Right! And everyone here is now realizing it has been the offense that has caused half of the losses and been a reason for the other losses. Yes Jim, people are saying so in here and other places on social media.
To back you up:
You don’t get the 106th overall ranking for defense because the offense is struggling… You get that by not being able to do the job, Period!
That 106 out of 138…pretty bad!
Sorry Dude, but BYU offense has only struggled the last couple of games, I believe because they keep using an injured Hall, but most of the losses in Oct is due to the fact as Han Olsen pointed out, the defense cannot “contain the outside edge”.
here is an article from former players who also agree the defense is the problem:
What former BYU players said about the Cougars’ 0-for-October slide - Deseret News
I would think they have a better understanding of what is going on than any of us because they actually played at this level and at BYU.
Are they on Cougarfan.com? No. So, as you re-read the recent posts. More and more are realizing it’s not Hall’s shoulder. It’s the bad use of TE, WR and RB and Hall himself. Rodrick is not progressing forwards as an OC. He’s regressing. This was supposed to be the best group of OF players ever and they have a hard time scoring 30 points. That’s what my comment is about.
As far as what former players think about the defense, I’m not against that either. So, once again, you struggle staying on point 
I have been baffled about how a team that was 10-3 last year with 7’power five teams on the schedule and returning most of their starters including special
teams players can slide so far. I think the reasons are more than the coaching. BYU has the same coaching staff they had last year.
I have several thoughts:
- Last year’s record was deceptive. We probably would not have beaten Utah if Rising had been the QB. That was BYU’s best win. Arizona was terrible last year so that was a P5 win that was nothing really. They were really a low level mid major in terms of quality. USC had their worst team that I can remember. Virginia was a 6-6 team with a defense worse than BYU’s. Arizona St and Washington St. we’re good, but not great wins. Baylor was really good and they dominated BYU.
I think this years schedule is tougher even with only 5 power five teams on it. Oregon, Arkansas & Notre Dame are all better than any P5 team
BYU beat last year with the exception of Utah, and when BYU beat Utah, Utah had Brewer at QB and they were just an average P5 team until Rising took
over from Brewer late in the SDSU game. Both East Carolina and Liberty are better, right now, than most of the P5 teams BYU beat last year. Maybe the tougher schedule this year is exposing the weaknesses that were there last year and were overlooked.
-
Maybe we didn’t notice the coaching deficiencies
last year because BYU was winning most of the time against an easier schedule. All p5 teams are not created equal. -
A lot of people criticized Bronco Mendenhall’s recruiting but Sitake’s recruiting classes haven’t been ranked noticeably higher, if at all. Maybe the talent level is what it has always been.
4 I have never thought losing one running back should make that much difference if a team returned nearly its entire o-line, but maybe Algeier was one of those type of backs who made even more of an impact than I thought he did. Last year BYU could give him the ball late in the game and he would close it out. He did that in several close games.
As an aside, l wonder if some of the injuries we are seeing keeping guys out of games should be keeping them out of games. The number of injuries the last 2 years has been ridiculous compared to some previous years and I am not talking about the bad injuries like the ones to Rex and the DB last year. I
am talking about all these undisclosed injuries that the coaches are so coy about and guys miss games over.
The defense has issues that everybody agrees on. The offense was supposed to be elite this year and is slipping badly. I noticed at the start of the game Saturday the same running play over and over and they threw a couple of long passes and nothing over the middle on the first drive and then bogged down and kicked a field goal. Most of the passes were short and in the flat after that with an occasional shot down the field and nothing over the middle. I don’t understand it. East Carolina had a low rated pass defense going into the game and a strong run defense. Why not go over the middle more rather than throw nearly every pass In the flat and depend on the receiver to make a play.
Bingo! Why not use the TE more over the middle! What happen to creativity? When was the last gadget play? The defense did well enough to win Saturday, period! The offense scored once in the 2nd half? Enough said!
Just to be clear, I did not say BYU’s defense was good, far from it. I said that BYU’s D against a high octane ECU was good enough for the win in this one case. 106 out of 138 is PUTRID.
BTW, why is Wake jumping every single tackler??? He does know that he out weighs every DB by one hundred pounds. Lower your center and blow them up. THIS IS BAD COACHING.
