[CTcard]

[quote author=61_Shasta link=topic=12962.msg131399#msg131399 date=1443456853]
Cardinal is the only team in the north that has a consistent enough defense to win out.

This may be strictly relative here. Maybe UW has the best D in the division.
[/quote]

Well, my first observation is that defense seems in short supply this year across the board.

UW has the best defensive raw stats - lead the conference in yds/game allowed and yds/play. [Stanford 2nd/4th, OSU 2nd/6th, UCLA 5th/2nd]

The advanced stat based ratings differ a bit. These supposedly look at strength of the competition and drive by drive situations.
Football Outsiders has the following for their S%P+ national rankings:
Stanford 13th
UCLA      18th
UW        23rd
ASU      30th
OSU      31st
Utah      35th
Oregon  58th
$C        61st
CU        68th
c.a.l.      84th
UA        94th
WSU      99th

Bad defenses tend to lead to blow outs quickly because teams can't recover from mistakes. Thus we saw ASU crushed by $C despite even up on yards from scrimmage, UA crushed by UCLA despite almost even on yards (468-497), even Utah wasn't that far ahead of the duckies on yards from scrimmage (530-400).

So, I am not quite ready to write off any of the blow-out losers from last weekend ... but we ought to be able to move the ball a bit on the kitty kats.

[CTcard]

[quote author=61_Shasta link=topic=12962.msg131399#msg131399 date=1443456853]
Cardinal is the only team in the north that has a consistent enough defense to win out.

This may be strictly relative here. Maybe UW has the best D in the division.
[/quote]

Well, my first observation is that defense seems in short supply this year across the board.

UW has the best defensive raw stats - lead the conference in yds/game allowed and yds/play. [Stanford 2nd/4th, OSU 2nd/6th, UCLA 5th/2nd]

The advanced stat based ratings differ a bit. These supposedly look at strength of the competition and drive by drive situations.
Football Outsiders has the following for their S%P+ national rankings:
Stanford 13th
UCLA      18th
UW        23rd
ASU      30th
OSU      31st
Utah      35th
Oregon  58th
$C        61st
CU        68th
c.a.l.      84th
UA        94th
WSU      99th

Bad defenses tend to lead to blow outs quickly because teams can't recover from mistakes. Thus we saw ASU crushed by $C despite even up on yards from scrimmage, UA crushed by UCLA despite almost even on yards (468-497), even Utah wasn't that far ahead of the duckies on yards from scrimmage (530-400).

So, I am not quite ready to write off any of the blow-out losers from last weekend ... but we ought to be able to move the ball a bit on the kitty kats.