While this pains me and I have to wash by buddies truck in Ute garb (down graded from a halter top at the last second), I have to give props to the pukes.
I could complain that the homer P12 refs did their best to hose BYU by tick tacking every call and clearly botching the ejection of Nacua and the other safety the next play. Both guys had ligit blocks, but the real reason why BYU lost is…Utah had a much better defensive line and stopped our run when they needed to and we (again) ran out of gas in the 4th. That last drive when Utah had the ball was a thing of beauty. They carved over 10 minutes off the clock and there was not a thing BYU could do to stop it.
Hill did not look sharp in the passing game but in his defense, there were a number of receivers that just plain dropped balls that were right in your bread basket.
In the end, with Williams out, BYU could not run it making us one dimensional and easy to defend. Utah was just simply better on the line on both sides of the ball.
While I’ll agree that Utah’s last drive was impressive in our inability to stop it and the shear length of time it took, BYU’s drive was equally impressive in the last two minutes. And while Utah’s defense was excellent, it is interesting to note that BYU’s defense held Utah to less points than Utah’s defense allowed, the pick-six being allowed by the offense.
Agree Hill was not sharp–high, low, behind–just really, really bad. As you point out, two or three crucial drops did not help. Hill is dangerous when he scrambles. When he throws in the pocket–as the offense is designed to do–he looks really bad to me and I was very surprised Magnum wasn’t playing by the 2nd quarter.
The ejection of Nacua was shameful, biased, who knows what word can really describe it…lost in all this is that Nacua made an amazing play–separate a receiver from the ball, which would have forced a punt, and he did it violently and purposefully, processing in a split second that he had to do it within the “new” rules. He did so flawlessly, and the official botched it. But the back judge gets a pass, because it happened fast–The real shame is that the replay official, with an easy chance to make it right, decided to screw BYU over. He is the guy who really deserves the criticism–not the guy who made the call in real time. The replay was so clear–to Mike Pereira, the play by play guys, and to the whole world–that the only explanation is that the replay guy saw it as an opportunity to hurt BYU. I have no other explanation for his actions, and the film was not ambiguous.
Our linebackers are, well, amazing. Three years of Pau’u and Bernard will be fun to watch.
DL=gassed. Utah proved on that drive who deserved to win the game.
The left side of our OL is a real problem.
I thought Detmer made a grave miscalculation by forming a game plan that excluded Jamaal Williams. He was nothing more than a decoy, and that’s ok if the passing game works; but our passing game was worse than abysmal and Jamaal should be steamed today to have been marginalized the way he was.
Did I mention that our LB are fun to watch? Haha boy they are big, fast, tough, and emotional. Love 'em.
Hill has been an adequate game manager in the 2 games so far but has not been the superlative playmaker of old. Not bashing they guy but the truth is the truth. If Hill’s passing does not improve significantly then Mangum should be inserted for significant minutes or start. Jamaal was ok but the Utes Dline was not going to allow him to rack up big yards. Both U of U D and O lines better than BYUs. Both targeting penalties and ejections were wrong, wrong, wrong. But with 6 turnovers and other miscues Utah still won and that stings the most for me.
Ok tough game to watch but it could have gone either way and that’s better than I thought after the first play pick 6. I agree the Utes held the edge on both offensive and defensive lines. The Wilcox interference call was huge. Although Hill’s passing wasn’t sharp I disagree about the Hill vs Mangum comments. In the second half Hill kept them in the game as the Utes started shutting Williams down. I felt Hill was going to lead them down on their final drive and he did. Poor play call on the conversion. Despite all the hoopla surrounding Detmer-I still believe it’s a growing into the job process for him. I tried visualizing how I would have played the first targeting call as the dB and the frustrating thing is-I believe it was played to perfection-the second targeting was more debatable, but he actually missed 99% of the contact. Finally NO-I don’t believe The coaches ever considered pulling Hill for Mangum and they would probably tell you that flat out. No qb controversy. Still going with my 7-5 if Williams didn’t sustain a lengthy injury.
I disagree, Roy. That 30 yard scamper into the end zone proved Hill still can make spectacular plays. His passing was not great, especially early, but he is still great on the ground. He will be even better when he loses a few pounds.
While much of what you said was true the reason why we lost is what has happened over and over with football and basketball for years now. We come out of the tunnel onto the field or court mentally unprepared. What happened yesterday and why we lost was the opening pick 6, again. Our heads aren’t ready.
You can take everything else bad that happened and how Utah drive the ball in for a field goal, take 7 points off the board and we win. Our defense caused numerous turnovers. We should have built a big lead. Instead, we start in a 7 point hole. We need a mental coach. If we have one we need a new one.
