Georgia won back-to-back national titles thanks to an excellent defense loaded with NFL talent that once again played its best on the biggest stage. This year, though, the champs did not finish No. 1 in stop rate.
What is stop rate? It’s a basic measurement of success: the percentage of a defense’s drives that end in punts, turnovers or a turnover on downs. This simple metric can offer a more accurate reflection of a defense’s effectiveness in today’s faster-tempo game than yards per game or points per game. We’ve been tracking this for each of the past five seasons (here are the final standings for 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2017) along with every defense’s points per drive average.
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And for the second time in three years, Iowa finished with the No. 1 defense in stop rate. The Hawkeyes got stops on nearly 79 percent of their drives against FBS offenses.
Iowa had the best defense in the country in yards per play (3.99), the best in passing yards per attempt (5.3) and the second-best in yards per rush (2.8). In the last decade, only two other defenses have held their opponents to less than four yards per play: 2016 Alabama and 2017 Alabama.
Longtime defensive coordinator Phil Parker and his crew made their foes earn every yard this year. Nobody was better at preventing explosive plays. The Hawkeyes gave up just 24 plays of 20-plus yards and nine of 30-plus yards over 13 games. They held four teams under 200 yards, including Kentucky in their 21-0 victory in the Music City Bowl.
And, of course, this Iowa defense was pretty darn good at scoring points. They tied for the national lead with six defensive touchdowns, with three coming from defensive back Cooper DeJean. If you take away those scores, Iowa’s offense averaged just 14.5 points per game. It’s unfortunate that those offensive struggles were the defining storyline for this 8-5 team, because their defense was seriously dominant from start to finish.
One other defense came pretty darn close to finishing first: Marshall. Defensive coordinator Lance Guidry pulled off a top-25 finish in stop rate last season, and this group got even better in Year 2. The Herd had the best third-down defense in college football and held Notre Dame and eight other opponents to 21 points or less. If you factor in their two games against FCS opponents, their season stop rate was 80 percent.
Michigan fell out of the No. 1 spot in the stop rate standings with its 51-45 loss to TCU in the Fiesta Bowl and finished No. 3, ahead of No. 4 Illinois and No. 5 Penn State. The Big Ten had seven defenses finish in the top 20 in this year’s stop rate standings.
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Where did Georgia end up? The Bulldogs rose to No. 8 thanks to their 65-7 smothering of TCU in the CFP title game and finished with the best run defense in the FBS for the third time in four years.
One little quirk that stood out about these final stop rate standings: Clemson and Ohio State tied for the No. 10 spot with the exact same stop rate (74.3 percent) by playing the same number of drives (171) against FBS opponents. Their points per drive averages were almost identical, too. The same thing happened with the No. 18 spot in a much more fascinating coincidence: Cincinnati and Wisconsin both played 152 drives on defense and both had a 71.7 percent stop rate. Cincinnati’s Mike Tressel is taking over the Badgers’ defense for Jim Leonhard.
This season, 21 of the top 25 teams in stop rate won eight or more games, and 11 of them won 10-plus games. The Pac-12 was certainly an outlier here with USC (No. 105 in stop rate), Oregon (No. 111) and UCLA (No. 112) thriving despite defenses that had a hard time getting stops. Pac-12 champ Utah finished 34th in stop rate,and Oregon State was the best in the conference at 24th.
How did the rest of the defenses across the country perform in stop rate? Here are the full FBS-only stop rate standings for the 2022 season.
Note: All data is courtesy of TruMedia and Pro Football Focus.
