Defense Wins Championships: Reranking The BCS Top Ten By Defensive Performance

As I chronicled in an earlier article, the Boise State defense leads a split existence.

They give up 11.5 more points on the road than at home (though a split is normal in most cases, Boise's case is somewhat exaggerated). And, unavoidable argument approaching, they do it against lesser competition.

Giving up 320 yards and three 60+ yard runs against Fresno State would have been excusable as long as Boise was good against the pass. Then, they suffered two breakdowns for big scores against Tulsa that gave the Golden Hurricane the early lead and kept them around late in the game.

I said in that article that if Boise can show up big at Hawaii, I'd have an easier time believing in their defense, and they did. They gave up only one touchdown and held the potent Hawaii passing attack to 4.1 yards per attempt.

But they're a few weeks removed from the shellacking they put on Oregon, a game in which I was ready to declare every member of the Boise front four an All-American. That was then, and, in spite of their statistics, this is now.

I just don't see this Bronco defense holding up as well as Bronco units from the previous years. Another year, a few more out-of-conference wins against better competition, and I think this unit will be more equipped to handle the big boys on defense.

USC just hasn't played at the dominant defensive level of the rest of these contenders.

Their pass rush is terrific, Nick Perry is going to be a star, but giving up 329 yards and three touchdowns through the air against Oregon State seriously raises questions about their elite status.

To be fair, off the field incidents and injuries have hurt USC. They lost starting cornerback Shareece Wright to academic ineligibility and that forced starting safety Josh Pinkard to move down to corner. Taylor Mays got knicked up against Ohio State and hasn't played at his dominant level besides the pick of Kevin Riley in the Cal game.

But their overall numbers haven't been good at all. They're tied with Stanford for last in the Pac-10 in interceptions with three, and they're 54th in the country in passing defense. Granted, they've faced good competition, but that's never prevented USC from shutting teams down before.

We'll see if it costs them against the Ducks - the forecast says rain, so it's possible the questions here will be mitigated as the Ducks keep it on the ground - but don't think for a minute that Chip Kelly isn't looking at those numbers and hoping to test the USC back seven.

Cincinnati has gotten fairly lucky as a team. They beat Oregon State 28-18 on the road - yes, the same Oregon State team that put up 36 on USC - but that was when Jacquizz Rogers was running on a sore ankle.

From that same article that I mentioned for Boise, I should withdraw my troubling feelings towards Cincy's pass rush. The Bearcats sacked Louisville QB Adam Froman four times and injured his shoulder, holding him to 42 yards passing and a touchdown late in the second quarter with the game well out of hand.

However, statistically, there have been some issues. Though Cincinnati is 11th in the country in scoring defense, teams have been able to put up yards on them. They're 32nd in the country in total yards allowed, 40th against the run and 43rd against the pass. Their best win is probably against Fresno State, where they still allowed 290 yards rushing and 20 points.

Somehow they've kept teams out of the endzone or settling for field goals, and I'll admit a good red zone defense goes a long way. But I fear they've been buoyed along by an offense that jumps on opponents early; in close games they've had to rely on a little luck.

That might be fine against the lesser teams in the Big East, but if Pittsburgh's Dion Lewis or West Virginia's Noel Devine can get rushing yards AND score some points, Cincy might find themselves in close confines they're simply not used to.

LSU is #9 in the BCS, so they receive a small bump from a defensive standpoint. That said, their statistics aren't great - they're 22nd in total defense, 20th in passing, and 50th against the rush, which is probably what tipped their biggest game so far in favor of the Gators.

I'm not going to penalize them for those early scares against Mississippi State and Washington, since I think it's possible those experiences actually helped LSU. Goal line stands like the one that kept the MSU Bulldogs out of the endzone tend to galvanize a team.

But it's penalties that are hurting LSU the most - a couple personal foul and offsides calls kept the Gators on the field and made the difference in the game, and this could cost them in big games if they continue to play sloppily.

Some of the offsides calls were intended to punish the Florida line for their questionable silent snap count where Maurice Pouncey jerked his head to the side before the snap, but they better play a clean game against the Tide, or they won't stand a chance given the youth and lack of dynamism on the offensive side of the ball.

Oregon, #10 in the BCS, is actually the weakest of all top tenners from a statistical standpoint. They're 19th overall in scoring defense, 41st in rush defense (!) and 19th in total defense.

However, statistics don't tell the whole story. Remove Nate Costa's pick six against UCLA and Washington's 13 points in garbage time, and the Ducks are trending upward hugely on defense.

They've allowed 3 points against Cal, 6 against Washington State, 3 against UCLA, and 6 against Washington in the last four games.

They've played great against the pass - their 10 interceptions have them at third most in the Pac-10. In fact, it's conceivable this will be the toughest defense USC has faced all year.

Only injuries can cost this team, and this, unfortunately, is where the Ducks lose a step. CB Walter Thurmond, a senior leader at the defensive back position, remains out for the year. True freshman and touted recruit Cliff Harris has filled in admirably, picking Jake Locker in last week's game, but he will be tested against the Trojans who have outstanding wide receivers.

Outside linebacker Josh Kaddu, a valuable player on UO's pass rush/TFL game, could be out with a foot injury - Chip Kelly reported he was day to day.

Starting cornerback Talmadge Jackson hurt his back in last weekend's 43-19 win at Washington, but he should be good to go.

