{"id":2820,"date":"2011-09-24T10:21:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-24T17:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newcoolthang.com\/?p=2820"},"modified":"2020-01-09T04:39:37","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T11:39:37","slug":"byus-night-ends-better-than-the-knights-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newcoolthang.com\/index.php\/2011\/09\/byus-night-ends-better-than-the-knights-night\/2820\/","title":{"rendered":"Cougars night ends better than Knights night"},"content":{"rendered":"

After being humiliated at home last week by Utah, the BYU football team did enough to beat the UCF Knights in Provo last night by the score of 24-17<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are some thoughts on the game:
\n– Despite some blown coverages and occasionally inept tackling, the BYU defense got the job done again for BYU primarily through ferocious hitting and creating turnovers. In the end “points allowed” is the only stat that really matters for a defense.
\n– Huge night for BYU special teams. A successful fake punt, a booming punt that resulted in BYU getting the ball back, and a kickoff returned for a TD were all crucial to BYU winning this game.
\n– The offense remains painfully inept. But there were some signs of life in the running game.
\n– Jake Heaps had a bad night. He seems to be making a habit of thoroughly mediocre play for BYU. His most egregious mistakes of the night were two sure touchdowns he overthrew plus an interception that he should never have thrown to a well covered receiver.
\n– Offensive coordinator Brandon Doman went up to the press box for this game but still had an up and down game. Some great calls like the Diluigi TD pitch that everyone thought was going up the gut. The Jacobson deep route he called was great too but Heaps missed his open receiver in the endzone on that one. Most horrible call was the Riley Nelson throw on 4th and 1. Yeah I get the idea of surprising them but Nelson is not an accurate QB and his throw wasn’t close.
\n– Bronco needs to work on tackling technique again with his defense. Some embarrassingly inept tackling in the 2nd half.
\n– Kyle Van Noy is a freakishly good football player at outside linebacker. BYU almost never sees athletes of his caliber. He will be playing on Sundays in a few years but I wouldn’t be surprised if he became an All-American before he leaves college.
\n– I thought CB Corby Eason was to blame for two horribly blown coverages that led to long pass plays for UCF but Bronco said in both cases the safety was the one who screwed up and was supposed to have deep cover. Definitely major work to be done there.<\/p>\n

Luckily the schedule gets easier from here so there should be mostly wins going forward. But Utah State is actually looking pretty solid this year so the game next Friday night is no gimmee. Plenty of work to be done for both the offense and defense but this was a huge win for BYU against a good team. Another meltdown last night would have been horrible for the psyche of this team and their head coach.<\/p>\n

What did you think?