Please don’t say “at least the defense was better.” The defense was the same as last week. —ECU ran for 227 yards and over 6ypc. Once again, a QB completes over 70% of his passes, most on wide open short routes. Not sure I’ve ever seen so many guys blow contain—especially our LBs; I’ve never seen worse LB play, even vs Liberty. This was the absolute worst ever. So our defense was NOT better—it was the same. Rush 3 or 4, LBs off the LOS, react too late, etc. I kept thinking we would blitz late to at least try to save the game. Nope.
Roderick knows this defense sucks, which is why he turned BYU into a ground and pound team. Sitake knows it sucks, which is why he (stupidly) went for it on 4th instead of kicking an easy FG, and again near midfield. Those are pure panic calls. BYU is nearly dead last in the country in 4th down conversions, but Sitake is simply desperate for any spark, so he keeps going wow it, no matter how asinine it seems.
We know what we saw. Our running game kept it close but in the end the better coached team won.
It’s going to be hilarious next year. BYU needs to lose a few more this year for Sitake to fire both Lamb and Tui, hire a real DC, and just be a CEO—which is his greatest asset. But excluding the fake 2020 season against JC teams, Sitake is now 35-32 vs D1 teams. He is a super great guy but is proving to be a super average coach.
I am just curious why Lamb? Yes, he is the special team’s coach, but kicking FG is only one part of his job… Not sure what is going on with Jake and his kicking, but I am not sure you can lay that at the feet of Lamb.
I also understand your comments about Tuiaki, he is horrible, and I agree that he needs to go… To find a real DC that can do what Fred Whittingham, Norm Felt and others did years ago. Develop a scheme that utilizes the talent we have.
But I think you missed one coach that needs to go as well… Aaron Roderick! There was a very good reason that he was fired by Whittingham at Utah… He cannot play call. Some of his calls are stupid and lacks imagination.
Lavell hired assistant coaches that took the talent level they had and developed the scheme to maximize that talent.
Kalani’s assistant coaches has their schemes and forces their players to fit that mold. Jeff Grimes was one of those coaches that figured out how to use his talent effectively. Roderick is not that type of coach.
I know you don’t like the relationship angle, but when Kalani replaced Grimes, he really should have put his cousin Fesi Sitake as the OC. The guy has legit OC skills that has been proven. When he was at Weber State, he took a mediocre offensive team and turned them into one of the best in the country for their division. the year before he came to BYU Weber State played for the national championship for that division.
But I guess Kalani was worried about all the Nepotism charges he would have been accused of.
I can’t wait until Monday when Kalani is back in front of the media and saying “I am the HC, I have to “fix” the problem.” LOL
In all seriousness, I think there is something “bad” going on behind the scenes. BYU will never tell you what is really going on, but I think the players are tired of how Tui and the other coaches like to blame them for thier poor decisions.
Lamb because the defense is Lamb’s creation and he has been “the boss of it” the whole time. Tui has the title but Lamb is the architect of the D. Slow, boring, passive and reactive. That’s our great defensive strategy. Hahahahah.
I agree with your comments Tom. It was frustrating to watch from the get go. I was so happy when ECU made a couple complete blunders at the beginning. I thought it would give BYU a chance to establish something and implement a game plan on both sides.
Nope, it never happened.
I kept telling my 84 year old dad… we have a terrible defense. His reply was. This is so strange, why won’t the BYU guys tackle? The only thing keeping BYU from losing by more than the 3 points they did was ECU making terrible mistakes… I honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing from the defense. The line got zero pressure on anyone, not the quarterback, not the running backs, not anything. They would simply engage with the ECU offensive line and dance. The only good thing that did was to free up the linebackers to make plays. Unfortunately they refused to take advantage of the fact that they were rarely blocked and then make a play. All the linebackers did was stand behind the D-line and watch them dance. They forgot they were at a football game…I saw good effort and tackles about every 10th play. It was fun to watch one of BYU’s players actually run up to and through the line and make a tackle. It just didn’t happen very often. The only “contain” I saw was BYU defenders trying to contain their excitement when the ECU running back would finally emerge from behind the dance line and run around the edge for 10+ yards. The entire defense was content to stand, watch and engage ECU blockers and then chase the running back and dive at his ankles. Is there a rule against wrapping arms around a ball carrier and taking him to the ground? BYU only wants to tackle around the shoulders and dive at the ankles. The “stand, watch, wait and react” defensive strategy, whether it is the scheme or/and the players themselves… it is bizarre to watch. I could list the number of the multitude of players that I saw doing this on almost every play but I won’t, we all saw it ourselves.
I would never say this to any of the players in person and I hope they are not reading these boards but they are playing some of the worst football I have ever seen being played by a BYU team. Terrible.
Didn’t it seem like every time the ECU RB got to the edge, our LBs were nowhere? Too hard to tackle fast guys in space when we start so far off the line, are nearly always in REACT mode, and by the moment of impact it’s two guys surrounded by green grass instead of bodies.
