Final FBS Stop Rate standings: Georgia wins a title, but Iowa’s defense takes own crown
Source - Athletic---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.
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...