Is Utahs defense overated?
 

I'm not saying they are or aren't yet.

Here's something interesting:

BYU Defense PPG: 11

Utah Defense PPG: 19.6

Why?

Is it because Utah has turned the ball over in their own territory giving offenses short fields to work with?

Does it have to do with scheduling thus far and BYU playing more offensive patsies than Utah has to this point?

I acknowledge that overall Utah has better athletes on that side of the ball than we do, but it's a little curious all the praise their defense is getting. They look absolutely dominant at times, so it's a head scratcher they've given up over a TD more ppg game than BYU has.

So what's the answer? Does it lie somewhere in between?

I'll say this much: Last year BYU moved the ball on them rather well, but bogged down in the blue zone and had to kick 3 field goals. That won't happen this year. This BYU offense is an efficient machine. If Utah turns the ball over and the trend of giving other offenses short fields to work with continues, the rivalry game will be a dud and over rather quickly.

We will know the answer Thursday night. Be patient young padwan.

Sorry, I'm not buying the Oregon State hype.

I think Utah beats them by 2 TD's on Thursday.

OSU played the perfect game and out of their heads.

Prior to the USC game they'd looked terrible all year....getting waxed by Penn State in Beaver Stadium (pun intended) before the USC game and getting out physicaled by Stanford on the road as well.

So either they made a massive leap of improvement between the Penn State and USC game or they played out of their heads and still suck.

I was one of the few people in America to understand that USC was overrated.

The test for Utah is whether or not they can stop OSU's running game. If they can, then we have learned something.

I think its all in the match ups... Unfortunately from Utah perspective BYU's offense will match up real well with Utah.

Utah's weakest part of the D is the size of their interior defense (d tackle and Middle Linebackers). If a team has a big back and a good OL they can exploit this weakness like crazy...

The combination of home vs road games (it's fair to say both BYU and Utah have played much better at home than they have on the road, and BYU's played one road game to date), turnovers deep in our own territory (I can think of 4 that were converted into 24 points right off the top of my head), and the joke that is our 2nd-string defense at the end of the Weber game.

Utah's defense has given up fewer yards per play and fewer yards per game than BYU.

http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/natlRank....otdef&site=org

How about this? Because Utah has played better teams?

Average Yards and Points per game on the season for BYUs opponents:

Northern Iowa: Yards 378, points 24; vs BYU yards 362, points 17
Washington: Yards 323, points 19; vs BYU yards 337, points 27
UCLA: Yards 277, points, points 17; vs BYU yards 223, points 0
Wyoming: Yards 269, points 11; vs BYU yards 254, points 0

Average Yards and Points per game on teh season for Utahs opponents:
Michigan: Yards 287, points 21, vs Utah yards 203, points 23
UNLV: Yards 364, points 26, vs Utah 288, points 21
Utah State: Yards 329, points 23, vs Utah 116, points 10
Airforce: Yards 339, points 29.5, vs Utah 191, points 23
Weber State: Yards 418, points 31, vs Utah 359, points 21

Looks to me like both teams have solid defenses, but neither team has played an offense ranked in the top 75 yet. So the jury is still out, but the best thing is that BYU and Utah will have 8 common opponents and a head to head matchup by the end of the year so we will know who is really the better team.

Oh, Weber's offense is #15...

...in the FCS.

http://64.246.64.33/merge/tsnform.as...amtotaloff.htm

I agree.

OSU will be lucky to move the ball against Utah. Utah by seventeen or greater.

the best team each will play will be each other, until possibly the bowl games.

I cannot predict how the game will turn out, given the propensity for injuries, but if both teams play similarly in November as they do at the edge of October, Utah has several things going against it, its interior defense, its propensity for turnovers, and inconsistent offense.

BYU if it stays turnover free, is still vulnerable to Utah's speed on the outside, but overall, I see Utah as too inconsistent to win the game, though it is the game I most fear.

TCU doesn't concern me as much, except for the fact that it's a short week and BYU will not have been tested since Washington, a team it appears we should have throttled, but for turnovers and questionable quantity of penalties.

Utah has enough balance on offense to threaten BYU, but it goes through periods of complete offensive ineptitude. My biased guess is, BYU may be the better team, at the margins. But Whit has shown the ability to prepare his team for that game, so all bets are off.