Tough game to play and lose. The game was lost on the offensive side. The defense is what it is.
Don’t punt with 5 minutes left when we rarely could stop them from getting first downs.
I didn’t get to see the game, so I’m relying on you and Chris, but my presumption is, I said the winner would control the line of scrimmage, and I assume BYU did neither on offense or defense. And just a guess, I’ll bet the cougars significantly out weighed Costal Carolina
It was more than just one reason. A very frustrating game to watch on multiple levels. Including the last play almost touchdown.
Before the game, CC said they would play ball control, grind in out and hope to stay close to BYU. No big plays, just get that 1st down. Our Oline was bunchless, Our Dline was gassed. 4 man fronts allowing CC’s NFL talent RB to get 4 yards before our ROOTED LBers even made contact, then they would option run the edge that had 1 defender. WE never Changed a Thing all game long. No loading up the line, not even in goal line situations.
90% of the blame goes on our defensive scheme. Proud of our players, just were not given the bullets’ to shoot. I’m not going to bag on the Offense too much other then to say that CC got to Wilson too much with just a 3 man rush. They just wanted it more then we did
Our DL out weighed the Acacia OL by about 30 pounds per man. But we played a 4-2-5 the entire game and the Lb dropped on the snap. So our DL was outnumbered 6-4 on almost every play. To haha played great, but I will tell you this: other than one 3rd down tackle in space by Wilgar (who other than that play was invisible), no one who watched this game can name a single impact play by any BYU DL or LB in the entire game. And we made ZERO adjustments the entire game. It was unwatchable CC just ran and ran and ran and ran and we did nothing to stop them.
Ok thanks-if I envisioned a loss it was on the defensive side of the ball and I see CC nearly rushed for 300 yards so my guess is dropping the LB’s was playing into Carolina’s hands as they only threw for 85
Thanks Chris-limit BYU possessions. I’m assuming Wilson was under pressure and threw a pick. But Algier rushed for over a hundred yards and Wilson 55 and BYU out gained CC total yards. Wilson had 300 yards plus of TO, but BYU had season low 17 points. Pretty incredible drive with less than a minute to go plus a holding penalty to come up a yard short. Actually kind of glad I missed it as I might have thrown a shoe at my 85 inch monster tv😂
We had the win in our hands but came short. And I bet there were a few TV busted well before the game was over. It’s one thing to play hard and get beat by a better team…entirely different to watch as BYU played poorly, I call it the invasion of the body snatchers because these were not the guys I watched all year. To credit CC, they just wanted it more. After they ruffed up Wilson on the last play of the 1st half, I though BYU would come out with blood in there eye. Instead we probably said a prayer and sang cum-by-ya.
We bagged on the CFP committee for most of 2 weeks but looks like they knew more than we did. It was a stinker of a game for BYU, all around, the players and coaches. In the many decades I have watched BYU sports, I cannot count how many times the hope was wayyyyyy up for a BYU team to have the air punctured out of that hope balloon by an underperforming BYU team. Today just one more in many, many. But buoy up me lads, Kalani will get it all together next season, or the next year, or the next or the next or the next or the . . . ad nauseaum.
There are still at least one more game and a bowl game. Don’t quit on the kids now
We were so afraid of a freshman QB who threw for a whopping 85 yards that we dropped 7 guys on every play and let them run at will. Can you recall a SINGLE impact play by a BYU defender not named Khyiris Tonga? Didn’t think so. That’s because Kalani has a blind spot for his cousin Tuiaki, and Tuiaki plays scared, soft defense. That is why Kalani Sitake’s teams lose EVERY year to teams we should beat easily. I thought Lalani had learned his lesson after the Hawaii game last year, but nothing has changed. Inconceivable that we made no adjustments after halftime. Just unbelievable.
Well guys as someone who has been in football and coached it with a father who coached against and beat BYU …coached in the pros and finished as the lead scout for the Redskins in the Joe Gibbs eta, here are some takeaways:
Defense is a problem and has been a problem for BYU under Sitake. This CC offense is only going to be stopped by a 5 man line that pinched inward or outward. Our backers have to fill the reverse holes. We don’t have any coaches that know how to stunt the lineman. Our backers are agile but not big hitters in the trenches. CC relies on a team to either not stop the run or if they do … CC believes that that same team can’t guard their wideouts one on one. When you play them, you have to employ run blitzes and we didn’t do that at all. You basically need to sell out on 1st or second down to stop them at the line and put them in down and distance situations of 3rd and 5 or more. We were nervous about the deep ball and kept 2 safeties back the whole game. Our safeties are decent in pass coverage but not good run stoppers. They aren’t even asked to do that. It’s a DC problem. We have the players to beat CC but our defensive coaches cost us the game. Our offense should have had the ball 2-3 more possessions. CC had a good game plan and they are probably very surprised that we didn’t adjust our front 3 or 4 on defense.
The one knock on our players is that we don’t have the play makers to pass rush and contain the pocket. Batty has the talent but he was still hurt. We need to recruit pass rushers.
