Defensive post

YAY!  COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!!!!

Ok, now that Shannon has quit reading . . .

BYU has one of the best defenses in the nation.  But we can't discuss BYU without mentioning their offense because that is what BYU is known for.  And now, we're known for having no offense.  The last two weeks have gone from bad to pathetic.  If I were the head coach, there would be individual, hand written apology letters to each member of the defense and punt team.  The biggest share of the letters would be written by Riley Nelson, with increasingly fewer written by Brandon Doman and the offensive line.  But enough of that.  On to the defense, which is fantastic.

In order to appreciate how fantastic, we're going to compare the BYU defense to the best defense in the nation, which belongs to Alabama.  In 4 games Alabama has given up 14 (Michigan), 0 (Western Kentucky), 0 (Arkansas), and 7 (FAU) points.  That's 5.25 points per game, which is second nationally (behind TCU).  In 4 games BYU has given up 6 (WSU), 13 (Weber St), 24 (Utah) and 7 (BSU) points.  That's 12.25 points per game, which doesn't quite compare.  But 7 points in the Utah and BSU games were scored by their defenses, which we shouldn't hold against the BYU defense.  That drops opponents scoring to 36 points in 4 games, or 9 points per game, which would place BYU tied for 4th nationally.  (Tied with ND, behind Cincinnati.)

But the more impressive thing is that BYU's defense is able to do with despite getting stabbed in the back at every turn by the BYU offense.  Let's more closely examine the most recent games that BYU and Alabama played.  BYU vs BSU and Alabama vs FAU.  I think it will be generally accepted that BSU is a better team than FAU.  (Trivia: do you even know what FAU stands for?)  BSU is certainly not as good this year as they have been for the last few years, and look unlikely to continue to score 40+ points per game as they have for most of the last decade.  But still, they're a decent opponent and a fringe top 25 team.  Alabama held FAU to 110 yards and zero points.  BYU held BSU to 261 yards and zero points.  Certainly fewer yards is better (and I don't want anyone to think that I'm arguing that BYU's defense is as good as Alabama's.  It's not.  But I think they are in the top 10.).  For the season, Alabama is giving up 185 yards per game (3rd nationally) and BYU is giving up 246 (7th nationally).

But let's break this down one step further (and dwell some more on that offensive back stabbing).  Alabama has an offense that actually scores points and holds on to the ball for a while.  More so than BYU (47th in Time of Possession, as opposed to 69th for BYU).  FAU got the ball 11 times against Alabama, so they made 10 yards per possession.  BSU got the ball 12 times (because we gave it back as fast as possible throughout the night), so they got 22 yards per possession.  Furthermore, Alabama has had only 2 turnovers this year.  (Tied for 6th)  BYU has had . . . um . . . a few more.  9 to be exact, which is tied for 94th.  Amazingly, 17 teams have turned the ball over more.  (Maryland "leads" with 13!)  5 times BYU gave the ball to BSU with 60 yards or less to the endzone and BSU never made it there.  Most memorably, BSU downed a punt at the 1 yard line, BYU fumbled the ball right back, and the defense had to stop BSU four times to get the ball back again.  FAU only got the ball once within 75 yards of the endzone against Alabama.  If only our defense could be so lucky.

The offense has been making life difficult for the defense in other games this season, too.  Utah scored 3 times, a 17 yard TD drive, a 39 yard TD drive and a 23 yard FG drive.  Weber State is apparently the only team that can move the ball on BYU with a 90 yard TD drive and a 77 yard TD drive.  Washington State, had FG drives of 57 and 53 yards.  Those drives were helped out with 35 and 42 yards of penalties from BYU, respectively.  So, essentially, unless BYU is helping the other team out with turnovers or dumb (and sometimes questionable) personal fouls, it's real tough to score.

To come back to where we started this journey, I feel bad for the defense.  It's the best BYU has had in many, many years, and it's being wasted.  The defense is giving up 9 points per game and the offense can't help them out at all.  Sadly, I'm to the point of wondering if we could start asking the defense to score a few points, because the offense sure can't.

Since this is already really long, I'll give a quick shout out to the BYU punt team, which is 20th in the nation in net punting.  We're 6th in yards per punt, but have given up one or two big returns to bring the average down a bit.