Even when the play was designed to go between the tackles, the RB would run up there and move his feet a little and then go outside where it was always wide open for an easy 10 yards, because the linebackers were “stuck to the backs” of the defensive line. Whenever a RB is averaging more than 10 yards a carry (he had like 10 carries for more than 10 yards each at one point) and the DB’s are making all the tackles there is something wrong with that defense. It looked way too easy for ECU… just like Liberty, just like Arkansas, just like Notre Dame, just like…
Ok I wasn’t going to post anymore on this site-too much senseless drivel and deliberate attempts to start a contentious argument-but I was watching the first half of Oregon vs California, and couldn’t help but notice how well coached that Oregon is. They don’t seem to be loaded with talent, like the SEC or the Ohio States or even the Big 12. They just know what they are trying to do and go about their business and try to execute it to perfection. Sometimes it doesn’t workout, but a lot of the time it does. Their defense isn’t loaded with stars, but are unpredictable on any given play. Their offense takes a lot of risks, but don’t seem overly concerned about it. BYU’s Hall, imo is as good as Nix and when their receivers are all healthy, probably better than Oregon’s. No excuse for the OL not to be better than Oregon’s, which makes their RB’s even better. My opinion is BYU lacks an identity on who they are or want to be, and I lay this on the coaches. I think that Sitaki is a great ambassador for BYU football, but not impressed with his offensive or defensive skill set. Time for changes and a new psychology. Not trying to start a controversy, just what I see
In the movie “Invincibles” the game against the Cowboys, on the first kickoff, Papale runs down the field and stops before getting to the kickoff returner and does a 'I gotta pee my pants" dance. The announcer says he froze. Then, he got blindsided. The coach wasn’t happy and told him if he didn’t get his act together, he’d be gone from the team. So, in the next game against the Giants, he didn’t freeze and became the star. I see lots of BYU LB’s and DB’s doing the same “I gotta pee my my pants” dance. Sometimes we get blocked and other times the RB easily fakes us out. I guess the coaches need to watch that movie and stop teaching bad technique?
Good to see you back! I enjoy your posts. You nailed it: you never know what the Ducks will bring on D. They are the aggressors. They ACT rather than react. They will put 9 on the line Pre snap and then drop 8, or they will line up with 3 or 4 on the line and bring the kitchen sink. What they WILL NOT LET YOU DO IS RUN On first and second downs. Only UCLA has run for over 135 yards against them all year, and only Georgia and UCLA have been able to really expose them. That’s what makes them so fun to watch. Best way to protect DBs is to overwhelm the OL, stop the run, and make the QB throw earlier than he wants.
Ultimately, you have to make it fun for these players. BYU’s defense looks miserable, and you can’t really blame them. Anytime you give a D1 QB over 3 seconds to hold the ball, he will tear your pass defense to shreds. Now if you have 3 rushers that can get to the QB, then great, but that’s rare. Mendenhall was pretty good at getting the most out of his talent on defense. Coaches aren’t getting the most out of their talent-offense or Defense. It’s a shame
Senor, are the offense players getting the most as well? Not even close. There was no reason to give that game away and it was on the terrible playcalling in the 2nd half. Completely went away from what was working. Doing the same things over and over making it easy for the opposition to figure out how to stop us. Both offense and defense need new coaches.
No, the offense isn’t getting everything the team needs, but both the offense and the defense on good teams rely on each other for opportunities and the BYU defense does very little to facilitate the offense to be close to 100% effective. This is in regards to creating turnovers and limiting time of possession. In other words making plays. Oregon had converted 12/13 4th downs for the year. Against California they were 1/3 or 4- Didn’t stop them from continuing their aggressive plan-didn’t even consider it. When BYU gets that mentality, they will start converting the 4th down plays. Hard to do when the defense isn’t doing their job. It was almost laughable at times, the ease Carolina ran through the defense. Carolina should have won going away. BYU has difficulty making coaching changes, especially mid season. Boise State looked liked one of the worst teams they have ever had-totally inept. Fired the OC and brought in Koetter, an old former coach, Bachmeir was miffed and entered the portal, so the freshman got the team and now they will probably win their division. Some you gotta do what you gotta do
So, when the defense did stop ECU, the offense didn’t do their job and got the defense demoralized I guess. You remember the golden era of BYU when we would just outscore other teams. With our current OC, that isn’t possible with the usage of Rex and others. We haven’t done a gadget play since the Baylor game. Nothing over the middle except in the 1st quarter. Then, we go away from what is working. We ran the ball well against ECU. But, the passing attack was short passes. Nothing down the middle 18 yards out. I could see Rex leaving to the portal. Several others as well.
Pretty much. If you watch an NFL game, the middle is almost always open. RBs are blitzing or covering a RB leaking out. That is why running QBs are killing it but here at BYU, we put them 8 yds back and basically let 3 LBers just rot out there in no man’s land.
Great point, The sign of a truly great coach is not when a game is going right but the adjustments he makes when things are not going right.
In the ECU game, BYU played good enough D to win the game. Holding ECU to 27 when they have a really good QB and a future NFL running back (that dude had TYreek Hill speed). 2 two botched 4th downs cost BYU a win. As Sr Burton pointed out, I was expecting some sort of option with Hill’s speed and maybe a TE. Hill rolling out sucks LBs and DBs up, a couple of blocking TEs just need to release the block and turn around for a 1st.
It’s interesting how so many posters here are slowly realizing I’ve been right all along that the offense is where the losses are coming from. I thought Rodrick did well last year and the first couple of games this year. But after that, it’s like he wants to get fired.
It’s not interesting and it’s not true. Sure there is some blame to the offense, but the vast majority of the time BYU is losing because the defense is so bad. ECU won the other night but they should have won bigger. They made a lot of dumb mistakes, it wasn’t BYU’s defense that was stopping them, just like the BYU defense did nothing to stop any other teams, particularly Liberty and Arkansas, the two games just before this last one. The defense has been really bad, the offense is catching up to them somewhat but it is mostly the defense responsibility for the losses.
guess you have to look at the big picture