Our offense didn’t lose the game. I wish we had run the ball more but Grimes forgets to establish that part of the game sometimes. But really we just didn’t have the ball enough. Our offense is a legit top 10 offense but our D isn’t top 40. Wilson did a good job. However we have to have a double tight end set that we can run or throw out of and we don’t. Grimes leaves us 5 linemen to protect Zack way too many times. But we were lulled into thinking that our line is that good. Even some of you are saying we have. 4 NFL lineman. We have 1! The OL isn’t that good. They are not very mobile … especially the left tackle blind side. I actually think they are starting and playing the wrong left tackle Coaching is a 7.5 - 8 out of 10 on offense. I had warned about being over rated and the ease with which we ran over teams tended to have most people think we were that good. UTSA was my wake up call. They exposed some of our weaknesses which included slow lineman and no max protection lineup.
Our defense is a 5.5 out of 10 and that isn’t good enough. Holding zones on the defensive front is a losing game and most NFL staffs totally went away from it 10 years ago. Sitake still believes in it. It is a killer on the wildcat option teams. You have to force the issue and the direction of the flow because the offense can’t read it quick enough to be explosive off the line. If you just try to hold your ground rather than take ground you will be exposed. BYU was!
We had one touchdown called back. We kicked a field goal instead of scoring a touchdown. We had a chance at the end but the play was Milne at the 2 yard line instead of an open Algiers down the sideline. Our offense was just off and looked like they had jet leg. We shouldn’t have taken the game. But we did. I think the offense should have scored a couple more touchdowns instead of turning to gadget plays. It’s too late in the season for that.
Summation.
Ok, mic drop. You just explained in detail what I worried over Before we played the game. CC’s only hope of winning was ball control. I truly feel for the players and the LBers because our DC has no balls. Its called creativity, Tuiaki, look it up. You make the other team do something they don’t want to do. The kind of stop that BYU got in the very last seriies should have been going on All frickin game.
I would counter with you thawk that we do have the talent, just not the right coaching acumen.
You can bet the CC coaches are still in disbelief that BYU rolled over and handed them a big fat win. JCoug is 100% right, these guys might have just played themselves into a NY6 bowl game and win be exposed big time by better coaches.
BYU should have have at least 3 more offensive possessions. This game should of been the blowout that many of us thought would happen.
Still very proud of Tom Holmoe for making this game happen. It was the right thing to do. Very proud of our entire team and the classy man that Sitake is. He shows a lot of restraint and is a great head coach and rep of our LDS values. His Achilles is his love for his loser cousin.
We should have taken the game. We should have won the game. Our defense can’t be on the field for twice as long as the offense. Our defensive coaching is the big issue. I don’t think they are capable of self correcting as a staff. That is the issue. Sitake is a really good guy. But the football IQ of our staff as a whole isn’t very good. Defense IQ is sub standard.
I don’t think I said we didn’t have the athletes to win the game. We do. But I also will tell you that CC is a good team. They have a very good defense. They won’t be run out of any stadium by a P5 team. They might get beat 35 -21 but they won’t get blown out. People who think that is a team we should have blown out don’t know what they are looking at or are unrealistic homers.
Same old story. Tuiaki hasn’t ever handled the DC job well but Sitake won’t unload him. He didn’t have a problem unloading Detmer, so in the end he should be looking for an innovative DC and in the end it’s holding back the program imo
hopefully we get to see what they can do against a top 10 P5 team. If CC gets stuffed on 1st down, would they be able to get to 3rds and short situations? I will be following this team. When I looked at their key players, CC had 4 very good players on O, NFL talent RB, QB is A+ on his reads and legs but shaky on his throws and the long ball? pleease. Good big body receiver and a solid TE.
A good P5 would stuff the box and dare them to throw. They have a shaky kicker at best. CC could do OK in a NY6 game if they had the right team and they were able to control the Line like BYU GIFTED them, but I doubt it.
Exactly! If you can let go of Detmer after one season you can make other changes as well. The thing is don’t you think Sitaki had the main influence and decisions for defense in this game? Hope he learned from it.
The thing is, we gave up only 22 points. We should have still been able to score three more touchdowns or more and won handily. Offenses these days win ballgames. We had some bizarre calls on offense. No reason to resort to trick plays early on when we are easily driving in for another score. Wilson running on consecutive plays. When there is as much pressure as CC was giving get Wilson out of the pocket more. Do something different. This is what happens with us when we don’t have enough time to prepare and watch videos of the other team enough.
Fish, you know much more about the nuts and bolts of FB games than I do. And I respect TH and Sitake for taking the risk and going for it. However, I join those who are critical of both those men who sacrificed and scapegoated BYU hero Detmer after ONE bad year, to then hold on to a DC who is a relative but not competent to be the DC. That is NOT the definition of a great AD or HC.
I expect the Cougars to beat SDSU but it would not surprise me if they get beat.