The game ended up about what I thought would happen when LJ got hurt. Instead of using Tonga like LJ, we went away from the game plan. And, we weren’t ready for this. Well, Arod wasn’t ready for this. We became easy to defend the pass. Just grateful for Bear to take the risk of running and away from Arod.
I’m beginning to take the coaches poll to be more accurate. There are several in the AP that have become lazy in their work. The coaches have BYU at #8. The AP will probably move us out of the top 10 because of their ignorance and conditioned dislike of the Church. I’m hoping I’m wrong.
The coaches poll is always better than the AP poll it seems. You guys suddenly have the most interesting game for me next week. I still don’t know what to make of Iowa St so I’m fascinated to find out if they are actually legit. My guess is they aren’t and you blow them out but this offensive performance against TCU is making me wonder if this game is close.
I wouldn’t read too much into to the TCU game. It rained most of the game, which hampered both teams’ passing. We were extremely conservative so as not to throw an interception (Bachmeier only has one all season), and it paid off. It may not have, but it did. Bachmeier’s baseline passing (floor and ceiling) is established by now, and this game isn’t cause for concern (because of the wet conditions).
My larger concern is injuries, and how long key guys will be out or won’t be 100%.
Arod is going to have to decide on a RB. My choice is Tonga. He has great vision and quickness. He also can drive through ankle tackles that the other RBs don’t. Let’s also air it out. Throw the ball! Heck, bring in the backup QB and run Bear at RB.
I think this was a game that is very hard not to overreact to. Almost any take is without real substance. It was kind of a perfect storm of extreme motivation on their part, terrible weather conditions, injuries, starting freshmen in place of our most experienced lineman (Gentry) and as Roddy Jones said on the tv broadcast “just bad juju.” I heard somewhere that Brian Mitchell said the field conditions we’re horrible, the balls were soaked slick and heavy and impossible to throw accurately.
Seems to me in those conditions and down 7 starters out to injury, the greatest priority had to be not turning the ball over and that pretty much required conservative play calling on offense. And yes, that’s probably an overreaction!
This game reminded me of that 3-0 Utah game, or the blizzard game in Wyoming when we lost on the last play of the game when our center snapped the ball between the qbs legs on what was supposed to be a victory kneel and they picked it up and ran it in for aTD prompting Lavelle’s famous “I’d rather live in Provo and lose than live in Laramie and win” . . . . BUT WE WON THIS ONE!
I was as frustrated as anyone; but thinking back on it, once they went 3 and out on the first drive off the second half and we scored on ours, I never was really afraid we were going to lose. I mostly was worried about losing support in the polls. And yet we rose 2 spots and moved ahead of idle Ol’ Miss. I’m just going to take the W and try not to overthink it. The only lesson I’m taking from this one is that our guys don’t quit.
Don’t know the answer to that. Martin and Glasker were both walking around on the sidelines so hopefully both of those injuries were minor. Gentry played hurt against Colorado St. and he thought it was minor and then he ended getting surgery and may be out for the season.
The key guys that have been hurt are:
Damuni - starting safety
DeVries- return specialist and starting nickel back
Glasker- starting LB and all conference caliber player
Martin- RB and reigning Big12 offensive player of the year
Gentry- starting tackle and most experienced offensive lineman, probably out for the season
Kabeya - was going to be the starting nickel but hasn’t played yet.
Moa - Martin’s backup and counted on to be a key contributor, out for season
Escera - starting LB
There are a couple of guys on the oline whom were not starters.
The good news is that some of these guys have backups as good as they are. DeVries has turned out better than Kabeya but now both are out. LB is a very deep position, but with two starters hurt that is a concern. Martin would be the biggest concern. There is nobody who would adequately replace him. The only experienced backup is Rex.
BYU will probably beat Iowa State without getting any of the injured guys back, but they will need at least Martin and Glasker back for Notre Dame.
so as I thought about the game Saturday night before bed. I thought of how many points were lost because of the weather? I put it at 10. the loss of LJ I put another 7. I could go higher, but we have lost him before and have been able to move the ball. that’s 17 points we left on the field because of things out of our control. do I think we the score would have been 34 to 10? no Kalani wouldn’t have let it be that high. so I think it would have been in the high 20s if there was no weather and LJ was healthy.
though it was a hard game to watch. if I put the above into consideration we played well and showed grit and determination in a very bad situation. the lessons leaned here will help us in the next game we play where things don’t go our way.
its a short week this week lets pray that everyone will be healthy and ready to play Friday.
The injuries are killing us. If LJ isn’t back for ND we lose for sure. Bear is going to get hurt running him like this. It is a matter of time for him. The OLine has to get things under control or this Iowa St game could get bad for us.
Winning after a 20 year drought in Fort Worth is being overlooked. This was a monumental win over a hyper motivated TCU team. Not too worried about ISU and BYU. ISU would of beat top 10 Iowa at Iowa if they had a kicker but this is a road game into Les.
and just like last year, when our O sputtered, KPop’s D kept us in games.
Moving up two spots didn’t make a lot of sense but you guys have gotten screwed enough in the past that it feels fair this season to be getting some benefit of the doubt. You are high enough now that all the national SEC and Big 10 pundits are starting to complain about it.
I too was surprised that We moved up 2 spots considering the national bias for all things SEC/Big10. Does it rankle me when either of conferences get undeserving teams ranked so high in the pre season? big time…Both big 10 and SEC play nobody in the pre conference games, then a team like Florida beats #4 Ol Miss, who got there by beating a very popular #7 LSU, who is ranked #10 this week. then Fl losses to #25 Missouri, who is never any good and now ranked #14.
This all could be solved it P4 teams had to play ACC/Big 12 teams in the pre season, I know both BYU and TTU would be playing big 10/Sec teams if they could get them to play us but they won’t. Alabame still owes BYU a game. The only reason ND is playing us at home is because they owed BYU at least one reture visit.
I try not to care too much about rankings this time of year but I was pretty irritated to see 5-0 Texas Tech that has a top 20 win behind two SEC teams with either really bad loses or not a single good win under them. But, it is what it is.
Notre Dame was fine leaving us with two games they reneged on, but they really didn’t want to play USC this year, so they did it to them. It would be great to make them pay for it. I wonder how thin we will be with injuries?
It’s hard to tell how good and is, because they always play a cupcake schedule (with a home/away imbalance). Their defense has been very good, but against bad teams. If their defense stops our running game, it will be like the first half of the Arizona game.
