The highlight of this game was the too many to count mental errors. If you know anything about football you know that consistant mental errors mean one of two things. Unskilled / uneducated players or the team is tired. No excuses here folks, BYU was just plain tired. You can say anything you want to but the bottom line is TIRED. This is the exact reason Bronco continually talks about depth. Anyone at that game who knows about football recognized that BYU was tired. If you think Harbaugh did not see it in the first quarter, your clueless. He probably suspected that BYU would come into the game tired.
I would like to say one thing about Michigans defensive backs. They constantly held and pulled on jerseys and were guilty of pass interference. Take a truth pill and watch the films, You can’t deny how obvious is was. If some one grabs your jersey around the collar use a self defense move and wrap your arm around their forearm and wrist. If you fall, you compound fracture their arm. I guarantee they will never do it again. Did you notice how many times their arms were wrapped around BYU receivers backs. Literally almost every play.
Let me talk about coaching. Harbaugh had a brilliant game plan. His schemes were excellent. They had six or seven offensive plays they were well designed and executed perfectly. I really hope Bronco took noted. You may have just seen the coach of the year today. Don’t get me wrong, Bronco is an excellent coach.
If this game made you jump off the BYU wagon, you are totally wrong. That is embarrassing. This team will finish with 10 wins. Do you know what happens when a good team gets beat. I guarantee you, you don’t want to be Conneticul next week. You could very well see another shut out. BYU will be just fine. Lets make sure we support them.
Jeff
Obviously there are a couple of errors in my chat. One of them is as I watch six or seven of the offensive plays from Michigan I was amazed at the scheme and how well the design was hidden as they were executed. Congrats to Michigan for a great game.
Jeff
If the Cougar players were tired and if we do not have the depth to cover that weakness, we should stop and rethink about playing these top tier teams. If we cannot handle the heat, then back off and play teams that we can complete with - the MWCs or the Big Sky or whatever the conf. is called now. If the players are too tired to play the first half, that is inexcusable in my book. They are very young men!
There are always lots and lots of excuses for inferior teams. The Cougs (players and coaches) got their a$$s BEAT - in every aspect of the game. That’s it, stop it with the excuses! Stop it!
The players are fine and capable, the problem is at the top. Every year he falls flat at least a few times each year, today he was so far out coached it wasn’t even funny. That my friends is what a great head coach looks like vs a nice guy who happens to coach.
Your comments are total nonsense and you know it. 11 seasons as the head coach and been to 10 bowl games. Not one losing season, not one in 10 years of being the head coach. It will be the same this year… they will win 9 or 10 games and go to a bowl game… again. And with this schedule that will probably be a good season.
Do I think Bronco is the greatest coach in the history of football? Of course not and I think he makes plenty of mistakes but your comments are hypocritical at best and completely off base at worst. One week you say BYU doesn’t have the athletes to compete, then it is poor execution, but it is always Bronco’s problem and never Anae’s. Even when the offense puts up 100 yards and a goose egg, that is Bronco’s fault because he rehired Anae… it’s laughable what you are saying.
“the problem is at the top”… what a joke. They have no Hill, no Williams, no Tuiloma… I suppose that is Bronco’s fault too… lol.
Calm down Roy… it happens. I’m disappointed they didn’t compete better but I think that was more than being “tired”. There was no offensive game plan and the defense was poor in the first half.
What Jeff said is true. It’s not an excuse unless you want it to be. The big 10 crew helped facilitate Michigan’s win. Once again, that isn’t an excuse, but it is a fact. Michigan was going to win regardless, but BYU never should have been shutout. Let’s see now, they beat a good Nebraska team and a better Boise St. team. They nearly beat a very good UCLA team. In a three week period they traveled to Nebraska, to SoCal and to Michigan with a stop at home inbetween. There are all kinds of reasons for why they lost, not excuses but reasons. There is no excuse for not competing better…
I’d say more of a let down. Mangum is young and looked horrible. His throws were not close. And, there wasn’t all the holding you say there was. Fact is, they played us tight up at the line. Our receivers looked lethargic.
Our defense was on the field twice as long in the first half as Michigan.
Let’s face it, the offensive game plan was pathetic. We have no tight ends out for passes. No backs sneaking out over the middle. But Mangum was awful.
The refs didn’t have anything to do with this loss. Mangum was awful. Their backs had us guarded like they had our playbook.
I know they didn’t. I said as much.
Also, here is a quote for you and especially KC…
'Anae called it “my fault” while also agreeing with Mendenhall that Michigan is more talented than Nebraska, Boise State and even UCLA"
At least the guy is willing to admit it. We have average coaches…
Anae didn’t prepare them well for sure. Poor game plan. But, Magnum looked horrible. 55 yards passing? He was really off. But his receivers were sluggish too. They weren’t prepared for the tough defense.
