1 Tanner played very well, managed the team well.
2 Canada was chppin wood out there, layin some whacks. Dominated just like Williams used to for us.
3 That fly sweep with Hifo and Pau’u just killed Zona
4 Bushman is a smooth operator, just when I said, “where’s Bushman?”, he scores.
5 Sheldon and Ghanwoloku are fast, stars The others, Wilcox got beat…often.
6 Our running game behind El Bakri and that line is smash mouth. El Bakri catching a pass out in the wing and seeing a DB in front of him is like a baloon popping contest. DB’s gonna get popped.
7Kaufusi, Takitaki and Anderson are studs. The run game for Az is ineffective.
8 We just went on the road and smacked Zona up side the head. I kept waiting for the wheels to fall off and opposite happened, we just got stronger and Zona gassed.
9 Zero turnovers for the entire game.
10 Tate-no Heisman for you…and the P 12 is in a world of hurt.
Wilcox made one great play in the 4th, but that guy is a TD or a penalty waiting to happen.
EMPEY (FR) AND HOGE (Soph) ARE TOTAL STUDS. I was very nervous about underclassmen starting on the OL. But Hoge made Zona’s Senior 300+NG, #99, look absolutely STUPID, and Empey created similar carnage on the AZ line. Wow. That was awesome.
Zero TOs. Zero sacks. That is good. Actually, REALLY GOOD.
But also zero takeaways, and 10 penalties. That is bad. Actually, REALLY BAD. Granted, we were in a spy/prevent cover 3 for almost the entire game, and it’s much harder to create turnovers when you don’t try to pressure the QB.
NFL scouts just saw Kaufusi play over half the passing downs as a 6’9"/280 mike/spy linebacker, and he chased down both Tate and Taylor in space.
I think Al Bakri will play himself in the NFL as a blocking back and special teams player. He is devastatingly good at what he does. He overran one block on a flanker sweep late in the game, but that was the only block I saw him miss all game. When he caught a pass in the right flat and picked up a head of steam, the DB #8 actually turned his back and fell to the ground hoping to avoid contact. Al Bakri wound up kind of tripping over him, so I guess a tackle is a tackle, huh???
I would really prefer Bushman get more than ONE FREAKING TARGET per game.
Magnum still seems inaccurate to me, particularly when he has to put some mustard on the throw.
I love it when BYU wins, and especially when we can beat a P5 team, even an average one like Zona.
I might have mentioned that I think Empey and Hoge are pretty good.
Positive first effort. Agree with all your stuff above. Third quarter was extremely well played. Fourth could have been better, particularly on D as we appeared to play too much prevent defense, which has never worked well for BYU. Some really questionable calls on offense during that quarter also. But unless AZ just stinks on their D line, this offensive line and the backs just hammered this team. We’ll see next Saturday if that was us playing real well or them just being real bad, as California will be a bigger test on D.
I digress only with Mangum. He played well in the 3rd quarter and Collie made a key play on a ball that could have been intercepted. If Mangum can get the confidence and not to try and aim the ball- BYU will compete in every game this year. This is not a rag on Tanner-im just not quite comfortable with him yet. Show up and lead BYU to a win over a pretty decent Cal team, I will be joining fan club
If Tanner can do for an entire game what he did in the third quarter against an over-hyped Arizona team, then I too will be singing his praises, but I saw way too many rushed, under thrown passes for me to be comfortable with Tanner as our best QB. I also believe our players were much better conditioned than AZ and it showed in the fact that there were no injuries. Grimes is the real deal and the OLine’s performance is proof. Sure we have a lot to work on, but BYU looked so much better than most fans feared. We looked more confident. We can do this. Go Cougars!
Glad u mentioned grimes. I talked about him on a different thread. His play calling was exceptional with only one issue. At the 6 th minute in the 4th. We were 3rd down and 4 grimes calls a fly sweep when we had two downs to get the 4 yards. Why not Canada behind El Bakie? Zona never stopped them once all night. Sometimes we overthink easy calls
Grimes changed the culture of Byu linemen. Bring on cal
Another good call, I believe that Zona was cramping up towards the end. BYU stayed strong.
Funny you should bring El-Bakri up, I have watched him play for 2 years now and always thought he was under used. He has soft hands but I never thought of him as a NFL prospect until you mentioned him, Tom. I kinda like it
Tanner played very well… in the third quarter. He was not that great in the first half nor the 4th quarter. Overall I would rate it as a 6.5 out of 10.
Canada played well but he had gaping holes to run through. Williams dominated with much less room to run and got stronger as the game wore on. No comparison between the two at this point. WIlliams was a beast.
Not sure I like the fly sweep as much as it was used but we’ll see.
Bushman needs more touches.
I thought Shelton was great.
El Bakri is great. I love having him in there.
I agree. I hope Taki keeps his nose clean because he has always been very good.
Agree
That was a good sign.
Not sure why they blab about Heisman guys in the first game of the season. That shouldn’t happen until game 4 or 5.
Something is wrong with that release. Still some accuracy issues, but in general yes, I’ll agree.
More the O line, and my guess is that Arizona’s line is bad.
Wilcox is fast enough, just bad discipline, at least according to the DBs I know.
They didn’t run their QB for some reason. The zona strategy didn’t make any sense to me.
Yes. I was terrified most of the game but I feel good about squally now.
Agreed. But as I understand it, they believe in a lot of the receivers. Also, they are loaded at TE. Would be interested in seeing massive TE sets.
My thoughts exactly
Yup
I need to look at those plays closer and slower. Something felt off there. I like it when Hifo runs it. On the other hand it did push defenders away from the center…and we gashed them there.
That is precisely why Grimes implemented it. The Fly or Jet as they call it is designed to keep LBers from cheating up into running gaps. You find out real fast if the other team has a lot of speed on the edges…Apparently Zona did not. Oregon won NC titles using it. With good Tight ends acting as blockers then releasing into a gap, I just don’t see how teams can cover all the options. Now if Tanner could hit a long pass…….wishful thinking.