Hey guys, good to be back for a new season.
I predicted 33-17 Utah.
Superior coaching, WAAAAAAAYY superior talent=easy win for the Utes. The talent gap between these teams is staggering.
Our OL looked good. Wilson had plenty of time. Wilson looked plenty athletic.
Those picks made me want to barf, but does anyone else get the feeling that it’s been like 5 years since we had a single outside receiver who is the least bit dangerous and able to separate?
Did anyone else notice about 10 passes where we had 2 receivers right next to each other downfield?
Did anyone else wonder why we didn’t try to run the ball?
Did anyone else wonder how Utah’s RB got 29 carries up the middle without the announcer ever having to say the name of BYU’s ILBs?
Whittingham is really in a different league than Sitake, in more ways than one.
I would be surprised if we beat any good teams this year.
While much of what you say is true, 20 points came with a total of 20 yards including the pick 6. If we don’t make those mistakes we had a chance. With what we have the coaches had a good plan. Although, we have to have Williams run 15-20 times for Wilson to have better outcomes. But, this game came down to the turnovers and dumb penalties.
On the other hand, when is the last time BYU had the better kicker?
I will admit BYU does not have the talent Utah has. But then again, neither did the teams Lavell Edward’s had.
The difference was coaching.
Our current coaches are no where near what they should be. Too many trick plays and trying to do funky things last night. One cost us TD.
The thing that bothered me us that they did utilize more receivers.
Well we knew the coaching match-up going in. Team speed-no contest-Whit sets his team up to succeed. However BYU was at home and it should have equalized things a bit. My biggest concern is the DC philosophy. The 3 man rush with the backers dropping off was a killer. Much rather have a blitzing D-knocking the qb on his butt a bunch of times. You are supposed to have good db’s-let them cover man and get after the qb and Moss. Utah’s kicking game sucked-didn’t matter. Wilson will be ok. Need to pound the ball more and let this OL prove themselves. Poor play calling at times. Key plays in this game-1st pick 6 on 2nd and 2 from mid-field. 3rd and 27 face mask. Hard to overcome. Other turnovers came when the game was slipping away. First drive of the second half showed who was going to win this game. Nothing fancy-just a steamroller
Good to see you back. Tom
My takes:
1 Witt has a top defense as always. Utah has NFL talent in at least 7 guys on D and Moss. Utah will beat a lot of teams with that defense and Moss but they won’t beat Wash. Huntley way over rated, like Az’s QB. Athlete but very average passer.
2 BYU gifted Utah 20 points on 3 turnovers. Wilson locked on Bushman way too much, he was used to BYU practice speed but Utah speed…is for real
3 BYU will, as your bro. says struggle against good teams with speed. Will be a long night at Rocky Top and here with Wash.
4 Grimes had success running the ball and got suckered into pass happy once he got behind. Use that line and run to set up an easy pass, Coach.
5 Mandell should have been thrown out after the first personal foul…way to cost BYU a few series there BROH. Sit him a game, we don’t need no fools.
6 Ghanwoloku was a beast out there. Anderson brings it. Kaufusi’s are always there. I love Ty 'Son, can we see some more?
7 Tuiaki keeps the 3-4 even after Moss is dashing us for 12 YPC…Meanwhile Utah keeps up to 9 in the box. Madness
8 And why not put Hall in for a series or a wildcat with Wilson jittered?
9 Grimes was way to pass happy when we were behind. Its not like Ty 'Son wasn’t getting yards. Utah is soo predictable, Defense gets a turnover and Witt goes the ground game…why can’t we do a little more of that?
10 We will learn from this, we have a good team and will not see a better defense this year…take away those 3 big turnovers and some ill timed personal fouls and BYU can be in every game.
I completely agree with you tlarimer, except I believe that Wilson seemed not himself against a very superior Utah team. I for one still believe that BYU is an AAC or MWC team. The schedule is too hard against P-5 giants. Yes, we needed to run more. Also Utah was superior on the Dline, OLine, RB’s, QB, Defensive backs, wide receivers, you name it. BYU had an edge on TE and kicking-Olerould.
I am going to weigh in here on a couple things because this seems like the best thread to air our greivances…
This is going to be a year like so many we have seen in the past. Why? because the team keeps doing the same things they have in the past. I could replay this game in black and white without team names and it would look like so many BYU games I have seen in the past.
- BYU has a decent defense that spends way too much time on the field, doesn’t know how to wrap up when tackling and misses assignments too frequently.
- BYU has good running backs that aren’t properly utilized… just poor play calling at inopportune times.
- BYU has a very talented quarterback that, while not a freshman, makes freshman mistakes… poor decisions because of overconfidence and delusional self awareness. He played wreckless, made a couple good plays but also made just as many boneheaded plays. No consistency.
- BYU can move the ball on offense but absolutely refuses to score touchdowns. The two field goals, after getting the ball inside the 10 twice killed any chance of winning the game. This is an ongoing problem.
- BYU is horrible at halftime adjustments… just horrible. They don’t adjust to anything, don’t take advantage of anything, they are robot like and methodical whether things are working or not. It’s getting old.
Honestly, I don’t understand how or why the coaching staff coaches like they have no experience. This will be a frustrating season, but that is how it always goes.
