It's a Good Thing BYU Has a Good Offense!

BYU faced off against UNLV on Saturday. Simply said, all I can say is it's a good thing BYU has a good offense, otherwise they'd be losing a lot of games. All year, I've been talking about how the defense needs a lot of work. I'm not sure why it took a half of a season for other teams to pick up on BYU's weak defensive holes but they seem to have us figured out. BYU walked away from the game with a 42-35 victory but it wasn't what most people were expecting.

Most people expected BYU to score 40 or more points on Saturday. However, they didn't expect UNLV to score even half of what they did. UNLV came out and attacked our defense. They ran plays that confused BYU. BYU has never been great at defending a quick quarter back. UNLV's quarterback is not only quick but he has a good throwing arm as well. The score was close the entire way through the game. When BYU would score, UNLV would turn around and score right after us. We knew it would come down to who was able to make the final scoring drive of the game. Luckily BYU's offense was able to take care of business against a weak UNLV defense. However, even at times BYU's offense struggled. UNLV forced BYU to kick 2 field goals in the second half by stopping them in the red zone.

Although I don't believe BYU's defense is very good right now, I do have to give credit where it is due. I did see two things that I liked from the defense. First, the defense was able to stop UNLV on a couple drives in the second half which gave the offense a chance at pulling away. UNLV's defense responded and forced BYU into the two field goals rather than touch downs. Second, in many instances I noticed that the Defensive backs were not giving the receivers their usual 15 yard cushion. I saw many times when the DB's crowded and even got physical with the receivers forcing UNLV's quarterback to look to the middle of the field for passing lanes. The middle passing lanes should mostly be covered by the linebackers who were too slow. This allowed UNLV's quarterback to throw a 10 yard short slant or crossing pattern at will. Some of the fans around me in the stadium were upset because of the free passes in the middle of the field. The truth is, we the DB's playing the receivers closer, that's what happens when you have an average set of linebackers.

Again, BYU will still win most of their games the rest of the season, however, it probably won't have too much to do with their defense. The defense is weak, venerable, and slow. It's a good thing BYU has a good offense to cover for the defensive weaknesses.