- I’m glad basketball season has started and we have an inside presence.
- Mangum seemed off, even though his protection was good. A 46 QBR is terrible, and that’s about how he played.
- Our ILB are the worst. We were spoiled with about 6 in a row who were all at least NFL practice players. But our ILB last year and this year have been really tough to watch. Our ILB don’t tackle and they don’t fill holes at the LOS. We can’t stop a run unless Kaufusi does it himself or we sell out with our safeties. Go back and watch the last 3rd down Missouri converted: 3rd and 5, we know they will run, and they do, right at right tackle. Pikula (ILB) stands frozen 4 yards off the line and simply waits for the center to get to 2nd level and smother him. Worse, Langi is on the ball side and instead of filling the obvious hole, he inexplicably sprints dead ahead but flexes around the tackle and creates a huge running lane. Even if he had been lazy and just stood there and did nothing (like Pikula did), we may have had a chance to tackle the guy before he got 5 yards. That was just one example but our ILB has been a train wreck all year.
- Our corners are really bad, but I love BYU to tell you what a REALLY think about both of them.
- #3 and #4 combined to allow Missouri, who has maybe the worst offense in the entire country, to go 14/21 on 3rd/4th down conversions. Remember: Mizzou is so bad they went 15 quarters in between TDs.
- Pinkel outcoached Bronco, and it wasn’t close. Missouri looked prepared and our D looked surprised at everything they threw at us.
- Our D played with a complete lack of discipline, resulting in blown assignments all over the field and horrifically stupid penalties. I’m the biggest Bronco Mendenhall supporter on this board, but I lay this right at his doorstep. 3 third down conversions by penalty on the go ahead TD drive, and perhaps the worst PI I’ve ever seen by Davis in the end zone to give them the game winning TD. Every penalty against us was an easy call and the result of terrible preparation and a total lack of field discipline.
- Nick Howell. We all know about his epic disastrous run as DC. Well, he coaches the DBs. His DBs got exposed over and over again with blown coverages and penalties against a noodle armed freshman QB who makes Riley Nelson’s left arm look like a howitzer. Oh, Rodney Rice and Rodney Thomas, where art thou? That was embarrassing to watch.
- Fred Warner and Kaufusi played inspired ball. Kaufusi is a surefire NFL guy and Warner has really come on as the season has progressed. His backside pursuit speed reminds me of a certain OLB who wore #3 for us a few years ago.
- This season ended for me the minute Baby J and Taysom went down. At that moment we went from being a potential giant killer to just a mediocre team that can beat bad teams but that gets badly exposed against better than average teams. We could not get SJSU or Missouri off the field, and both have just terrible offenses. The good news is that we are young and a lot of help is on the way next year.
BYU had to accomplish 6 (there may be more) things to lose game tonight, with failure in any one possible changing the outcome. Mission accomplished.
QB has to forget how to throw the football much of the game.
Receivers have to forget how to catch the ball - some likely to #1
Run blocking has to be ridiculously bad while Anae thinks running up the middle is a great game plan
Defense has to forget that middle screens are actually a permitted play - over and over.
Teams has to commit some reallly poor playing penalties
Team has to commit even worse stupidity fouls
Coaches have to ignore what’s happening on the field and “stick with the game plan”
As stated, that was not a good team that BYU lost to today, but at least Bronco can be proud of one thing. It was a team effort.
great post as always. Larimer. My nephew watched the game with me and I asked him to give me a head count of how many guys Bronco puts in the box on third downs. The count was always 6 (four on front and 2 linebackers). to which I pointed out, Missouri will run it because even an idiot can see that we don’t have enough bodies in the box to stop even a lousy SEC line with a average running back.
I know that Bronco loves to disguise his defensive schemes but COME ON, MAN…as you point out, when our ILBers don’t fill gaps and OLBers are slow to come to the rescue, our pants are down. That was the worse Defense I have seen all year.
I thought this game would come down to turnovers and penalties…so there you have it. The head butt and the grab during the lame duck interception cost BYU an easy win.
The officiating was terrible on both sides of the ball and game. Both teams got plenty of bad calls, but I thought BYU got a few more when it mattered. Is that the reason for the loss? Probably not because BYU was also outplayed. But the crappy officiating gets old. When a db is running into a receiver with his back to the ball and the pass hits him in the back as he is crashing into the receiver and before he puts his hands up that is called pass interference. When a receiver gets his head pulled sideways as he is trying to make a catch, that is called facemask grabbing and it is a penalty as well. Missouri didn’t get one holding penalty called on them yet they were tackling BYU defenders right in front of the officials and play.
I kept wondering if the officials knew what was going on half the time because they frequently had lengthy discussions about penalties that had been called. Some of the calls that kept that one drive for Missouri alive and gave them like 8 or 10 downs inside the 20 were strange calls. It was a pretty weird game in a lot of respects.
I think Wadsworth was good as well… What I find funny, he was not even on the two deep until injuries happened.
Rudi,
I know part of the problem is that O-line has injuries (why Rykers played RG instead of RT)… but still Anae solution is always up the middle…LOL
Good post tllarimer, nos. 1 through 10. The Bronco express is off the tracks. Another lack luster game and a 1 and 3 record against three bad P-5 teams.
Hey diddle diddle up the middle, maybe time for a new coaching staff. Bring on Ty Detmer or somebody else.
I have always supported Bronco and continue to do so, but the Michigan and Missouri games made us look like a bunch of grade school kids when we went up against a couple HOF coaches from power conferences. Both those teams made us look just stupid out there on defense. The DN reports Mizzou came into the game 125th of 127 in rushing and 125th of 127 in 3rd down conversions. Their O vs our D looked like two equally athletic teams, but one knew what it was doing and the other didn’t.
