You are entitled to your opinion. However, I do not think that you can call any member of the 2008 secondary "productive". Almost every team dominated us. We were the worst in the NCAA.
This is my last post on this, because a NE Patriots message board is not the place to have this conversation, but we were not even close to the worst secondary in the NCAA. As I previously mentioned, our scheme sold out to stop the run....plus our offense plays and scores very fast, so teams get more plays....plus our offense is very explosive and teams get behind quickly often and pass far more against us than against other teams, so if you just look at passing yards per game, then you are going to be misled.
By total yards we were indeed very poor (not last, but #111/119). However if you look at yards per attempt and turnovers forced....two stats that are far more important to coaches than total yards, you see that we were not even close to "the worst in the NCAA." Here is a comparison of Oregon and some schools that had great pass defenses according to your preferred statistical measure:
#111 Oregon -- 6.62 yards per attempt / 16 int
#3 NM St. --- 6.38 yards per attempt / 9 int
#14 Tulane --- 7.2 yards per attempt / 9 int
#15 VA Tech --- 7.14 yards per attempt / 20 int
#22 Oregon St. --- 6.64 yards per attempt / 13 int
I could go on and on, but basically just know that your perception of Oregon as one of the worst pass defenses in the country last season is flat out wrong. Also, if you look at NCAA pass efficiency defense statistics, which take into account stuff like yards per attempt, TD-Int ratio and the like, Oregon was ranked #57 in the country, which is probably about right for their statistical performance. Even at #57, I'd say that underrates their play/ability, because of us selling out against the run and always significantly losing time of possesion, but it is certainly much more accurate than your ridiculous "worst in the NCAA" comment.
