Penn's pass defense is the best, I mean, the worst ... wait, what?

For all the statistic gurus out there, try to comprehend the following:

Penn football currently ranks first in the Ivy League in pass defense, but simultaneously ranks last in pass defense efficiency. The Quakers have conceded an average of 208.7 yards per game through the air, which is a few yards better than Princeton at 213. However, in terms of pass defense efficiency, Penn's total comes out to a lousy 162.4 –– more than 20 points higher than six of the other seven Ivy squads.

What accounts for this numerical enigma? It's a combination of factors, but the stats are mostly explained by the low volume of pass attempts against Penn and the relatively high number of touchdown passes surrendered by the defense.

In other words, teams don't pass the ball against Penn all that often, but when they do, they tend to score. My colleague Karl Bagherzadeh went as far as calling Penn's secondary problems "the elephant in the locker room" (see column).

Conclusion: If the Quakers want to win an Ivy title, their pass defense will have to step up –– because numbers like these don't stay secret for long.