Right on Jim H. The SEC and the Big Twelve refs against the outsider BYU.
I love the Non-Partisan views about officiating from Cougar fans… If they win, officials are great… if they lose, the officials are biased against BYU…
Fact Check guys…
- The Big 12 officials did a great job, did they miss some? YES, ON BOTH SIDES… I read a comment talking about the blatant facemask no call on Mathews, well yea, they missed it… guess what? They also missed one on BYU that was just as Blatant… Officials are not machines or perfect… Just like Anae is not 100 percent correct all the time… They miss calls… The question is “WERE THEY CONSISTANT in their calls”?YES, “Did they give advantage to Missouri?” NO!, Don’t blame the officials for the lacking of coaching (Howell) for not teaching his DB’s to look for the ball (Davis) and getting PI’s all over the place.
- If you look at the background of the NFL officials, you will find that a good majority of them come from the Big 12. Why? because the head of officials for the big 12 has one of the best training for college football. EVERY official, who wants to do the NCAA games wants to work for the Big 12.
- What lost this game, was NOT the officials… IT WAS the lacking of COACHING, Game Plan and lack of Discipline…
I’ve wondered for awhile now why facemasking is not a reviewable flagrant foul. If minor contact to the helmet like Tautu’s hit on Mizzou QB–contact that even on review engenders arguments as to whether there was even any illegal or objectionable contact-- can be reviewed as being so horrifically dangerous that it merits an ejection, it’s odd that egregious facemasks–which would be TOTALLY EASY to review, with little room for doubt, are not reviewable. I’m sure there are reasonable people who think blatant facemasks are as dangerous if not more so than glancing blows to the head. With head injury safety being the current flavor of the month and all, it’s curious that such an easy thing to review is not on the list. Maybe one of the officials on this board can enlighten me.
I’m not a football official but I did stay at a holiday inn…
Floyd is the expert official on this board. He thought the big 12 officials were fantastic and did a “great job”. I thought they missed a lot of obvious calls and spent too much time discussing calls. When a crew is doing a lot of discussing, that usually means they aren’t real sure about things. Yes, it is easy to see what happened with a slowed down instant replay but many of those were easy calls in real time. I thought they made just as many bad calls against Mizzou, but I thought the bad calls against BYU were more advantageous for Mizzou than vice versa…
I know Floyd will disagree with this but he knows more about the game than I do so I would get an expert opinion from him rather than me.
There are currently two types of facemask… Inadvertent (5 yard penalty) and Flagrant ( 15 yrd penalty)…
I have to question, the NCAA on “What” can be reviewed as well, sometimes I scratch my head at what can and can not be reviewed as well.
Well said, Jim. There were some very fishy calls and long discussions by the refs in that game.
Do want some Cheese with that Whining Jim?
You complain about the officials every time BYU loses a game, with some “bias” BS comment. Guess what Jim, Officials do not give a crap about the church or BYU. They are paid to call a game.
EVERY game officials miss calls… That is why they call us Humans… we make mistakes, JUST LIKE YOU… Yes, they missed “Obvious TV View” calls, if you have ever been on the field in a football game and trying to watch 22 men performing perfect KOAS, you might understand the problem. THAT IS WHY they conference together, to make sure the call is CORRECT!..
I also love your “they missed several obvious calls on Missouri” but yet never say anything about the MISSED calls against BYU.
Do you remember the play where there was a flag on BYU for chop blocking and the Referee said “There is no penalty for a chop block”, that was done because they conferenced together to make sure the call was right because the different officials (who did not throw the flag) had a different angle and view. That is called good officiating Jim… Look at the NFL… they do the same thing.
Lastly, as far as I know, I am the only official who actually studies the rules, having taken test, and has officiated football games on this board, so if that makes me an expert then fine… that is YOUR judgment.
Having said that Jim, I know like in any profession, there are good officials and bad officials, that is why I made the comment about consistent calls (for both teams) were there missed calls on both sides or were they leaning to one side or the other. I watched the San Jose game and when the calls started I told my son “Yep, MWC officials, these guys are horrible.”
These officials made some bad calls, missed calls, but overall they were consistent and they conferenced when there was doubt by one of the members.
But what do I know, right Jim? I don’t understand the game as well as you do.
I don’t understand your vinegar…
Why are you so upset with me? If you read my post and then read your post again, you will discover that you basically said the same exact thing that I did.
And what is up with this comment?
“Lastly, as far as I know, I am the only official who actually studies the rules, having taken test, and has officiated football games on this board, so if that makes me an expert then fine… that is YOUR judgment.”
Are you questioning my judgement that you are probably the most qualified person to comment on the officiating in a particular game? and what is wrong with me commenting that BYU got the bad end of a call a few more times than Mizzou did? Did I say it was bias? No… so why the vitriol about BS or whatever? Is there some secret brotherhood of officials that precludes them from critiquing each other?
and lastly, what is up with this comment?
“But what do I know, right Jim? I don’t understand the game as well as you do.”
I said that you were the best one to ask when it comes to offricials. I’m confused now. I am not an expert, just a fan who has watched a lot of football.
Yes on the lack of coaching and game plan. But the face mask non-call late in the game cost BYU a chance to score.
So poor BYU lost the game on the account of officials. Oldest excuse since sport was invented. Do the officials win it for BYU when the team wins a game? When will you guys quit whiniing about the officials and accept that the Cougars lost the game and no one else lost it for them. The players and the coaches. BYU LOST THE GAME, THEY DID AND NO ONE ELSE DID. We can be aggravated that the players and the coaches lost the game but it isn’t a crime or a sin. No one has to go and hide. No one has to hide behind an excuse.
Tell us how you really feel Roy, and please shout it out to us… 