Amen couldn’t have said it better myself. BYU will play a clone of themselves next week but one with more speed and they will be on the road. They have to eliminate the mistakes and try and hang with Tennessee
I don’t mind the offensive woes if I see some progress as they struggle. But that is the problem, I don’t see consistent progress.
Defense won’t change until Kalani is forced to let his childhood friend go(the DC). He let Detmer go after one bad season, but has the defense been any better over the last three years?
Or am I being tunneled vision?
1000000% agreed, TexCoug1492, on AAC or MWC take. I have appreciated being indy as an out of state fan, simply because it’s easy to see all the games. Plot twist: the last three years, for the first time in 30 years, I haven’t even cared enough to see all the games. Even Gordon Monson, BYU hater deluxe, got it right this time in his Tribune article today: BYU is delusional. I don’t agree with GM very often, but this time I think he has it right: we should admit that it’s more fun to beat Tulsa and have shootouts with Houston than it is to just get our face smashed in by Power 5 teams and then beat barely above Juco teams by 50 in November in front of 20,000 empty seats at LES.
You do know we are without two starting db’s. Warner and the other guy. Maybe if we get them back we will put more pressure on the QBs.
You’re being tunnel visioned. And a lot more. The defense hasn’t been so bad. It’s been the offense. And how can you know if there is any progress after one game? One game and it’s Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Not sure how missing 2 db’s is going to help the pass rush. The db’s are considered the strength of the defense anyway even without the 2 and they may not be an improvement
Read your last sentence:-)
With those two they don’t need 4 LBs and can do more blitzing and putting pressure on the QBs and more focus on the RBs too.
They don’t need 4 backers anyway. their 3/4 was terrible. They have enough db’s to get the job done. Now if the 2 missing db’s are better in coverage that is a different story because it allows single coverage and frees the backers to not always drop off into coverage and blitz more often which also stuffs the run and the free safety to blitz occasionally. You saw Utah bringing 4 at least every play causing critical turnovers, you saw BYU bringing 3 much of the time allowing big plays running the ball and if Hundley was any kind of a passer it would have been worse. To get your education, all you need to do is study the posts from knowledgeable football minds and you too can get the drift and become a credible source of information. Keep at it-you might get there🤔
I’ve been around long enough to know. And, if you had paid attention to pre-game information all this past weeks, you would know are starting cornerbacks are injured and didn’t play. And, I believe that’s why we rushed only 3. Hundley is a good passer.
If you had paid attention during camp you would have known they weren’t necessarily starters and you have been around a long time, too bad it was a waste of time-take a poll😲have a good day!
Ummm… had you paid attention to BYU Sports Nation you would have heard coaches say they are the starters.
Observations from staying in the bleachers to the bitter end (after time to cool down):
- Stupid is as stupid does. Mandel’s (and others’) stupid, stupid penalties hurt us badly at very bad times. Hearing Kalani call him out by name on the postgame show was a first and implying an assistant coach screwed up by putting him back in after the first one was almost shocking. But then there was returning a kick from 8 yards deep. Bad snaps at bad times turning potential tds into field goals or killing scoring opportunities. QBs making stupid decisions (more later). stupid play calls at critical times (like both attempts st the wildcat and continuing to run sweeps against a defense faster than you and ignoring your RB who is averaging 7 yards a carry. The team showed a lack of mental discipline and just played stupid. We solidly outplayed them overall in the first half and couldn’t get a lead because of stupid. We got steamrolled in the second half, but it was still “stupid” that allowed it to happen.
- You cannot give up 3tds on a total of 2 offensive plays covering 10 yards and beat any team of significance.
- Wilson could have easily had 3 or 4 additional INTs, but they were dropped. He was trying to make things happen when there was no way it could. This is part of stupid. The pick 6s were both the result of passes that should never have been thrown.
- The officials almost let the game get away from them. Aside from the stumble/fake slide incident, they allowed repeated late hits on Wilson and even a couple of swings between players without making the call. But aside from any possible impact on Wilson’s psyche (or on play calling), they had no impact on the outcome.
- Oldroyd is the real deal. Either of his 30+ yd fieldgoals would have been good from 50+and his punting was impressive. Southam’s kickoffs were impressive (with that one that was amazing!)
- Wilson’s arm strength didn’t seem as impressive to me as last year. He seemed to have to put more body into his throws, particularly on longer throws, with a little less zip than he did last year. (I hope i’m wrong. Please tell me i’m wrong!)
- We’re hurting at LB after Isaiah K and Zane Anderson. We could have used a Francis Bernard (who had that first pick 6 for Utah) Looked like we lost Chaz Ah You on the last play before the rain delay. Hope it’s not serious, but he had to be helped to the locker room.
- Pass rush was beyond terrible. So bad you have to wonder if it was schemed that way, maybe to try to contain Huntley and make him throw? If that’s really what we’ve got, it could be a long season.
- Utah is very good. If Huntley plays as smart as he did and he and Moss stay healthy, they could have a special season.
- Much of the negative is theoretically fixable and Utah may turn out to be the best team we play this year so it’s not yet time to heave sighs and roll eyes, but we have a lot of work to do.