The Best BYU Defense Ever?

Is this the best BYU defense ever? Through 5 games, they are making a good run.



October will be the true test, but here is a look at how the 2012 defense compares with the other top defenses in BYU history.



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It's tricky, because teams also know that they don't have to score a lot to beat us; meaning we haven't seen a lot of teams go for the home run ball, preferring vanilla offense and holding onto the ball over risky offense with higher rewards.



Both Boise and Utah feasted on Rileys mistakes, leaving our defense to fend against ball control offenses. Also BYUs turnovers have put the BYU D in bad field position and they still responded which is awfully impressive.



I'd say that this defense is one of the best, but I think the best ever would 1. take the ball away from teams more than this one does 2. create points themselves, which is a hallmark of truly great and dominant Ds. However, the Boise effort was unforgettable.



I'm not sure we know yet, particularly now that our dline is depleted, but they're really good and will have a chance to put themselves in a serious conversation for best ever.

Who knows at this point. Unfortunately, Bronco sacrificed this "best ever" label on the alter of his favorite warrior. He squandered 2 wins that his defense had earned him for a mess of Riley pottage. An undefeated, 5-0, BYU and top 15 ranking gets his defense the notoriety it deserves. Band of Brothers + one very special, "tougher than us all" player.

Once again the manifestation of "Good is the enemy of Great." A "good" qb who was only 65% was deemed better than a fellow Sr who was 100% and a super talented freshman, who really isn't a freshman in the truest sense. But for ONE player who was deemed more important than the team--what a shame.

craigoscarson wrote:
It's tricky, because teams also know that they don't have to score a lot to beat us; meaning we haven't seen a lot of teams go for the home run ball, preferring vanilla offense and holding onto the ball over risky offense with higher rewards.



Both Boise and Utah feasted on Rileys mistakes, leaving our defense to fend against ball control offenses. Also BYUs turnovers have put the BYU D in bad field position and they still responded which is awfully impressive.



I'd say that this defense is one of the best, but I think the best ever would 1. take the ball away from teams more than this one does 2. create points themselves, which is a hallmark of truly great and dominant Ds. However, the Boise effort was unforgettable.



I'm not sure we know yet, particularly now that our dline is depleted, but they're really good and will have a chance to put themselves in a serious conversation for best ever.

The thing is, what you are describing is a product of the defense not the offense. The defense is designed to make sure nothing goes over the top so the offenses are dinking and dunking and no one has been able to sustain drives yet. Hawaii is bad but everyone on the defense has said that they have been working on creating turnovers in practice. It seemed to work against Hawaii, we will see if they create more against other teams.

Offensive rankings of teams we have played: Boise 72, Wazzu 85, Utah 116 and Hawaii 118.



So, is BYU's D for real or are our stats based on playing really poor offenses?



For comparison - USU's opponents: UNLV 80, CSU 103, WI - 109, Utah 112.



Do we really know anything about these defenses yet?



I think we do as BYU's D has performed better this year than they have in the past, but how much of that is a function of the opposing offenses being horrible?

And how much of their low ranking is due to the fact that their offenses were shut down by BYU's defense?

What we do know is that the defense is faster than we have seen in a long time. I am still getting used to how quickly they are getting and taking down guys in space.

RobertMRogers wrote:
And how much of their low ranking is due to the fact that their offenses were shut down by BYU's defense?

And how much of our total defensive yardage output is due to the fact that our offense was giving the ball away like it was free ice cream for almost 8 full quarters under Nelson.



If we had had a decent offense that held on to the ball, we might be the top defense in the nation right now, instead of top 5.

dmcougar wrote:
Who knows at this point. Unfortunately, Bronco sacrificed this "best ever" label on the alter of his favorite warrior. He squandered 2 wins that his defense had earned him for a mess of Riley pottage. An undefeated, 5-0, BYU and top 15 ranking gets his defense the notoriety it deserves. Band of Brothers + one very special, "tougher than us all" player.

Once again the manifestation of "Good is the enemy of Great." A "good" qb who was only 65% was deemed better than a fellow Sr who was 100% and a super talented freshman, who really isn't a freshman in the truest sense. But for ONE player who was deemed more important than the team--what a shame.

The real shame is that a thread was started on how great the BYU defense is, and you turned into another chance to vilify the coach and spew more hatred for Riley.



