BYU's Defense Needs Work

BYU continued conference play against the New Mexico Lobos. After it was all said and done the Cougars won the football game 21-3. By simply looking at that score you'd believe that BYU's defense had a great performance. However, from where I was sitting, BYU's defense didn't look too good most of the game.

I don't claim to be a football expert by any stretch of the imagination. However, the defensive holes need to be fixed and need to be fixed quickly if BYU wants to continue winning football games. Too often I hear about how BYU's defense is doing so well. Even some of the football players themselves are boasting of the fact that they have out scored opponents by large margins and only allowed 17 points to be scored on them in the last four games. I don't mean to burst any one's bubble but the truth is they have played weak teams. All but one of BYU's opponents at this point in the season haven't even won 50% of their games. Northern Iowa is the only team above .500 simply because they are a Division II football team and play teams that would have a tough time competing with a good high school football team.

The biggest defensive frustration that I see as a fan is when BYU's opponent needs to gain 5-10 yards on their down. If you're in a third down situation and you need 5-10 yards, the majority of the time it will be a simple pass. It will either be a short slant or a quick 5-10 yard side line catch. So, when these situations present themselves, I find it painfully frustrating that the defensive backs will line up and give all the receivers a 15 yard cushion. That allows the quarterback to throw a basic pass to the side line for an easy first down. Again, I don't claim to be the defensive expert here but if I were drawing up an offensive attack on BYU, I would simply throw short slants and side line passes. I would occasionally throw a deep ball or a running play to keep everyone else on defense honest. I believe that with that simple game plan, most of the teams could have easily scored at least another touchdown each.

The second biggest problem I see is again related to the defensive backs and line backers. They seem to lose track of their receivers and fall apart if the quarterback simply rolls out of the pocket. On Saturday, I saw several times when BYU put enough pressure on New Mexico's quarterback that he was forced to scramble out of the pocket. When that happened, he had receiver after receiver open. Luckily he missed most of those open receivers. BYU was clearly defending the big play by not letting their receivers get passed them but at some point you are going to have to defend a receiver who is wide open 15 yards down field.

With all that being said, we really don't know anything about BYU's defense. Sure, they have only given up 17 points in their last four football games, but the true test is going to come on Thursday when they are faced with one of the toughest games of the season. TCU is a great football team that will surely test BYU's defense much more than any of the sub-par teams they have played up to this point.