Interestingly, Utah actually has a better defense than BYU on paper, and both BYU and Utah have very average offenses in terms of total offense. The glaring difference between the two teams is scoring offense, where BYU is #23, which is very solid, and Utah at #95, which is way below average. The number of yards that the two teams give up on defense and gain on offense are not much different, the difference is that BYU has been much better at turning it into actual points. I'm guessing this is a combination of a BYU defense that has been good at scoring and putting the offense in scoring position, and an offense that is not particularly good at sustaining drives, but is good at scoring when starting in good field position. We also have a couple of TD's on special teams, further boosting the scoring offense numbers. This also shows that there is still plenty of room for criticism of our offense. If we play a team that has a solid offense like Oklahoma State's but also has a decent (even if not elite) defense, we are going to be in trouble. It is not going to be that difficult for an opposing team to slow down our #62 ranked offense with the right matchups, and Ok State proved that our defense has some vulnerabilities. Based on all of this, it is fair to rank BYU as a top 25 team, but I do not believe that BYU is a top 10 team on paper.


BYU:

Total offense: #62
Scoring offense: #23
Total defense: #30
Scoring defense: #26

Utah:

Total offense: #72
Scoring offense: #95
Total defense: #20
Scoring defense: #12