got all excited about this one, invited everyone over for my 1000 degree sourdough fired pizzas and… so with out further adu, the facts:
1 Been lot of “get rid of” and I don’t like this guy business" going on here. (I know I am guilty) but the fact remains, BYU went 9-0 before this loss. BYU is still playing for a Big 12 title and and a place at the final 12 table. I remind everyone, BYU was supposed to win 4.5 games this year.
BYU lost this game of 3 mistakes.
3 BYU’s defense was phenomenal, we held Kansas to 78 total rush yards. Their stud Neal got 52 yards on 14 carries, that is 3.7 ypc and 1/2 of his average yards per game. Jalen Daniels ran it 10 times and got 15 or 1.5 ypc. (we jsut could not stop them in the redzone
4 first mistake: BYU could not get a red zone TD, our #1 stat of the year, BYU in the redzone so to fail here is a real head scratcher. Kalani talked about this…going for field goals when we should of been going for TDs.
5 2nd mistake: Retzaiff’s poor throw at the end of the 1/2 was a game changer, Took all the wind out of our sails. BYU should of been up by 2 scores and cruising early in the 2nd to a easy win but we left the low fruit hanging .
6 I wonder out loud if the injuries to our Oline killed our ability to control the game and get 3rd down conversions?
7 fluke bonk on the head by that fake punt and Robinson’s uncharacteristic muff on the recovery, mistake #3, just a killer!
8 Daniel’s a 5yr sr.-Arizona St’s QB Darnell is a Fr. keep that in mind and how Kansas slowly choked us out like a veteran.
9 Folks, this is why I don’t go to vegas, I would of bet the house that this would be a high scoring shootout and both teams were 2.5 TDs short of their average.
The interception at the end of the half. Bad call because he’s never thrown fades well.
The muffed punt. How could you not get the ball on the ground with no one around you. How did that squirt out?
The penalty on the last drive. A really bad no snap when the entire team was moving but the ball wasn’t snapped. The following 4th down throw that was short would not have been short.
A side note I think I’ve mentioned. Why no holding penalties? Either team had none and I saw several on Kansas. No pass interference either or ruffing the passer. The no holding calls after the Utah game is very suspect.
You are speaking reasonably. One close loss, a flukey one at that, is no reason for all the hysteria I am reading on another thread. Somebody said they doubted BYU was even a top 20 team. A nine and one record in a power 4 conference indicates you are probably a top 20 team. The ranking of 6 was fair based on the record prior to the loss. Before anybody gets too excited about that statement I am not saying BYU was the 6th best team in the country I am saying the ranking wasn’t out of line based on their record and the conference they are in. After the loss BYU will drop out of the top 10 but if they win the last 2 they should be back in the top 10. Arizona St is real good but the game is winnable particularly if BYU plays the way they did against Central Florida a few weeks ago. ASI is not Alabama.
The way our defense plays they should keep us in any game in the Big 12. The offense has played much better than they have the last two weeks. Hopefully they get their mojo back. In the mean time people need to take a deep breath and see what happens next week.
Like you said we have already far exceeded expectations for the season. I think BYU finishes the regular season no worse than 10-2 and that would be a great season. If we can put together a complete game against ASU then we have a good shot to beat them. They are good but they have lost to Tx Tech and Cincinnati. Those are both middle of the road Big 12 teams. They are beatable.
Excellent post. Much better than the brutal mouth Twack. Yes, Twack, Twack. He wants to blow a great year by firing the OC now. Maybe he wants the job himself. He thinks he can call games better without being in the hot seat.
You are focused on this year and being positive. Twack said before the season we would only win 3 games. He’s trying to save face with his prideful remarks and personal attacks on Arod. I wonder if there is something personal with Twack and Arod.
The cold led me to assume before the game it was going to be low scoring.
I thought we were going to have a rough season. Even if we lose the next two games, I will consider this season a huge success.
Our luck ran out. We had two extremely lucky wins against Utah and Oklahoma St., but luck evens out overall.
While not flashy or prolific, Retzlaff is good enough to keep us in games, and he made some clutch throws in our two lucky last second wins. I trust him when the chips are down.
We (four of us) will be at the ASU game on Saturday. I’m proud of how we’ve done, regardless of how that goes. We’ve had ASU’s number in recent years.
Honestly I don’t know what’s true right now. The team look like it kept getting better week to week, Retzlaff kept getting better, the offensive play calling though not great was getting better. Now over the last two games our offense looks like it was last year. The offensive players all said that they were in their heads and weren’t practicing hard this week and that’s the reason they came out flat. Or was it just bad luck last night. Pooch kick hits one of our guys in the head and then we can’t even secure the ball. We’ve been awesome in the red zone all year, but last night we look like we didn’t even know what to do in the red zone. Is Kansas just that good and they’re hitting their stride and are the big 12 spoilers. I know what it is Utah got their stink all over us and now we’re a crappy team . Or is it that the truth about our team is finally coming out, our offense isn’t that good and we’ve been living off of luck.