Rk | Defense | G | Drives | Stop Rate | Pts/Drive |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 12 | 150 | 78.7% | 1.09 | |
2 | 11 | 153 | 78.4% | 1.20 | |
3 | 14 | 168 | 77.4% | 1.18 | |
4 | 12 | 146 | 76.7% | 1.10 | |
5 | 13 | 168 | 76.2% | 1.33 | |
6 | 12 | 120 | 75.8% | 1.31 | |
7 | 10 | 143 | 75.5% | 1.40 | |
8 | 14 | 162 | 74.7% | 1.28 | |
9 | 13 | 152 | 74.3% | 1.44 | |
10 | 13 | 171 | 74.3% | 1.51 | |
10 | 13 | 171 | 74.3% | 1.50 | |
12 | 13 | 162 | 74.1% | 1.47 | |
13 | 13 | 165 | 73.9% | 1.51 | |
14 | 12 | 128 | 73.4% | 1.33 | |
15 | 11 | 137 | 73% | 1.60 | |
16 | 12 | 159 | 73% | 1.48 | |
17 | 12 | 153 | 71.9% | 1.70 | |
18 | 12 | 152 | 71.7% | 1.67 | |
18 | 12 | 152 | 71.7% | 1.68 | |
20 | 11 | 130 | 71.5% | 1.72 | |
21 | 12 | 148 | 70.9% | 1.61 | |
22 | 13 | 157 | 70.7% | 1.77 | |
23 | 12 | 151 | 70.2% | 1.75 | |
24 | 12 | 134 | 70.1% | 1.63 | |
25 | 12 | 155 | 69.7% | 1.79 | |
26 | 12 | 158 | 69.6% | 1.72 | |
27 | 13 | 177 | 69.5% | 1.86 | |
28 | 13 | 170 | 69.4% | 1.73 | |
29 | 12 | 140 | 69.3% | 1.85 | |
30 | 13 | 156 | 69.2% | 1.74 | |
31 | 12 | 158 | 69% | 1.86 | |
32 | 12 | 132 | 68.9% | 1.70 | |
32 | 11 | 132 | 68.9% | 1.77 | |
34 | 13 | 151 | 68.9% | 1.94 | |
35 | 13 | 152 | 67.8% | 1.74 | |
36 | 12 | 142 | 67.6% | 1.92 | |
37 | 12 | 145 | 67.6% | 1.90 | |
38 | 13 | 157 | 67.5% | 1.94 | |
39 | 12 | 156 | 67.3% | 1.86 | |
40 | 12 | 140 | 67.1% | 1.86 | |
41 | 13 | 161 | 67.1% | 1.86 | |
42 | 12 | 142 | 66.9% | 1.80 | |
42 | 12 | 142 | 66.9% | 1.95 | |
44 | 13 | 151 | 66.9% | 1.88 | |
45 | 12 | 165 | 66.7% | 2.01 | |
45 | 12 | 147 | 66.7% | 1.97 | |
45 | 12 | 183 | 66.7% | 2.02 | |
45 | 12 | 141 | 66.7% | 2.09 | |
45 | 9 | 114 | 66.7% | 1.76 | |
50 | 13 | 164 | 66.5% | 1.79 | |
51 | 12 | 148 | 66.2% | 1.96 | |
52 | 12 | 145 | 66.2% | 1.88 | |
53 | 11 | 130 | 66.2% | 2.06 | |
54 | 12 | 150 | 66% | 2.09 | |
55 | 12 | 152 | 65.8% | 1.93 | |
56 | 11 | 146 | 65.8% | 2.14 | |
57 | 11 | 145 | 65.5% | 2.02 | |
58 | 11 | 142 | 65.5% | 2.13 | |
59 | 10 | 132 | 65.2% | 1.83 | |
60 | 12 | 140 | 65% | 2.07 | |
60 | 11 | 140 | 65% | 1.96 | |
62 | 12 | 154 | 64.9% | 2.19 | |
63 | 10 | 114 | 64.9% | 2.13 | |
64 | 13 | 154 | 64.3% | 2.10 | |
65 | 11 | 134 | 64.2% | 2.18 | |
