WSU is not very good. They allow a lot of yards. Utah State, who could barely gain a yard on the ground against what has been exposed as a very bad BYU run defense, rans all over Wazzou for 222 yards. FCS Portland State threw for 318 and ran for 102. USC, who doesn’t run much, torched Wazzou for 400 yards passing. Utah ran for 212. Cal, one of the worst D1 teams, ran for 117. Oregon State ran for 309. Stanford only ran for 76 but threw for about 300. Basically every team except Cal did exactly what it wanted to do against the Wazzou D.
On offense, Wazzou is pretty good. Wazzou is not the Mike Leach air raid anymore. They are balanced with good experience and on a roll, with consecutive strong home wins over good Oregon State and Stanford teams, scoring over 30 in both games.
Two solid RBs. Both seniors who average 5ypc. If BYU does the full retreat thing on D, these backs will gash us like we have seen in almost every game this year, Wazzou plays keepaway, and BYU frantically tries to hold on at the end.
QB deLaura isn’t really a runner but can evade pressure. He’s only been sacked 6 times in 7 games, meaning if BYU rushes 3 or even 4, the odds of pressuring him are not good. Like the BSU and Baylor QBs, he is accurate and doesn’t make a lot of mistakes (15td and 5 picks in 7 games).
BYU is a 4.5 point favorite. BYU is only 3-4 against the spread this year, meaning that BYU has failed to perform to expectations in 4 of 7 games. I’m so sick of Tuiaki and Sitake’s defense making these games so pathetically terrible to watch that I don’t even want to pick BYU to cover, much less to win.
Despite my better judgment, I’ll pick BYU to win 28-24, only because Wazzou’s D is just as bad as ours is, and they have had a huge distraction with 5 coaches getting fired this week.
PS: Against Stanford last week, deLaura threw three TD passes. All straight drop backs. Stanford did not bring pressure on any of the 3 plays. Wonder if Tuiaki saw the same highlights…