The Oklahoma Sooners defense is lapping the rest of college football, proving Brent Venables offseason decision was the correct call

Brent Venables Has Built An Elite Oklahoma Defense

It's almost jaw-dropping just how many statistics the Sooners are among the best in the country in following their 24-17 victory over the Auburn Tigers. Oklahoma is seventh in scoring defense, allowing just nine points per game. They are also seventh in passing defense, allowing just 118.5 passing yards per game and are fourth in total yards allowed per game.

The ten sacks the Sooners put up on Auburn were more than what 90 teams had all season entering the weekend, further adding up to a team that will surely finish at or near the top in the country in sacks (final stats have not been tallied as of the writing of this article). They were already bordering the top-ten in tackles for loss and will be in there after a 14(!) TFL performance on Auburn.

The most impressive stat so far however, has been their success rate. Success rate is a measurement of an offense's efficiency by dividing their number of "successful" plays by the total number of plays. A play is "successful" if it achieves a certain percentage of yards needed to convert a first down. So for example, picking up five+ yards on a first and 10 or converting a third down into first down would be successful. For defenses, this is a measure of how many of those successful plays you allow. Oklahoma, as it turns out, has allowed very, very, very few.

The Sooners are lapping the rest of the college football world in defensive success rate. It's not even close either, which is an astounding fact.

We had a strong feeling that Oklahoma would build off their tremendous defensive success from a year ago, but right now, the Sooners have the best defense in college football right now. I'm not sure anyone would have believed you if you had said that just a couple of years ago.

There's still plenty of time left in the season, and the Sooners will play better and better competition as the year goes on. However, it's looking more and more like Venables's gamble on himself has paid off for Oklahoma.