The special teams game has created some spark for the Oregon offense. Freshman Kenjon Barner got the Ducks rolling on offense against UCLA with a return for a touchdown, and the Ducks have blocked three kicks total on the year, including last week's punt block for a touchdown. That opportunism might be sorely necessary if the Trojans play them tight.

As expected, USC will be the true test. If the Ducks can hold the potent USC offense under, say, twenty points, and score some of their own, this defense will go from just outside the BCS bubble to a contender in the conversation.

The Texas defense makes for a difficult case.

You could say they only allowed 13 points against Oklahoma, but that it was against Landry Jones, not Sam Bradford.

You could say they dominated Missouri on the road, holding them to seven points and 173 yards, but that Blaine Gabbert was gimpy.

You could say they destroyed Texas Tech's Taylor Potts, but still allowed 24 points; those 14 points to Colorado also don't look so great.

Or you could just trust that Texas has one of the best single game defensive coordinators in the college game, a fearsome pass rush, excellent special teams, and the talent to back up the second-least yards allowed in the country.

This could all change against Oklahoma State. But I doubt it.

Don't take this the wrong way - the Iowa defense is terrific, their best unit in years. They're weaker statistically than the other BCS top tenners, but that's only because their schedule has been comparatively treacherous (which is why the computers have them #1 overall).

Road games against Penn State, Wisconsin, and Michigan State have put the Hawkeyes through the fire. The defensive breakdown against the Spartans that allowed Blair White to come open for a touchdown in the endzone was an anomaly in an otherwise solid defensive scheme.

They've allowed only six passing touchdowns all year, two of which were against Arkansas State, and they've sealed many games with late interceptions. They're rarely caught out of the position with the ball in the air.

The bad news is, a road game is where the Hawkeyes face their final and most difficult remaining test. Ohio State, no slouch defensively in its own right, will test the Hawkeyes on both sides of the ball, and if Iowa can't get their offense moving, they might be susceptible to a road loss that would be unacceptable in most BCS voters' eyes in spite of the difficult schedule.

The numbers are still good: the Hawkeyes are 14th overall in scoring defense, 17th against the pass, and 18th in overall defense.

But they're an alarming 44th against the run. Michigan was able to exploit Norm Parker's two deep safeties system to pick up a lot of mid-yardage runs - the Wolverines put up 195 yards at five per carry, despite having no rushes go longer than 12 yards.

If Jim Tressel can figure out how to get the run game going, watch for Ohio State to run the ball almost without exception. Parker's traditional cover two with safeties deep off the line of scrimmage will not be what the doctor ordered if Terrelle Pryor can get free.

It all comes down to Brandon Spikes.

With Spikes in the game, Florida absolutely dominated their first four opponents on defense, holding the Tigers to a field goal and 162 yards of total offense.

Since Spikes' on and off injuries have kept him on the sidelines, Florida has allowed 295 yards and two scores off big plays through the air against Arkansas, and poor defense on incredibly unsurprising quarterback draws on the ground against Mississippi State.

It's safe to dismis the points MSU scored - fourteen of them came on interception returns, and whenever the Bulldogs had some success on the QB draw and started sniffing redzone, the Gator defense tightened up. But this is a game Florida puts away in the first half last year, not a game they're still playing midway through the fourth quarter.

I won't go so far as to call the Gator defense suspect, but I can't call this the #1 defense in the country in spite of the statistics until Spikes returns, fully healthy and ready to guide his team to the national championship with or without the cooperation of the offense.

TCU has been in dogfights against Air Force - another terrific defense that hasn't had the offensive prowess to back it up - in Colorado and Clemson in Death Valley, and hung on to beat both.

They're the eighth best team against the rush, sixth in scoring defense, and fifth in yards allowed. DE Jerry Hughes is third in the nation in sacks.

But it was their overall dominant effort against BYU that places them second. In Provo, TCU's defense held BYU to one score late in the second quarter after jumping out to an early 21-0 lead, sacked Max Hall five times, scored a pick and forced a fumble to squash the Cougars 38-7.

And they did all this on the road, in driving rains, and more importantly, in hostile arenas, conditions that are the closest possible thing to simulating a bowl.

This is, without question, a BCS-caliber defense, and if TCU can continue their dominant efforts against the rest of the Mountain West, including a key game at home against Utah, hopefully they'll have a chance to prove that in the biggest game of the year.

Terrence Cody has provided the wow factor for the Tide defense, but the team as a whole has been getting it done.

Rolando McClain calls a terrific game from the middle linebacker position, Cody is a mountain, Javier Arenas and Dont'a Hightower are superstars, and most of all, this team has, unquestionably, won a game because of its defense.

Cody's blocked kick to seal the game showed how defensive-minded championship teams sometimes win games - not by forty point margins, but by the tips of their fingers. This, to me, showed Alabama's defense can come up with the big play when it's most needed. The intangible most people call "battle-tested" is more underrated than people think (look at Ohio State's 2006 defense if you don't believe me).

Separating a defense from its offensive counterpart makes it possible to conceive of a team as entirely one-dimensional. Doing that, I would take Alabama's defense - tied for fourth in the nation in scoring, fourth overall in yards per game, and best of all, second against the run - over Florida's any day of the week.

Check out my list of the 25 best college football traditions and see if your favorite made the list!