Records reflect before the game was played:

Iowa State (5-3)
Oklahoma (7-1)
Line: -14.5, won by 1 point

Georgia Tech (2-6)
Virginia (6-3)
Line: -16, won by 5 points

ECU (3-6)
SMU (8-1)
Line: -22.5, won by 8 points

Wyoming (6-2)
Boise State (7-1)
Line: -16, won by 3 points

Nevada (6-3)
San Diego State (7-1)
Line: -17.5, LOST by 4 points

Liberty (6-3)
BYU (4-4)
Line: -17.5, won by 7 points

What is my point with this data?

1. Last week in college football there were six teams that were favored by 3+ scores, but the game went down to the wire. It’s not like BYU is on an island here with this. This happens in college sports all the time. This is one week, how many do you think we would find over the course of a season?

2. Good teams sometimes win sloppy. Look at the names up there. Every one of them with the exception of BYU and Virginia were ranked prior to squeaking out their win (or in SDSU’s case their loss). Sometimes ugly just happens, the key is whether or not you can win those games. This season BYU wasn’t able to win in the first two ugly games, but was able to come away with this one.

3. This is not an argument in favor of our defensive game plan. I - like many of you - am troubled by this defense. I think the coaching staff looks at points scored to justify the defense and devalues other quantitative and qualitative measures that can significantly impede the offenses ability to put up points and the defenses ability to stay aggressive and engaged, like Time of Possession (limiting offensive opportunities), and negative impacts to morale and a winning mindset (both offense and defense) as the other teams just slowly dinks and dunks down the field, draining 5-10 minutes off the clock while their QB looks like Tom Brady and their RB like Jamaal Williams when he gets 5+ yards a carry.