BYU squeaks by another mediocre opponent
Another week, another win. BYU 45, CSU 42. And yet more reason to be skeptical of this BYU team. The defense still looks snail-slow; the offense put up lots of points but turned the ball over enough to keep Rams in the game throughout; and the special teams weren’t all that special with a fumble and several penalties.
What did you think?
Is this really the same team as two months ago?
Comment by Clean Cut — November 1, 2008 @ 8:05 pm
What a nail biter! I really enjoyed it, and I was just listening to it on the radio while I worked outside (75 degree weather today in Provo!).
Comment by Kent (MC) — November 1, 2008 @ 9:19 pm
I think we will pull out the next couple games, but I am really worried about the game against Utah.
Comment by Ben — November 1, 2008 @ 9:49 pm
Geoff,
I thought it was a fun game. The ending was suspenseful and exciting.
Needn’t blame mediocrity for the closeness of the game. Ranked teams are a target for every opponent. They have to run twice as fast, just to stay in one place.
Comment by Jim Cobabe — November 1, 2008 @ 10:18 pm
What a terrible game. Good thing CSU’s defense sucks just as bad as ours. I don’t see us beating either Air Force or Utah at this rate. The question now is whether we will get past San Jose State in the New Mexico Bowl.
Comment by Eric Russell — November 1, 2008 @ 10:31 pm
At least the game didn’t end like this.
Comment by Eric Russell — November 1, 2008 @ 10:43 pm
Don’t get too down on the cougs yet. They keep winning. Note that U of U barely handled UNM this week. MWC is a better conference than people think.
Comment by TrevorM — November 2, 2008 @ 12:51 am
Also remember that TCU beat CSU 13-7.
Comment by TrevorM — November 2, 2008 @ 12:56 am
It was a Dewey vs. Truman moment on the ESPN website.
They had already posted the defeat, and BYU’s new W-L record….and had to change it a few seconds later.
Comment by Naismith — November 2, 2008 @ 6:31 am
My concern is the obvious coaching errors. Here are a few samples:
Taking an unsportsman penalty on the point after instead of the kick-off when scoring a touchdown was crucial.
Instering Reno Mahe into the game with an end-around (resulting in a fumble)
Personnel changes at inexplicable times.
The run offense was so predictable even the commentators (Todd Christensen in particular) could tell where the ball was going as soon as they saw the full-back position. In fact, our run offense has become so predictable that it is easy to stack with a run blitz package like that employed by Colorado State.
The defensive alignment of the corners backing 10 years off of receiver gives a 1st down any time for a slant or curl rout. In fact, the success of teams against us on 3rd and long or 3rd and short with slants and curls is astronomically high. Are our corners that bad?
Comment by Blake — November 2, 2008 @ 10:54 am
Geoff J,
I really enjoy watching the team play. I am very happy with the win. Also, I know if I was on the field, I would get creamed into a pulp, since I never played football growing up. Bronco has done and is doing a great job with the program both on and off the field.
Comment by Clayton — November 2, 2008 @ 11:55 am
There are three games left in the regular season for BYU. SDSU at home will be a cakewalk. Do y’all think BYU can beat AFA on the road? How about Utah? I’d say beating Air Force is a 65%+ chance and I’d put the odds of beating Utah at about 40% this year. However, I think TCU will beat Utah this Thursday and win out. The Horned Frogs could do very well in a BCS bowl this year as well.
MWC fans should all be pulling for a Boise State loss soon because it would really suck to see the WAC come in and steal that BCS spot again.
Finally, having seen a lot of games this year I think the best team in the country is Oklahoma. I expect them to win it all barring major injury.
Comment by Geoff J — November 2, 2008 @ 12:18 pm
Yup. With the same weaknesses. It’s just now everyone has seen enough tape as to know how to exploit them.
Comment by Clark — November 2, 2008 @ 1:41 pm
Well, CSU must have been good enough to help our strength of schedule rise up out of the pits, because we just skyrocketed five places in the BCS poll. We now only need losses from BSU and TCU and to finish the season without losing and we’ve got the bid.
Comment by Eric Russell — November 2, 2008 @ 6:12 pm
Yup, you are right Eric. BYU is #15 in the BCS standings today. Three wins alone won’t get BYU in, but it sure wouldn’t hurt.
Comment by Geoff J — November 2, 2008 @ 6:19 pm
No way Boise State loses a game this year. Look at their competition. TCU has a chance to leapfrog Boise State but that is a tricky thing. The BCS rewards running up the score and Boise always posts as big a score as they can because of that.
Comment by Bob W — November 2, 2008 @ 7:25 pm
I think it is ridiculous that published tables of BCS ratings do not include the teams win loss records. Why should anyone care about a computer generated score when the win-loss record is not there to compare it to?
Comment by Mark D. — November 2, 2008 @ 9:07 pm
The team is sort of like Max Hall–they’re good for about 1/3 of the performance you’d like to see.
Comment by Mark B. — November 2, 2008 @ 10:14 pm
It was a fun game to watch — if you weren’t a diehard cougar fan.
Comment by Adam Greenwood — November 3, 2008 @ 5:29 pm
Blake, #10–
BYU is a pretty good team, and in part we fans spoiled ourselves with our expections, but yeah, its hard to argue with the weaknesses you identified.
Comment by Adam Greenwood — November 3, 2008 @ 5:30 pm
Adam, I think that’s key. I recognize Anae gets a lot of gripe for overly predictable play calling. But look how far we’ve gotten. And say what you will about coaching this season but the fact of the matter is that the talent just isn’t there. We’ve got two solid receivers but then a bunch of unexperienced ones. If they double team those experienced ones what happens? Yes Hall should do better but he’s a freaking Sophomore!
Ditto in Defense. Look, it’s typically 3 or 4 players screwing up and opposing offenses are exploiting it. I won’t name the players but if you look at the screwups it’s consistently the same guys…
Comment by Clark — November 3, 2008 @ 6:09 pm
Eh. I’m already used to being disappointed. I guess I’ll just have to look forward to the proverbial “next year.” :]
Comment by Tug — November 3, 2008 @ 7:12 pm