By The Numbers: BYU's defense gets off the mat against Middle Tennessee

Two weeks ago, I detailed a few stats behind BYU's struggling defense after the Cougars got freight-trained by Nevada in the second half. I wasn't even up to the task of doing an update after Boise State did anything it wanted and more. Skepticism of Bronco Mendenhall and Nick Howell was at a fever pitch.

After a 27-7 win at Middle Tennessee, I want to revisit those numbers both in the spirit of fairness to the team and to help shed light on whether or not the defense actually performed well. A large contingent of fans wrote off the game as something that "should happen against a bad team" without giving much though to anything other than surface-level analysis of their cursory knowledge about MTSU.

Let's look at total offensive yards for each team against BYU compared to their average against other FBS opponents.

Before the Middle Tennessee game, BYU allowed 6 of 8 opponents more yards than their average against other FBS teams. Those 6 teams averaged +90.2 yards over their average against FBS teams. BYU held Middle Tennessee to -225 yards its average against FBS opponents.

One of the areas I highlighted in the previous piece was BYU's suffering pass defense, a story I told using opponent's QB ratings.

*Season High | ^Season Low
(UConn's Casey Cochran omitted, his only game this seasons was against BYU)

Before Middle Tennessee, the best BYU could really do was hold a quarterback to about his season average, and at worse was getting absolutely torched. It's worth noting Austin Grammer's rating was nearly identical to Darrell Garretson's and Grant Hedrick's, who both passed for season-high ratings against BYU, but the Cougar defense turned in an entirely different performance against MTSU.

In my previous piece, I finished with points allowed, which is ultimately the point of the game.

BYU began the season with a decent performance, a really good performance, and then the wheels came off -- until Middle Tennessee. In back-to-back weeks, BYU faced QB's with identical passer ratings against other FBS teams and offenses with identical PPG averages against other FBS teams -- one scored 55, the other 7.

Is the defense fixed? Who knows, though we will probably still witness a few rough patches. Still, let's give players and coaches some credit. Against a capable passer, an offense that can score, and some talented skill-position players, the BYU D was facing a knockout punch on the road. Instead, it answered the bell, got off the mat, and won a round.

Four rounds remain.