Total yards is probably not the best indicator.
Do you have stats for yards per pass/rush?
Yards per attempt, passing:
2020 -- 6.6 YPA (32nd overall)
2019 -- 6.9 YPA (34th overall)
2018 -- 5.6 YPA (2nd overall)
2017 -- 6.3 YPA (15th overall)
2016 -- 6.2 YPA (12th overall)
Yards per attempt, rushing (This is skewed somewhat because sacks count as rushing plays for the offense in college):
2020 -- 4.14 YPC (48th overall)
2019 -- 3.21 YPC (10th overall)
2018 -- 3.82 YPC (36th overall)
2017 -- 3.47 YPC (17th overall)
2016 -- 3.70 YPC (20th overall)
Average them over the past 5 years, we've had the 19th best pass defense in YPA and 26th best rush defense in YPC.
I would venture to bet there are not 8-10 teams in America who can match those numbers.
Which again goes back to what most people with a clue here say....it's consistently a very good and occasionally great defense. If you don't agree with that, I'm sorry, you're allowed to have your opinion, but it's still wrong.
And PS...yes, it's down THIS year. All the metrics bear that out. It's not a total sieve. But it's not as good as the previous 4 years thus far. Is it Baker? Is it the backers? Has the scheme changed? Not sure. But so far this year, the numbers are down. The past 4 years have consistently been very, very good. Put this offense with the 2018 defense and we probably go undefeated. You don't do that with some horrendous defense, like people around here like to claim that we have.
