I get what he's saying in that their defense has kept them in most of their games. But for as good as their defense is, their offense is worse than their defense is good.

Let's just look at Big 12 opponents/games right now:

Oklahoma St. is 0-5 in league play. 4 of those losses they allowed 38 or more points. Utah scored 22. The only reason Utah won that game was because of their defense.

Arizona has given up an average of 33 points per game against Big 12 opponents not named Utah. Utah scored 10 against them. They lost this game by 2 TDs. Their offense being "a fraction better" would have not won them this game.

Arizona St. has given up around 28 points per game against Big 12 opponents not named Utah. Utah scored 19 on them. I could maybe see an argument that had Utah been able to punch the ball into the endzone once they got in scoring position instead of either settling for FGs or throwing interceptions, they could have gotten up to, say 30 points in this game. But I don't thing that it would have taken a "fraction" more offense to get there.

As far as the last 2 opponents, I understand the whole "1-score game" argument and that Utah could have gotten wins with marginally better offensive performance. And that would put them at 6-2 and not eliminated from the conference race quite yet. But we are talking about losing to teams that aren't good.

TCU has given up 31.5 PPG against Big 12 opponents not named Utah. Utah scored 7(!!) against them. Sure, they held TCU to 13 points which was an excellent defensive performance, but 7 points against TCU - at home - is embarrassing.

And need we even bring up Houston? The worst team in the Big 12. Going into the Utah game they averaged losing to Big 12 teams by an average score of 29-11. Utah scored 11. Again, Utah's defense played decently in that game, but if your argument is "had our offense been just a LITTLE bit better we could have beaten Houston!!" it's a pretty sorry argument.

Even if we concede that Utah with marginal improvement on offense could be 6-2 right now, they would also be facing a gauntlet of a schedule to close out the season with their next 3 opponents having a combined record of 22-2. 6-2 would have become 6-5 very quickly with a road game at UCF being far from a certainty to win. As such, the "if only we were fractionally better on offense" would only be buying them bowl eligibility - which I guess isn't nothing, but is not something to brag about given where every projected Utah to be at the beginning of the season.