1) I am a little bit surprised (positively) about the difference between this year's defense and last year's. There has been part of me that has been waiting for them to regress to the mean. I think we could be seeing that, but a couple of things that seem positive compared to last year. The defensive line play has taken a big step forward both in terms of run stopping (Ok St seems to be more of an anomaly) and QB pressure and the pass defense has improved greatly.
2) I think the OK State game will be the low point for the defense through the rest of the schedule. Mike Gundy has been very successful over the years in part by knowing how to build exceptional offenses. With a bye week he was able to make some pretty significant adjustments that caught BYU off-guard and exploited some of BYU's weaknesses. That likely has created a template that others can copy, but the element of surprise and time to prepare won't be the same for others.
3) The offense seems to be hitting their stride at the right time, especially where the defense has been able to win games earlier in the season while they were getting their feet under them/recovering from injuries. With LJ back and Jake continuing to improve it looks like BYU
won't have to rely as much on the defense to win games.
4) The defense does seem to have a propensity to create turnovers inside both 30s (that either help provide easy points or prevent points). This has obviously been a strength and a key to several of BYUs victories. Turnovers are not random but they are variable. In other words, there is a pattern and some of the scheming, pressures and coverages help facilitate turnovers (not random), but there is certainly variability in how they occur. BYU could go a full half (or even game) for that matter and not have a turnover, but then have two in a row. That's to say that a defense should strive to create turnovers, but not overly-reliant on them. They have to find other ways to get offenses off the field when the turnovers aren't coming.