It is forecast to snow Saturday night. The redzone is the number one issue. Few touchdowns and missed field goals have BYU at 2-4 instead of 4-2.
Offense- stop corner lob passes in the redzone. Teams expect it because that’s all we do. No tightends crossing over the middle. No screens to the backs. Stop the sweeps at the 3 yardline. Defenses stop that. I would like to see QB under center inside the 20 yardline. Katoa has to be in the game in the redzone.
Defense- second half’s shoot the gaps more to stop the sweeps, the runs and the rollouts. Mix it up like defenses do against us. Anyone who quits on a play, Tanner, sits the rest of the game. Maybe the year.
Defense is the number one issue in my opinion. They can not stop the run, nor can they play pass defense. They have decent talent, but it seems the the injury bug has taken it’s toll (Anderson, Warner, etc).
Kalani in an interview mentioned that his main concern right now is defense and what happens within the red zone on Offense.
While I agree with this, there is a third reason for the losses. Something everyone was saying before the season began. Our kicking game problems had been solved. Well, no. Those 3 short field goals missed in the last 2 games were the point difference between 4-2 and 2-4. Also, the bad mishandle of the snap for the punt cost us another short field for them to score the winning touchdown. Special teams has gone from good to really bad. To me, that’s all lack of concentration and effort. And for getting that scholarship money for school, not good. They are getting paid to work and for some it’s substantial.
Back to the defense. Other teams shoot gaps and swarm on defense against our sweeps. But, we don’t. We just push forwards and never get into the gaps.
On offense in the redzone, I hate the corner lob passes. And, it seems like the defenses know exactly what runs we are going to do. Like they have our plays. We telegraph. Our players are showing what we are going to run. They know we aren’t going to pass in the middle. They know our backs aren’t going to go out for screens or short passes in the middle. So they defend the corners and sidelines well. And, we don’t have runningbacks that can see their holes are defended and make quick adjustments because Williams is hurt. Big loss! Instead, our RBs try to bull over defenders. Like how Todd Christiansen used to do back in the late 80s but without Todd’s success.
Overall the kicking game has been pretty solid, they won the Tennessee and USC games. Also, it may or may not be the kicker, it good be the long snapper or holder that is causing the missed FG.
The bad snap on the punt was the long snapper issue. Wonder if the same guy is doing it as the beginning of the season?
Kalani mentioned in his interviewed that he noticed that the opponents offensive line is pushing our D-line off the line instead of our D-line holding their positions. That is coaching and guess who is the coach of the D-line? Our fearless DC who has no clue what he is doing (IMHO).
Kalani also talked about the Offensive line not holding their positions either, that they are getting pushed back off the line and not giving our QB time to do his job. The offensive line is horrible and the main reasons our red zone offense is so bad.
It’s just not the line. It’s the effort of all 11 players. No swarming. Tanner giving up on that play. Really bad. I agree that Kalani should take over the defense.
The offense telegraphs inside the redzone. Corner passes 3 times in a row? End sweeps at the 3 yard line with a swarming defense? The middle is wide open.
True that the first 4 games the kicking game was solid. Not the last 2 games. The snapper was fine. Good enough. The holder put the laces the wrong direction. That may hurt on a 50 yard field goal. Not a 31 yard field goal. The kicker just missed those badly. Concentration. Hard work. And the snap on the fumbled punt was in plain catching distance. He didn’t even have to move and got both hands squarely on the ball. He was looking at the rush instead of the ball.