[cardcoug]

[quote author=ThePassionOfTheChryst link=topic=13351.msg137022#msg137022 date=1445810703]
An interesting question comes to mind.  Who would win in a hypothetical matchup between a team of UW's defense with WSU's offense, and a team of 2014 Stanford's defense with 2015 Stanford's offense?

Pretty sure the 2014/2015 Stanford team would win, easily.  That would be a combination of a top-10 offense and a top-10 defense.  I would put that team up against anyone.

BC
[/quote]

I completely agree. It's not even close. Our 2014 defense was elite nationally and led the PAC 12 by a very wide margin in basically every single category. Washington's defense is one of the good defenses in the conference this year.  I haven't checked, but after last night I think that either we or Utah will have moved above them in several categories; their 1st place position in many stats was by a very small margin. And if what folks have to say in the safeties and WSU thread is accurate, their offense is good, but not elite. Our offense, on the other hand, has been utterly and completely dominant in conference play. WIM is right; I think that team would go 15-0.

We have some actual evidence availble, in fact: our offense just had its way with Washington's defense last night. They slowed us down a bit, but we still got 31 points (and if it had been a close game we would not have milked the clock as we did, thus likely scoring much more). So we know how things would go on that side of this hypothetical matchup. on the other side, our defense didn't yield much to them last year, certainly nothing like what we did to Washington last night, and it doesn't sound like their offense this year is significantly better than its predecessor, though here things are more speculative.

[cardcoug]

[quote author=ThePassionOfTheChryst link=topic=13351.msg137022#msg137022 date=1445810703]
An interesting question comes to mind.  Who would win in a hypothetical matchup between a team of UW's defense with WSU's offense, and a team of 2014 Stanford's defense with 2015 Stanford's offense?

Pretty sure the 2014/2015 Stanford team would win, easily.  That would be a combination of a top-10 offense and a top-10 defense.  I would put that team up against anyone.

BC
[/quote]

I completely agree. It's not even close. Our 2014 defense was elite nationally and led the PAC 12 by a very wide margin in basically every single category. Washington's defense is one of the good defenses in the conference this year.  I haven't checked, but after last night I think that either we or Utah will have moved above them in several categories; their 1st place position in many stats was by a very small margin. And if what folks have to say in the safeties and WSU thread is accurate, their offense is good, but not elite. Our offense, on the other hand, has been utterly and completely dominant in conference play. WIM is right; I think that team would go 15-0.

We have some actual evidence availble, in fact: our offense just had its way with Washington's defense last night. They slowed us down a bit, but we still got 31 points (and if it had been a close game we would not have milked the clock as we did, thus likely scoring much more). So we know how things would go on that side of this hypothetical matchup. on the other side, our defense didn't yield much to them last year, certainly nothing like what we did to Washington last night, and it doesn't sound like their offense this year is significantly better than its predecessor, though here things are more speculative.