I agree. the Talent on O is good. Now, "as for the D being gashed all year with a bonehead play" <-------your words and then you write, even if my "stats" say otherwise. Lets stop right there. They are not "my" stats. They are your stats and everyone's stats, and thankfully, the people doing them understand that defensive strength is not just one play, but it's the entire game.....every play, and the part that you just can't get through that skull of yours (no matter how simple I try to explain it) is that VT ranks well in many negative plays that are not boneheaded. They rank very well in many 1 or 2 yard plays, and many takeaways and flipped field positions by the D given to our O. This part.....you just simply can not grasp or understand. The fact is......our Defense THIS YEAR is doing what a 27th ranked defense in the United States is supposed to do......."it will get gashed on several plays each game whether boneheaded or not." Again, your comparison is to the VT defenses of old which were an anomaly. Defenses ranked top 5 and 10 every year which simply should not have been as good as they were at VT. The standard of comparison is the other 127 teams in football, not the old VT defense. VT each game plays an opponent, not a former VT team of 7 years ago. This part.....it's hard for you to overcome and separate.
Once again....a final part that the white matter of your cortex just simply does not process and this is.......VT playing in the SEC or Big 12 and our D number ranking way different. Once again, the strength of schedule of our opponents offenses are factored in to defensive efficiency rankings. I know...it hurts. It bothers you. It makes you uncomfortable, but it is still true and something you are going to have to deal with. Finally, there is no need to address you individual examples of Miami or ECU. The season is 12 games, not two games. Again, 27th ranked defenses will have 3-4 games in which they lay eggs or get beat pretty good. Again, this is NORMAL for a 27th ranked defense. An 80th ranked defense will lay 6-7 eggs a season. A VT defense of 2006 will lay one egg. It's NORMAL. This doesn't make the defense "BAD". As for Bama and BC. Bama ranks higher in defensive efficiency. You gave Total Defense or yards per game in which BC ranks better and in this area.......strength of the opponent is not factored in. Factor in Efficiency Ranking (strength of schedule of the opponents) and believe it or not, a team like Oki State is top 20 in Defense as is Oklahoma as is West Virginia. (3 Big 12 schools.).
Final statement. You have got to get through your head that the standard of comparison for our Defense is 127 other teams on defense in 2015, not the VT defenses of the past 15 years. Our D has been so good that fans that just don't know enough about football simply can't grasp what a 27th ranked defense looks like, but at VT in 2015, you are seeing it. But....in some people's minds, its because they just can't get past comparing it to the VT defenses of old, but again.....this is what a 27th ranked defense looks like. It is also why people such as myself were kicking and screaming in the mid-late 2000s about missed opportunities for national title appearances due to the fact that people such as myself that knows football, understand the defenses we had were insanely an anomaly and out of this world, and for the fact that........if we had ANY KIND of an offense, we would have competed for at least 1 national title from 2005 through 2010. This is why I have the distaste for Stinespring. The offenses were ranking in the 80's to 100's. Our D was so good, and people like me mentioned this at the time, that if we could just get a top 40 offense, we could compete for a title. Forget about a top 10 or top 20 or top 30 O, if Stinespring could have just had one offense rank in the top 40's from 2005-2010, we could have played for a national title, yet he could not do it, and Frank allowed it.