put our D in bad positions plus we spotted them 21 points. That being said, it felt like their running game, because of their huge line, was constantly on the verge of breaking long runs.

[lwjr]

If we could only figure out how to play against the no-huddle...

And the option. Hello Navy.