an arbitrary number, it's a reasonable spot to pick.

What I find interesting about the analysis you put out is that if you assigned a "record" to the offense and defense independent of each other, the Defense would have had a better record by 3+ "wins" in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Their combined "record" in that stretch would be 30-9 while the offense would have a record of 17-22. Our actual record during that stretch was 20-19 and in general our offense had more to do with those losses than our defense (especially in 2017).

As we jump forward to 2019 and beyond, however, things shift a bit. BYU's "records" in 2019 were 8-5 for the offense and 7-6 for the defense. I would rate that as both being fairly mediocre with the offense only slightly ahead of the defense. In 2020, both units were spectacular and had equal "records" of 11-1.

In 2021, the offense was great (11-2) while the defense was mediocre (7-6). I think we would all agree that this was generally the case as BYU's defensive numbers were down across the board last season. Whether you want to blame scheme or injuries or execution or recruiting is another debate entirely. But there is no debating that the offense was great last year and the defense wasn't.

So far in 2022, both sides are performing equally (4-1). Most statistical indicators so far seem to be showing that BYU's offense is ahead of the defense. But the argument being made here is simply that BYU's defense won us the Baylor game, cost us the Oregon game, and both units played well enough to "win" in the other 3 games (USF, Wyoming, and Utah St.).

I will agree that CougarBoard seems to be more down on the defense than maybe they should. I will still maintain that the defense (and in particular the defensive line) looks to be the weakness of this team (that and the surprisingly poor placekicking). Hopefully they can figure things out, but the mediocre D-Line play is making me incredibly nervous going into back-to-back games against teams with very good lines (Notre Dame and Arkansas).