66 | 12 | 145 | 64.1% | 2.12 | |
67 | 11 | 150 | 64% | 2.14 | |
68 | 11 | 136 | 64% | 2.17 | |
69 | 13 | 155 | 63.9% | 2.07 | |
70 | 13 | 157 | 63.7% | 2.13 | |
71 | 14 | 187 | 63.6% | 2.20 | |
72 | 13 | 178 | 63.5% | 2.19 | |
73 | 11 | 134 | 63.4% | 2.12 | |
74 | 12 | 152 | 63.2% | 2.04 | |
75 | 13 | 160 | 63.1% | 2.26 | |
76 | 11 | 135 | 63% | 2.14 | |
77 | 12 | 153 | 62.7% | 2.31 | |
78 | 11 | 134 | 62.7% | 2.13 | |
79 | 12 | 147 | 62.6% | 2.19 | |
80 | 11 | 136 | 62.5% | 2.31 | |
80 | 11 | 128 | 62.5% | 2.06 | |
82 | 11 | 154 | 62.3% | 2.32 | |
83 | 12 | 140 | 62.1% | 2.29 | |
84 | 12 | 161 | 62.1% | 2.12 | |
85 | 11 | 129 | 62% | 2.29 | |
86 | 12 | 150 | 62% | 2.33 | |
87 | 11 | 142 | 62% | 2.28 | |
88 | 12 | 157 | 61.8% | 2.32 | |
89 | 12 | 141 | 61.7% | 2.33 | |
89 | 11 | 141 | 61.7% | 2.29 | |
91 | 12 | 140 | 61.4% | 2.29 | |
92 | 12 | 131 | 61.1% | 2.40 | |
93 | 11 | 136 | 61% | 2.26 | |
94 | 12 | 151 | 60.9% | 2.26 | |
95 | 10 | 117 | 60.7% | 2.49 | |
96 | 12 | 142 | 60.6% | 2.32 | |
97 | 11 | 138 | 60.1% | 2.26 | |
98 | 13 | 160 | 60% | 2.38 | |
99 | 13 | 157 | 59.9% | 2.54 | |
100 | 11 | 144 | 59.7% | 2.47 | |
101 | 12 | 151 | 59.6% | 2.36 | |
102 | 11 | 146 | 59.6% | 2.33 | |
103 | 11 | 121 | 59.5% | 2.30 | |
104 | 11 | 137 | 59.1% | 2.61 | |
105 | 14 | 154 | 58.4% | 2.64 | |
106 | 11 | 137 | 58.4% | 2.44 | |
107 | 11 | 139 | 58.3% | 2.53 | |
108 | 11 | 141 | 57.4% | 2.38 | |
109 | 11 | 129 | 57.4% | 2.60 | |
110 | 12 | 132 | 56.8% | 2.66 | |
111 | 12 | 133 | 56.4% | 2.47 | |
112 | 12 | 138 | 55.8% | 2.58 | |
113 | 12 | 142 | 55.6% | 2.71 | |
114 | 12 | 151 | 55.6% | 2.75 | |
115 | 11 | 141 | 55.3% | 2.75 | |
116 | 12 | 143 | 55.2% | 2.66 | |
117 | 13 | 154 | 54.5% | 2.62 | |
118 | 11 | 133 | 54.1% | 2.75 | |
119 | 12 | 128 | 53.9% | 2.72 | |
120 | 12 | 153 | 53.6% | 2.64 | |
121 | 11 | 127 | 53.5% | 2.81 | |
121 | 11 | 127 | 53.5% | 2.84 | |
123 | 11 | 131 | 53.4% | 3.02 | |
124 | 11 | 132 | 51.5% | 2.93 | |
125 | 12 | 140 | 51.4% | 2.83 | |
126 | 11 | 139 | 51.1% | 2.95 | |
127 | 11 | 126 | 50.8% | 2.91 | |
128 | 12 | 145 | 49.7% | 3.08 | |
129 | 11 | 127 | 49.6% | 3.13 | |
130 | 12 | 147 | 46.3% | 3.51 | |
131 | 11 | 132 | 43.9% | 3.47 |
(Photo: Carly Mackler / Getty Images)