I am not suggesting that Hill be replaced, at least not right away. But although there were a few passes dropped, Hill was not sharp. What I am suggesting is that if Hill cannot pass accurately then Mangum should see some playing time but I am not even saying for the next game. However, Hill has to sharpen up soon. IF Hill cannot pass well game after game and Mangum wastes a year then how is this coaching staff different than the last one. Another tough game coming up.
Hopefully O-line gets better as Hill looked pretty good against Arizona but Utah put a lot of pressure on him. Probably a good gauge will be against UCLA. No question about arm strength, but agreed that he was off against Utah. His mobility looked much better against Utah than Arizona so hopefully it’s a progression.
Yes, that obvious facemask penalty that wasn’t called is a great way to stop the run when you need to. The officiating was putrid… way too many flags, way too much discussion after calls, way too many reviews that only served to help Utah when a play was reviewed… and the final score was a lucky one point victory because of a botched two point conversion.
Change any one of those facts and BYU wins that game just as readily as Utah did… 10 minute drive or no 10 minute drive.
You are giving Utah way too much credit at this point in the season and after a fairly weak performance by their team.
Utes don’t have 6 turnovers plus other fumbles they held onto and they win way big. I agree that the officiating sucked but let’s look at the whole picture. Offensive and defensive lines dictate the fate of the vast majority of FB games and Utah had better guys in the trenches. What would have been the score if Utah had held onto the ball? We lost and all the whys, what ifs and should haves won’t change a thing. But by the same token, I enjoy the comments because I get to mull them over and sometimes learn a lot.
I disagree here. Utah clogged up the running lanes better than Arizona did but Hill wasn’t that pressured. Utah had 2 sacks (BYU had zero) but there were several times Hill had plenty of time to throw and didn’t. Likewise, his receivers dropped too many passes.
The line play on both sides was better for Utah, but that didn’t result in a one point win.
The problem was the officiating, just like it is most of the time we play Utah since they joined the pac-12. BYU will NEVER know what it is like to have objective, fair officiating when they play Utah. It was bogus last night and it will be every time they play them. It’s just the way it is.
And now that Utah’s pansy basketball program is refusing to play BYU because they risk losing to them, Utah will have the upper hand in major sports when it comes to playing BYU.
If Utah had played a similar quality team, comparable to BYU, they would have lost to 9 out of 10 of those teams in that game yesterday.
The reason they won is because BYU gets shafted by the officiating in games like that.
BYU had a chance to win the game, and losing it in the end is on the Cougars, but those 2 crappy targeting calls not only cost BYU 30 yards of field position but two players as well. They also lost 15 yards on one of the more obvious non called facemask penalties you will see this season. I dare anyone to show me a more obvious missed facemask penalty than that one, the rest of the season. It won’t happen.
When an officiating crew has to conference as many times as this one did… it is no secret they have it out for one of the teams involved. I was so happy to see the passion from Sitake. I hope he understands that this is the way it will go during his tenure at BYU and he must prepare for it. Officials just like to crap on BYU… it’s always been that way and it certainly won’t get better going forward.
It’s a popular past time to beat on religion and religious institutions and the popularity is gaining momentum.
Indeed the facemask was pretty brutal…literally turned the ballcarrier around and happened about 6-8 feet in front of line judge with a direct line of sight. Pretty obvious that he saw it and just didn’t want to call it. Seeing a head turn 180 degrees right in front of you is pretty hard to miss.
Overall the officiating was pretty evenly called ie both teams were flagged consistently. The face mask non-call was blatant. The critical pass interference on Wilcox was obvious which imo saved the game for Utah. The targeting calls in accordance to what I perceive as targeting were inexplicable. Probable losing both players hurt BYU more than anything. I have to question the timing of the calls or non calls more than anything. I have no idea whether this was a PAC12 crew or not, but if I was scheduling road games like Arizona and Utah I wouldn’t feel too comfortable with their PAC12 crews. All in all I see your frustration. Time will tell on other matters as to how Utah does in their division. I see them winning the South and I don’t see anyone real impressive so far except for Stanford or Washington in the North Division. As for BYU 7-5:)
Found this on Twitter from Ohio Fan
“I’m an Ohio State fan. Couldn’t care less who wins but officials in BYU-Utah game are a disgrace to college football”
And add to another bad day to Oklahoma State when it should have been reviewed when losing to C. Michigan at Stillwater, OK
He probably figured a 2 point conversion was his last ditch and only hope to win the game so he went for it. After he blew a gasket on not one, but two very poor targeting calls that of course went against BYU, he wasn’t in his right mind to be making an important decision of whether to go for one or two.
I love his passion and fire though… nice to see a coach who is willing to go to the mat for his players against biased officials.