The good, the bad, the ugly: Week 1, Part I

After watching as much as I could from the 3 big Mountain West games (UNI @BYU, Utah @Michigan, and TCU @New Mexico), here is my breakdown of 2 of the teams:

New Mexico (this one is easy):
The Good: we learned exactly what New Mexico is this year.
The Bad: what, exactly, we learned about New Mexico. They are a pretender, perhaps they'll even be demoted to spoiler.
The Ugly: in a league where the conference champ is undefeated in conference play more times than not, losing your first conference game pretty well eliminates you from competition, and they haven't even played BYU (at BYU) or Utah (at home) yet. This is especially true when it was one of your 4 conference home games.

BYU:
The Good: Defense: take out two plays and BYU's defense held Northern Iowa to just over 200 yards and no points. Offense: Max Hall and the passing game were sharp and he showed he can throw it to anyone he wants anytime he wants (486 yards with completions to 8 different players and he didn't even complete a pass to receivers listed 3-5 on the depth chart). Special Teams: They averaged over 33 yards per kickoff return and about 5 on punt returns.
The Bad: Defense: you can't take away those two plays, which went for over 140 yards and led to 10 points. Also, third down defense could use major improvement (this is where the plethora of talent but lack of experience comes in: great on first and second down, poor on third). Offense: While the passing game was clicking, the running game did not look real stellar (except for Unga) and both potential back-up RBs fumbled and looked lackluster when they weren't dropping the ball. In the passing game there were a couple of blind-side hits due to missed blocks by the left tackle (it appears that the torch has been passed from one Reynolds to the other!). Special Teams: a poor decision to fair catch a punt on the 5 led to a defensive score for UNI. On the ensuing kickoff, another poor decision resulted in a penalty and poor field position again. 5 yards per punt return will not get the job done.
The Ugly: Four turnovers against an FCS opponent, at home, does not bode well for future tests, at home or on the road. Rushing for less than 100 yards and under 3 yards/carry is also troublesome, especially considering the huge size advantage BYU had upfront (though UNI did stack the box with 8 or 9, practically daring them to throw for nearly 500 yards). Two plays for over 60 yards and falling victim to the trick play again is a painful reminder of the Tulsa game last year. It was a 10-point game in the second half so the 2nd and 3rd team guys didn't get the game experience they should have received, given the opponent. When depth is the main difference between you and other top-tier teams, losing an opportunity to develop it could be the difference between the quest for perfection and the quest for second place.