#5 in the the Sun Belt in Sacks (12)
#1 in the Sun Belt in INT's (9)
#1 in Red Zone Defense (14-20, 70%)
#1 in Pass Defense Efficiency
#1 in Yards Per Completions Allowed (6.2)
#1 in Scoring Defense (20.5ppg)
#3 in Defensive Yards per Play (5.3)

Looks to me like our Pass defense is actually pretty good. Total yards is deceiving because we are only 1 of 2 teams that haven't had a BYE yet.

The reason teams have so many first downs and gain a lot of yardage is because we are playing that "bend don't break" philosophy. We'll give them short first downs all day long because the chances of you making a mistake when it takes you 14 plays to get down the field rather than 7 is doubled. Hence the increased number of INT's.

This also leads to an increased Red Zone defense because in or near the Red Zone we no longer have to worry about giving up the big play. The QB tries to throw that same short route he's done all the way down the field but this time our guy is there to make a play on it, it especially helps if there is a pass rush in his face. Both App and NMSU experienced first hand what happens when you drive the length of the field 4-8 yards at a time and get into that position with our defense, it ends up looking like the QB made a rookie mistake (which is true in some cases), but those mistakes are a direct result of the way the defense is playing.

I think a good reason why this philosophy killed us last season is because Curtis wasn't allowed (I use this term loosely because I'm not sure if he was shackled last season or not) to Blitz nearly as often as he is now and so when we got into the Red Zone we weren't able to get pressure on the QB to force those turnovers that we are seeing this season.