Saw a stat a moment ago that threw me for a loop

[BigOrange Maniac]

Tennessee is currently No. 17 in the nation in pass defense, according to a tweet by SECPRGuy. 

[Oldvol75]

From a talent stand point Tennessee is not that far off from the majors of this conference, depth wise yes, talent no! If you start looking at "small" things and put them together, it looks alot better. Look at Richardson from Bama rushing yardage UT vs Lsu for example.

[WoodstockVol]

Tennessee is currently No. 17 in the nation in pass defense, according to a tweet by SECPRGuy. 

I wonder if that's because Tennessee's run defense isn't too good?

[BanditVol]

Well we are 62nd in rush D, but 31 in total D (total yards) and 28th in scoring D.  I have always thought scoring D is the most important.

These stats IMO show that we are not that far away on D, and that injuries to our offense are the chief source of our woes this year.

OTOH, someone could always say, with justification, that teams don't have to score that much on us.

But I think these stats are encouraging, other than the run D.

[BigOrange Maniac]

It all just goes to show you how meaningless stats can be sometimes. I don't worry about opposing teams' ability to run the ball on us nearly as much as I worry about their ability to throw on us.

Run D has been pretty solid this year.

[BanditVol]

It all just goes to show you how meaningless stats can be sometimes. I don't worry about opposing teams' ability to run the ball on us nearly as much as I worry about their ability to throw on us.

Run D has been pretty solid this year.

And yet the evidence would suggest otherwise.   LSU piled up over 200 yards rushing on us, and Cincy ran all over us on their first two drives.  The stats don't lie, actually,  I don't think.

I think there is a perception that we are weak vs. the pass, but I think that's all it is.  Only against bammer in the second half have I seen us yield to the pass.  USCe did almost nothing.  A lot of posters on here seemed to think LSU threw the ball all over the field, but they only got 123 yards.     Let me repeat that.  123 yards.  Less than all but 4 teams in the NCAA average per game (or to put it another way, if that was LSU's average they would be 117th in the country).

I don't think our run D sucks, but I find the perception that we suck on pass D in the face of stats puzzling.   I watched the same games, and other than the second half vs. bammer, I just don't see it.

Perceptions can vary I guess, but at the end of the day "style points" don't win games.  I'll take stats over "style points" any day.