Andrew George said as much on twitter, something to the effect of, “It feels like the middle of the field is a complete afterthought in this offense. That’s where you move the chains. Everything can’t be down the field…”
Read the Tweets below George. A lot of chatter about the lack of TE involvement. The one I liked best:
Jason P
·
Replying to
Holker was the canary in the coal mine. Rex is being wasted. Hall is not good
This entire season - from the first game through ECU - results in a LOT of head-scratching, from the coaching (HC, OC, DE, and assistants) to the players. Just SO MUCH that does not make any reasonable and/or rational sense. Obviously, by the nature of valable human beings, all FB campaigns lead to plenty of not making sense. But it seems to me that, this team, this year, leads to MUCH MORE imponderables than other years. Really blows my mind (yeah, I can see the jokes coming 
)
106–Total Defense actually makes it sound better than it is. Check out the following rankings–they are scarier than anything else you will see on Halloween.
These are IMHO the 6 categories that best measure the aggression and toughness of a defense; (I’m not suggesting our players are soft–it’s just hard for a tough guy to impose his will when he’s told to backpedal).
124-3rd down defense
121-Rushing Defense
126-Sacks
126-TFL
115-TOP
99-Turnovers gained
The Sports Illustrated article very clearly explains the lack of talent on BYU’s defense.
The lack of talent is exacerbated by our predictable, soft, non-phyical scheme.
Sitake, Lamb or Tui could have demanded more aggression/pressure, but inexplicably have not.
It’s really that simple: the defense is terrible, period. Just terrible.
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Yesterday I watched the Saints/Raiders game. The Saints have a TERRIBLE secondary–it’s been horrid all year. They get beat short, long, and everywhere in between. Yesterday the Saints SHUT OUT the LV Raiders. DeVonte Adams, a potential future HOFer, had zero catches. How did they do this? Hmmmm…
One thing I noticed: the Saints lined up between 5 and 9 ON THE LOS on almost every play. On a lot of their snaps is was 4 down, 2 OLBs on the line, and corners in press. That’s 8 dudes within one yard of the LOS. That creates pressure on the QB even before the ball is snapped. They usually rushed 4, but brought 5 or 6 A LOT, and it was different guys. They very effectively would rush 4 with a strongside (say left) slant from the D tackles and the strongside (left in this example) ILB would stunt around the weakside (right) DT who had just occupied the left guard. That left the weakside OT blocking the DE and nobody to block the blitzing ILB, unless it was a RB who happened to read and pick up the blitz. Such a simple play to call and execute. Plus with 8 in the box, the threat of the OL being overwhelmed was there on every snap.
What I saw was in no way “complex” or “complicated.” The Saints did NOT do this because they have awesome DBs. They did it specifically because they have BAD DBs. It was simple: the Saints’ DC knew his secondary has been terrible, and he knew the best way to protect his DBs was to put pressure on the OL and on the QB, and disrupt the WRs at the LOS. If you pressure the QB and (legally) tie up the WR on the LOS for even 1 second, more often than not the whole play gets screwed up for the offense.
BYU never does this.
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I read George’s comment before I made my post but I actually noticed the lack of passes on the middle
of the field. I commented to my wife that I didn’t understand the play calling on the first drive. If they had scored a TD that may have been the difference in winning and losing. I was on the Hall bandwagon until the last 2 games. If he is injured that may be why his throws are primarily safe passes in the flat. Sometimes those work when a playmaker can get the ball in space but there are a lot plays that get blown up for a loss or a short gain and then they are no better than a run up the middle for a short gain or loss of yardage.
Why no slants over the middle to wideouts or curls to the tight end. When those are completed the receiver is already 8-12 yards downfield instead of in the backfield or a few yards past the line. Early in the year I thought Hall was comparable to Zach Wilson. Now I don’t think so. Zach completed passes all over the field. I am not seeing that from Hall. Right now Hall is more like Tanner Mangum than Zach Wilson except he is more mobile.
I like the first down throws on occasion. I didn’t see a lot of that this last week. You hit some of those and it opens up the running game even more. It seems like BYU is obsessed with establishing the run to the point they are not mixing up the play calling.
I gave up on the defense after the Notre Dame game and was of the opinion that they should gamble on defense and get burned occasionally but force a few errors and keep scoring and win games 42-35. The talent on offense is good enough to win shootouts so gamble on defense and keep your offense on the field and mix things up on O with some first down passes over the middle.
We do think a like on this. I’ve been saying this for weeks now. No imagination on offense. So predictable!
You are right on Larimer!!
What are those two?
TFL - tackles for loss
TOP - Time of Posession
Thank you Stan.
And yes those two above are not showing.
No Tom, you must agree with the Hopper that it is the offense that is losing games because they can’t outscore the other team. Stop blaming the terrible defense and defensive schemes that allow every offense BYU faces to look like a team full of all americans.
The unimaginative offense and poor play calling is just starting to catch up to the horrid defense we have seen most of the season.
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Ummm…no. Since the first game our offense has struggled to score. We stopped gadget plays and no TE down the middle or anything else. We keep doing the same things over and over expecting different results.