2011 Football Year in Review: Passing Defense

Having looked at the running game where we moved up a little by keeping our performance static while others fell behind us, we now turn our attention to the passing defense, remembering the passing offense was way up in the MAC in 2011 compared to 2010.

In 2010, BGth was 4th in passing yards allowed per game with 203.1, though that was largely influenced by our poor run defense.  The 212 attempts we allowed were the second lowest in the conference.  On pass efficiency defense, BG was 11th with 152.5.  BG allowed 65% completions, the worst in the MAC, 19 TD passes (12th) and had 7 INTS (10th).  BG allowed 7.7 yards per attempt (11th).

In other words, the yards per game figure is an illusion.  The pass defense was porous and the only reason in 2010 we didn't give up more yards passing is that it was easier to run.

So, were things better in 2011.  BG was, in fact, 4th again, and allowed 202 yards per game, so that number stayed almost exactly the same from one year to the next.  It took 221 attempts to get those yards.  BG had the 11th fewest passing attempts against.

In passing efficiency, BG took a big jump however, moving to 6th in the MAC.  Efficiency was down to 130.8, a significant improvement over the 150+ from the year before.  Completion percentage against BG fell from 65% to 61% (8th) and BG allowed only 8 TD passes (tied for 1st).  Interceptions fell in the conference as a whole, and BG fell from 7 to 4, which was 11th in the MAC.  BG reduced yards per attempt to 7.3 which was tied for 10th.

Two things...teams are not throwing on us very much.  When they do, we were stronger in 2011, but as in all areas of our program that we have looked at to date, we just moved from bad to below average, or in some cases average.  These are all steps in the right direction.  We had a very young secondary, and they will be more seasoned now.  If they continue to improve (hopefully at a slightly sharper vector), they are on track to be pretty good.