So I was on Big Cat Country reading all the posts by the Jags fans relishing in the excuses being made as to why they didn’t win yesterday.  Enjoying the pain and frustration they are feeling as they watch their season slip away I ran across a post that mentioned how Indy couldn’t beat Oakland as they have a very good pass defense.  Oakland good at something?  I couldn’t believe it.  At face value they are ranked #5 in pass defense allowing only 197yrds a game, but are they that good?

In short no, not even close.  A further breakdown is included after the jump.

Pass yards given up per game is usually a solid indicator as to how strong your secondary is.  The lower number of yards you give up usually generate into a smaller number of big plays, smaller number of passing touchdowns etc. etc.

Currently Oakland’s defense is ranked

-          5th in the league in passing yards allowed @ 197 per game

-          27th in the league in allowed passing TD’s @ 26

-          30th in the league in interceptions @ 8

-          28th in the league in +20 yard passing plays @ 50

-          15th in the league in +40 yard passing plays @ 7

-          32nd in the league in number of passing attempts per game @ 28.9

So Oakland is in the bottom 5 teams when it comes to passing TDs, interceptions, 20 yard and 40 yard plays all the while they have the fewest number of passing attempts (4 fewer than the average) against them each game.

The explanation is in the opponents….

When facing top 5 QB’s (Schaub, Orton and Rivers x2) Oakland has given up an average of 275 yards and 2 TDs.  When facing the rest of their schedule they are averaging 190 yards and 2 TDs.  They are good against poor QBs and poor against good QBs.