Respectfully Jim, the reasons are excuses. I can handle losses. But my beef is with the manner in which we lost today and last week. The team fell apart in the 4th qtr last week and never showed up in the first half today, although the D was better in the second half. However, Michigan knew they had the game won. Also have seen it over and over and over that when a team just blows another team out early, they go a bit flat themselves for the rest of the game. I have seen that for decades in FB, BB, Baseball and hockey. I have followed the Cougs since Lavel’s early days and have kept hoping against hope that they would become a well respected top tier team. It just is not going to happen, at least with Bronco and Co.
I am going to let go of the majority of my fandom. No more Cougar Club, no more season tickets, no more putting my schedule around Cougar games. I will follow them when I can and will enjoy the wins and let the losses go without a strain. Additionally, I have not been overly impressed with this site since the changes and have been thinking about not posting here or checking in on other posts. No loss to any of you, I know. I just think it is time to let go and become just a casual fan.
Keep posting, Roy. I’m trying to figure out what to say about the game, but it doesn’t take my any time at all to know that I don’t want a good and thoughtful poster leaving the site.
Are you kidding? You are one of the best posters on here and there just aren’t many left now. Anybody who decides to leave now is taking a lot with them. Please don’t leave.
I may have been a little harsh by telling you to calm down, but I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t respect and value your passion, perspective and insight. I felt the exact same way and recognized immediately that this is what we go through every season. High hopes and expectations and the unanticipated but inevitable let down when the team tanks it in one or two games.
I believe they will come out with a vengeance this friday and we will all be content for awhile once again…
This is exactly the life of a committed, serious BYU fan.
Jim - not harsh at all, no problem. And I will continue to post but have finally let go of my expectations generated by the FB program leadership and media hype. I still sincerely hope the Cougars win big Friday and that the players have a great game then and throughout the season. But I have really burst my own fantasy bubble about grand achievements. If they come, that is great but if not, that will be ok. And I am not trying to be a downer for anyone else.
Honestly, since I stepped back and became a casual fan, this season has been much more enjoyable and being less invested is something I have advocated for others to do as well for the last year. It’s not worth the stress for fans to worry more about something that coaches who get paid to worry about don’t really care as long as they win the gimmies that and Indy schedule affords us.
Glad we are not in the MWC this year, we may not be bowl eligible of we had to play rivals instead of Wagner and other low level fill in teams later on
Sorry Roy, it is not an excuse, it is the truth. If you knew a little about analysis you would recognize that.
Jeff
I don’t blame the loss on the DB play of Michigan. If you notice my comment about 6 or 7 plays that were well conceived and I hope Bronco took notes. That kind of tell you why. Their DB’s hold and don’t get called, watch the films, but you probably need to take a truth pill first. Like I said, you may have just seen coach of the year.
Jeff
“Sorry Roy, it is not an excuse, it is the truth. If you knew a little about analysis you would recognize that.” Jeff
Doggone Jeff, I though my 2 science graduate degrees gave me some insight into analysis. We were way outcoached and outplayed in ALL aspects of the game. Any and all the “truth,” explanations, reasoning, excuses and blaming is irrelevant. We were not beat, we were annihilated, obliberated, ground into dust. If we were merely beaten, then reasons may reasonably be postulated. The fellas on the receiving end of the submachine gun bullets in the St. Valentines Day massacre put up a better fight than the Cougars did yesterday.
Our WR’s for their size are very soft and don’t use their bodies to seperate. They allow smaller guys to hold and disrupt them, and cry to the refs instead of fighting back and making a play for the ball. The little guy will always get the benifit of the doubt, so the big guys need to learn how to use their size, instead of what they are doing against talented corners.
Tall isn’t enough, you need athletic WRs that can get open using everything at their disposal. If it weren’t for broken plays, I don’t know if they have been able to beat coverage in over 6 qtrs of football.
I would say everyone here has posted points of the truth…Jeff nailed it when he said that BYU was tired and it showed. WE had just played the 5th toughest schedule in all of Football and it caught up with us.
Go easy on Tanner, the kid is just 90 days removed from an LDS mission in Chile (where I served) and our line sure didn’t help him all game. Anae should have known better and given him some short slants or just coached him to throw the ball at our 6’5 Wideouts heads when they were being held. Jeff is right when he says, “lock up those holders arms and go down”. When others cheat, you have to play their game.
BYU is a top program, we just got out coached by a genius and were gassed. Hey look at what Utah did to Oregon…
Lastly, When you have missionaries coming and going and lets face it, it is a 3 year process getting an RM back to top football form, I am amazed how well BYU competes.