All I know is that it is been an awesome year so far. The team has way outperformed it’s expectations. I’ve been looking forward to watching football again. I hope they go on and keep winning because it’s been a fun year and I don’t want it to end.
Hopefully this loss will humble the guys, refocus them and get us back on track to winning like we were.
That was me and I stand by it. We can wait and see how good they really are when they go to ASU next week. If they bounce back with a strong performance (win or lose) then I will take it back. I am skeptical because I don’t trust the OC or the QB. They are both erratic and flighty. There is NO continuity and flow to the offense. It is inconsistent. I have been saying this all season long in spite of the team being 9-0. Well it finally caught up to them in a game they absolutely gave away on offense. The offense has all the makings of being solid. They have talent but lack consistency in QB play and play calling. That has been the case since the beginning and I have stated as much. A top 20 team can’t do that on offense and expect to be a top 20 team. The defense and special teams has carried them ALL season long. Without a couple of lucky breaks they would easily be 5-5 instead of 9-1. SMU, Baylor, OSU, Utah could have easily been losses instead of wins.
The only difference between this season and last is that the exposure and meltdown came later. We will see if what they have said all season long is true… that they are unified and confident. I’m skeptical after the absolute debacle vs Kansas. To characterize it otherwise would be a travesty. They blew it. The QB play was erratic, the OC play calling was puzzling as it has been all season long. The problem is a glaring one and all anyone can say is “well, they weren’t expected to win 9 games”. That’s a cop out.
That’s the defense. Let’s talk about the offense. That has been the problem all along. The defense has bailed out the offense in almost every game, including this one. The difference is that the offense didn’t get lucky this time.
I usually accept your logic and reasoning. Even knowledge. But when you say 9-1 in a P4 league is not worthy of a top 20, I soundly have my doubts on your thinking right now.
You almost always fail to look at the big picture. The BYU defense is top 10. The BYU offense is not. The reason they are 9-1 is not the offense. The defense has had to compensate for a poor offense. You have said as much several times. If they play well vs. ASU and the defense isn’t having to win the game again, then I am willing to concede that they are deserving of top 20 status. If not then I will not concede.
I think the offense is erratic, sometimes good, sometimes poor, and sometimes
adequate. Sometimes all of those things in the same game. The special teams have been outstanding outside one fluke play against Kansas and the defense has been very good. The overall body of work indicates we are a top 20 team. That could change after this coming Saturday. Miami was winning a lot of close games with late game dramatics until they lost to a very average Georgia Tech team. I would still say they are top 20
right now. You could say the same thing about several other teams like Clemson who lost decisively to an ok Louisville team. If Army is top 20
then BYU is for sure. Army hasn’t beaten anybody.
Kansas is a good team right now. Every one of their losses was close. One bad game against a team that is peaking doesn’t invalidate the whole body of work. I don’t really care about the close wins. BYU won them and was the better team in those games. I don’t think it was luck. They did what they had to do to win. I think the biggest fluke was the deceptive blowout win against Kansas State. Another fluke was how close the Utah game was. Take away a bogus penalty and Sataki setting up Utah with a short field by going for it on fourth down inside his own fifty and that is probably a comfortable win. I guess I am
more of a glass half full guy. We are better than Utah and if you look at 3/4 of the game instead of one quarter there is no question about it.
Everybody acts as if Arizona St is Alabama. They are not. If they blow BYU out on Saturday then I may change my tune about both ASU and BYU. I just think several of you guys are overreacting to the loss. Rankings are based on the body of work and not one game. I think it will be a close game no matter who wins. Az St is rightfully favored. BYU seems to play better when they are underdogs. We shall see.
Well put as usual. Simple logic and understanding rather than emotional jibberish or with off with their heads nonsense.
Here is the thing that always bugs me. We have a lot of teams in the league and we see teams beating up on each other. We think certain teams are great but then lose games we think they should not. Many of the games are close too. It seems like very few want to acknowledge the fact most, if not all, are very good teams and there will always be winners and losers of every game played.
We always hear about every team we play they have great players, 4-5 star athletes. When are we going to realize our mostly 3 star athletes have been well-coached to being able to play close games with these power 5 teams week in and week out?
