SEC Stats: Opponents’ Yards Per Pass Attempt, Week Five
October 7th, 2009 07:53 PM║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink ║ Tags: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
Each week we like to bring you the latest “Yards Per Pass Attempt” numbers for each starting quarterback in the conference.
For an explanation of why YPPA is a better gauge of both player and team success than the more complicated QB Rating system, click here.
So if YPPA is a good gauge of an offense’s ability, it stands to reason that “Opponents YPPA” must be a good gauge of a team’s defensive ability.
Here, then, are the numbers for each SEC defense with regards to the yards they allow per opponents’ pass attempts:
Opponents Yard Per Pass Attempt
| Rank | School | Attempts | Yards Allowed | TD | INT | Yds All/Att |
| 1 | Florida | 123 | 480 | 1 | 6 | 3.90 |
| 2 | Vanderbilt | 140 | 662 | 4 | 8 | 4.72 |
| 3 | Ole Miss | 130 | 639 | 2 | 5 | 4.91 |
| 4 | Alabama | 154 | 789 | 4 | 5 | 5.12 |
| 5 | S. Carolina | 134 | 751 | 5 | 3 | 5.60 |
| 6t | Auburn | 169 | 954 | 6 | 8 | 5.64 |
| 6t | Tennessee | 145 | 819 | 3 | 3 | 5.64 |
| 8 | LSU | 180 | 1024 | 5 | 8 | 5.68 |
| 9 | Kentucky | 105 | 652 | 6 | 3 | 6.20 |
| 10 | Georgia | 173 | 1184 | 10 | 3 | 6.84 |
| 11 | Miss. State | 118 | 954 | 4 | 3 | 8.08 |
| 12 | Arkansas | 130 | 1134 | 10 | 3 | 8.72 |
Observations:
* It’s not surprising that Florida, Vanderbilt and Ole Miss rank in the top three in pass defense. They also rank in the top four in our overall Defensive Stinginess ratings as well.
* It IS a bit surprising that LSU ranks in the bottom half of this rating. The Tigers rank among the top four defenses overall, but according to these numbers, their true strength comes from their front seven, not their much-hyped secondary. At least so far.
* And guess which teams rank at the bottom of this stat. Yep, the same four who make up the bottom third of our other defensive ratings: Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi State and Arkansas. Those Georgia and Arkansas TD-to-INT ratios are eye-openingly bad.
