Don’t look now, but Northwestern has the best defense in the country.

The No. 17 Wildcats rank first in scoring defense, allowing a paltry 5.3 points per game. They also lead the nation in opponent third down conversion rate, having yielded a first down just six times in 43 tries.

The list goes on. NU is sixth in the FBS for both passing defense and total defense. The Cats have four interceptions, six sacks and 18 tackles for loss through three contests. Even advanced stats, the ones especially for losers, favor the team. Football Outsiders pegs NU as the seventh-best defense according to its S&P+ ratings system, right behind all-time powerhouse Alabama.

Even accusations of a small sample size don’t hold up. The Cats got the best possible outcome — a shutout — against FCS opponent Eastern Illinois and gummed up two very competent offenses in Stanford and Duke. NU held the Cardinal out of the end zone in their Week 1 matchup, and last week Stanford blew then-No. 6 Southern California out of the water with 41 points.

It’s safe to say this defense is very good. But after some forgettable performances last year, especially against Iowa, Notre Dame and Illinois, and the loss of some key playmakers, it’s difficult to pinpoint what, exactly, has improved from 2014.

“It’s the way (the defense is) preparing,” coach Pat Fitzgerald explained. “(Defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz) and the staff are doing a great job, but the guys are, I think, very, very focused.”

Citing preparation is a classic coach-ism, and one that isn’t helpful here given Hankwitz and the rest of the defensive coaching staff are unchanged from last season. It’s another football cliché — winning the battle in the trenches — that many players believe is the real cause for the defense’s sudden success.

“The credit really goes to our front four guys,” senior linebacker Drew Smith said. “If we have guys like Ifeadi (Odenigbo) and Deonte (Gibson) who can get off the ball, it’s going to help no matter what the situation is.”

And helped it has. Strong play up front has been the hallmark of many great 4-3 defenses — think Warren Sapp and the early 2000s Buccaneers — and NU has found its winning combination along the line. Seniors Deonte Gibson and Dean Lowry and junior Ifeadi Odenigbo are each starting-quality defensive ends, and the fact that the Cats can play all three is an embarrassment of riches.

Add in Odenigbo, a former 4-star recruit, finally starting to realize his full potential with 2.5 sacks so far this year, and NU possesses a nightmarish front for opposing offensive lines to counter.

The defensive line toils in the trenches to set the stage for the rest of the defense, and it helps immensely that there’s a showstopper like sophomore linebacker Anthony Walker behind them to dash through holes and blow up plays before they get started.

Walker is the glue of the stop-unit — think Derrick Brooks on the early 2000s Buccaneers — and it’s by design that he’s the team’s leading tackler through three weeks. The defense funnels plays toward the rangy middle linebacker, which makes plenty of sense considering how great an athlete he is.

“As long as we make the play, you don’t care who it is,” Smith said.

Walker and the defensive line have all elevated their level of play, but NU’s biggest strength this season — depth — revealed itself in the secondary. Sophomore Keith Watkins played one of the best games of any defender Saturday against Duke, and he’s a backup cornerback.

Fitzgerald credited Watkins with “starting to play at a high level” and pointed to his injury last year during the Penn State game as the first of many dominos to fall during an injury-plagued season.

Having a bevy of talented, healthy players to trot out onto the field and produce competition during practice and in games has been their greatest asset.

“We’ve been (rotating) all preseason, we’ve rolled a lot of guys,” Fitzgerald said. “I’d love to play everybody … but I told the guys you’re not going to continue to play if you don’t perform at a high level.”

Fitzgerald hammered home that point by adding that Lowry, the coaching staff’s selection for defensive player of the week after the Duke game, played just 60 percent of the snaps against the Blue Devils.

The shuffling of so many players in and out of the lineup may seem jarring, but NU’s defenders have bought into the philosophy. Those ugly losses last season and back-to-back 5-7 campaigns certainly didn’t feel good, and everyone on the stop-unit has rallied behind the defense’s leaders to turn that around.

Sophomore defensive tackle Tyler Lancaster summed it up when asked what he thinks has changed from a year ago.

“I’d say the leadership has picked up,” he said. “I’m very comfortable with our team captains. They talk to everybody, they motivate everybody and they get everybody to work harder. That leadership has gotten the guys behind them, me and the younger guys, to hop on board.”

All of the stars — talent, depth, leadership — have aligned for NU, and the result is greater than the sum of its parts: a nasty defense that has thus far carried a shaky offense to a 3-0 record with wins over some impressive competition. If the team can keep it up, there’s just one cliche they should be worrying about — defense wins championships.

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Twitter: @BobbyPillote