I’d still have BYU #10 just because of who we play and the teams we beat. Why is SMU ahead of BYU? Who have they beat several games in a row? Right now, I would put ASU above Alabama the way they are playing. I’d give Kansas a shot with them the way they are playing now. The real question is, “Are we peaking or just playing the same and everyone else is peaking and growing?” Luck always plays a role when we use the term based on its true definition. The right kind of preparation meeting the opportunity. Our defense was prepared. Our offense and special teams not so much. Roberts said it and so did other players. That we did not have a good week of practice. Jim doesn’t believe them but I do. I think we will surprise many on Saturday.
let me validate you for a sec. you are correct we are where we are because of our defense, and our offense is the weak part of our team. everyone in the media and cougar nation have been holding their breath because they know that our offense has problem and a lose was inevitable. I posed the question a while back if we run the table are we ok with Rodrick sticking around because that is what’s going to happen. I know I am not. I also said that I don’t like that we are like Utah. a dominate defense and a meh offense. I want to be BYU (dominant offense) not Utah, but lets not start that argument again. so I know where you’re coming from. it has been hard for me to say that we are a good team. but I think we are.
I think we are a top20 team. just because we are lopsided doesn’t mean we can’t be a top20 team. we have won 9 game this year. It doesn’t matter that the defense has done the lion share of the work, because we are a team and we win together. there have been and will be teams that are lopsided that will be raked, that go to their conference championships, go to the playoffs and even win the entire thing. you can’t take the 9 wins away from us no matter how much it hurts to see our offense struggle, but keep in mind no matter how sloppy our play calling and playing has been on offense, they have had to preform to get those wins too.
so in conclusion lets not sell the team sort. yes we all have our problems with the OC and some of us with the HC but they have won 9game and we can’t take that away from them. so I decided a while back that it is better to enjoy the ride then complain about it. because the reality is things will probably stay the same for a while.
There is a majority of BYU fans who are super happy with the football team winning 9 games this year. They are the same ones weren’t too vocal in getting rid of a terrible OC when BYU only won 5 games last year. It is the crowd of “let’s just be thankful we won 9 games because we didn’t expect them to win that many” who are the element that allows mediocrity to be okay at BYU. The difference in Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Georgia among others is that they know that when they have a group of athletes who are good enough to win championships (or very close) that there are no excuses for bad coaching. Texas went through a rough stretch and fired highly paid coach after highly paid coach who couldn’t perform on game day. They even fired a pretty good coach on the plane home from BYU!!!
Sitake is a figure head and he shouldn’t be treated as a great coach. He isn’t. He is a great figurehead and a recruiter. He needs to be paid less than the typical Big12 coach and that money needs to be spent on a better OC.
We only have a very talented team every decade or so and having the coaches in place who can win should be the easy part of the equation.
Ironically the just happy to be here with 9 wins crowd were the same ones who didn’t want to make changes by firing our DC and bring in Hill!!! If you are going to spend the money and time to play the game - then try to make decisions that will bring out your best! Our best at BYU isn’t Arod and everyone knows it. There is too much of “this is a church calling” mentality with bad coaches at BYU and among fans who support average to below average coaches keeping their job.
Spoiled fans… 2nd year in the league and 9-1. I predicted 10-2 and still hold to that. Kansas was a big question mark in my mind. They deserved the win, just like BYU deserved the Utah win. BYU, stat wise outplayed Kansas, except for turnovers. It probably cost BYU the game. No qb plays a perfect game. I thought Chase Robert’s said it perfectly, “In the end, it’s just a game”. Most want to criticize BYU personnel, try giving Kansas credit. I’m as much a diehard fan of BYU as anyone-they have come a long ways in a year. They will have a tough time with Arizona State and finish it with a win against Houston and a shot at the league championship. This team has surpassed expectations, even if they don’t win another game. BYU football and basketball are alive and thriving
We brought in Jeff Grimes and how did that work out long term? Tell us how to get a great OC and keep them for more than a year or two?
You remind me of alumni at UCLA after Wooden retire. Never happy even with great years. Chasing great coaches out and ending up worse off. And, UCLA alumni continue to wreck their basketball decades later. Always negative and “off with their heads” when it comes to coaches and QBs. Twack, Twack, Twack…
He’s a negative half empty narcissist and not necessary to respond to.
Arod isn’t a great coach so your argument doesn’t hold water! Look at his offensive rankings on a national level since he has been at BYU. He wasn’t successful before he got to BYU and he won’t be after BYU.
I already answered your question on how you get a great OC …. That is to pay him like a head coach. Sitake takes a pay cut and funnels money to a OC. Problem solved.
ASU game will tell us a lot. But it won’t validate Arod because you can’t put lipstick on a pig and call it something else.
. Or is it that the truth about our team is finally coming out, our offense isn’t that good and we’ve been living off of luck.