I know the knee jerk reaction to Houston’s past defense being number one in PASSES DEFENDED is because our past defense is bad. HOUSTON COUGARS ARE RANKED 6th NATIONALLY AGAINST THE RUN! Opponents have no choice, but to pass more. HOUSTON is ranked #1 in PASSEES DEFENDED MEANS THAT YOU EITHER HAD A PASS BREAK UP OR AN INTERCEPTION! CWF stated after looking at film on previous games that we had a chance to have 15 MORE INTERCEPTIONS THIS YEAR! Hopefully we can pick up some versus the Utes!
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I have no idea how we got here after how rough our pass defense looked the first few games, but I’m all for it.
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We’re over halfway through the season at this point, it’s not a knee-jerk reaction. Nearly every volume-adjusted stat says that our pass defense is bad. Vs FBS competition we’re barely top-100 in Yards Allowed per Attempt and Yards Allowed per Completion. We’re in the bottom half in Opponent Completion %. The only stat for which we’re in the top half of FBS is Interception Rate, and even then we’re outside the Top 50. Our pass defense is so bad that it makes our okay run defense look good by comparison.
The only reason we’re not talking about this defense as being absolutely sieve-like is because our offense is ruthlessly efficient and so our opponents have the worst average starting field position in the country.
This is one of those instances where what you see on the field doesn’t seem like it matches up with compiled, cold, hard stats.
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Only thing I’d say is we have played some pretty good offenses. But we obviously do have a lot of room for improvement.
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Everyone understands this is saying we are passed on more than anyone else?
Our red zone defense seems alright.
Run defense will be put to the test vs Utah this weekend. Hope we don’t sell out and get fooled on some big plays
- I do not think our pass defense can be considered good
- volume-adjusted is not opponent-adjusted, and we’ve played 3 of the best QBs.
Our pass defense looked reasonably good against K State and UCF, for what that is worth.
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Atkinson and Mestemaker are great, but who’s the third? Will Hammond? Avery Johnson?
I got this information from the program on YouTube BIG XII TODAY. One of the analyst said that UH pass defense is much better than what the obvious stats say. He brought up what defending the pass really means, It has to be a breakup or an interception to be a pass defended stat.
We do seem to drop one or two interceptions a game. Need to hold onto that pigskin when it’s in the hands.
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I was shocked today during an ESPN segment where they said we have the 44th most difficult Strength of Schedule…that’s in the Top 50 (higher than Utah & TxTech’s SOS, which were both in the 120s)!
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