I've really enjoyed watching the way the defense has been playing this year. Most teams would not have even been in the game with either Utah or Boise with all of the turnovers. They gave the team a chance to pull it out. If the defense continues the kind of play we've seen the rest of the season looks very good! 8)

By week's end I should have the following stats ready for our offense and defense. These stats will show:

- what our offense and defense did against opposing defensive and offensive averages

- what our opponents offensive and defensive averages are outside of the BYU game



I think by showing how we compare to our opponents averages and their averages without our game factored in, we can whether our offense and defense is really any good.



If we're doing more on offense than our opponents defenses are allowing on average, I think we've got a good offense.



If we're allowing less on defense than our oppoents offenses are averaging, I think we've got a good defense.

RobertMRogers wrote:
And how much of their low ranking is due to the fact that their offenses were shut down by BYU's defense?

This is a great point. With our opponents only having played 4 or 5 games so far, it is too early to tell, because their performance against BYU's defense is 20-25% of their overall performance so far.



You will see Boise State's and Hawaii's offenses start to climb up the offensive performance rankings as they move into the Mountain West portion of their schedules.



Boise put up over 500 yards of offense against New Mexico and almost 600 yards of offense against Miami-OH. Versus 260 against BYU, at home. I expect to see 450-500 yards per game by Boise St. against the likes of SDSU, UNLV, Colorado St., etc.



Hawaii had about 375 yards of offense against Nevada and about 260 yards on the road at USC. You will see more in the 350-400 yard range against MWC teams.



Also, I think we will see the numbers for BYU's defense suffer a little bit over the next three or four weeks, playing quality offenses of USU and Oregon State, and Notre Dame on the road in consecutive weeks. And Georgia Tech's rushing offense will hurt BYU's rushing defense merely by the number of rushing plays that the Yellow Jackets will run. But, once we get to November, you will see BYU's defensive numbers claw back and should finish strong, especially against Idaho and NMSU.

Honestly, the 1985 defense was BYU's best in history and they weren't even mentioned in the blog post. That team line was this:



13.5 points/gm

3 shutouts (SDSU, Wyoming, USU)

125 yd/gm rushing

173 yd/gm passing

297 yd/gm total offense

4.2 yd/play

89.9 PER against

8 passing TDs against and 22 interceptions



And that was against a schedule that included two AP final top ten teams (#7 UCLA and #8 Air Force), a top 15 team (#14 Ohio State), the defending Orange Bowl champs (UDub), and the defending Cotton Bowl champs (BC).



As tough as this year's schedule looks on paper, I don't think it's going to be as tough as 1985.

When BYU's defense shuts off USU, OSU, and ND we will have a few more believers. Maybe after we win those games, some of the doubters will change their minds about the season being over.

The D is amazing and will finish top 5. The goalline stand vs BSU should be In BYU's most unforgettable moments. I hope it endures. Unfortunately it will lose some its luster because it did not, but should have, led to a win. If we win that game, that stand becomes the highlight more than the winning touchdown. Get the connection? What, Have you been going to Bibs leadership seminars? Sheesh?

I believe in the D! Help thou mine unbelief in the O under BroncO.

Bib and I have 1 thing in common. We are both tired of the stormy clouds who came out of the woodworks to bag on BYU.

Would those be the pot clouds or the kettle clouds? ;-)

dmcougar wrote:
Would those be the pot clouds or the kettle clouds? ;-)

If you are accusing me of being a stormy cloud, I would invite you to do a search and point out specific posts where I could be classified as one. I would bet you will have a hard time finding one.

:munch:

dmcougar wrote:
The D is amazing and will finish top 5. The goalline stand vs BSU should be In BYU's most unforgettable moments. I hope it endures. Unfortunately it will lose some its luster because it did not, but should have, led to a win. If we win that game, that stand becomes the highlight more than the winning touchdown. Get the connection? What, Have you been going to Bibs leadership seminars? Sheesh?

I believe in the D! Help thou mine unbelief in the O under BroncO.

Not sure about top 5, but definitely a possibility. This is the best D at BYU I have seen since I started as a student in 1989. We are faster to the edges than we have been in many years.



We should be able to shut down USU's O on Friday. If not, then this D isn't as good as we think it is.



I don't see USU scoring more than 14 against this D.

northerncougar wrote:
Not sure about top 5, but definitely a possibility. This is the best D at BYU I have seen since I started as a student in 1989.

Dude, what are you majoring in? I had no idea BYU had 23+ year degree.



:lol:

Cougarfan87 wrote:

Not sure about top 5, but definitely a possibility. This is the best D at BYU I have seen since I started as a student in 1989.

Dude, what are you majoring in? I had no idea BYU had 23+ year degree.



:lol:

Good thing I wasn't drinking anything when I read that. Made my day. :crazy: