For one thing, they are all illegible as far as we know...lol, but seriously though. If you look at how that '12 defense was playing before Manti started playing out of his mind because of his thought to be dead fake girl friend, they were 'just' playing good but not great. After that they started playing lights out, based largely imo on his influence, but even then they were very much a text book bend but don't break defense which I'm not a huge fan of.
This year these guys have been playing great since the first game (without any false inspiration stories) and while we've had some long drives against us, it just isn't the norm...in '12 when a team scored on us it was a little surprising and annoying because we weren't used to seeing that too often, but seeing a long drive against us wasn't weird because we were used to it. With this defense, I find myself getting really pissed when we allow long drives,but then I realize its because these guys are more attacking style and the 'norm' is getting the other offense off the field quickly. I like that!