BYU Football is Staring a 1-6 Record in the Face
After the 31-16 loss tonight at Utah State the Cougars of BYU drop to a 1-4 record and are likely to lose their next two games as well. (Congratulations to the improved Aggies BTW.) Next up is SDSU which has a BYE this week after destroying this same USU team last week. So in all likelihood The Aztecs will handle this anemic BYU team fairly easily. The following week BYU is at #4 TCU and that will likely be a severe beat down for the Cougs.
The BYU defense has been hapless all season, giving up gobs of points every game. To make things worse, the best player on defense, strong safety Andrew Rich, went down tonight with what looked like a pretty serious injury in the first half. Then star linebacker Jordan Pendelton had to be helped off the field in the second half. This follows on the heels of our starting nose tackle Romney Fuga getting his knee blown out on a dirty play by a Nevada lineman last week. The defense runs the real risk of going from weak to awful.
But as bad as the defense has been, the offense has been significantly worse. SDSU put up 41 points on USU; BYU only managed 16. The problem for freshman QB Jake Heaps is that while he is missing some passes, even when he is on target his receivers are dropping the ball way too often. BYU has been spoiled with mature NFL-caliber talent on offense for the last 5-6 years. The offensive talent on the field this year is either not experienced enough to win yet, not NFL-caliber, or both. It makes for a very non-BYU-looking team out there when BYU has the ball lately.
The upshot of it all is that BYU is now probably going to finish 5-7 or even 4-8 this season. Rebuilding year indeed.
THAT is the upshot?
Comment by Eric Nielson — October 2, 2010 @ 5:40 am
That was painful to watch.
Heaps is getting better. The only bright spot. Inexplicably his receivers are getting worse.
Comment by Clark — October 2, 2010 @ 7:25 am
I’m flabbergasted. Now I’m wondering if they’ll even win four games this season.
Comment by jjohnsen — October 2, 2010 @ 8:51 am
As Geoff said the scariest thing is that we’ve now lost the three top defensive players we had when our defense was atrocious.
I honestly can’t fathom what is going on with the receivers. Yes Heaps had some horrible throws (although at least a few people were yelling about were due to receivers being out of position — perhaps due to miscommunication). However there were numerous throws that were perfect that were dropped or inexplicably went through hands.
I just hope this isn’t turning into Crowton repeats where the team unity breaks down and players either give up or outright start sabotaging things. This should be the situation where Bronco’s pursuit of excellence helps most. But it’s not. Some are still laying a lot of this on the 2 QB issue but come on, it’s been several weeks. You can’t attribute missing good passes to that anymore.
Comment by Clark — October 2, 2010 @ 9:30 am
Yep Eric, that’s the upshot. (Upshot means “result” if there is a question…)
Clark — I too am completely baffled by the drops. This summer there was actually talk of this being the most talented and deepest receiving corps BYU has ever had. They look terrible overall so far and the tight end position is still a major no-show.
Comment by Geoff J — October 2, 2010 @ 10:36 am
Had the receivers been catching balls that always should have been caught the score would have been far closer if not leading to a win. While the defense is something to complain about the receivers lost that game.
Comment by Clark — October 2, 2010 @ 11:00 am
Defensive coordinator Jamie Hill was fired today. http://www.desnews.com/700070440/ Bronco will take over the defense again for now. More changes to come?
Comment by Geoff J — October 2, 2010 @ 12:35 pm
I think I had a comment following week #1 about the scheme being flawed. Looks like Bronco agrees. The defense has looked slow and confused all year long. Had heaps been able to convince Kinney to live up to his soft commit things might have been different for the offense.
Comment by PaulM — October 2, 2010 @ 3:41 pm
But at least we can rejoice that Austin Collie made the right choice.
BYU needs more NFL-caliber players. Maybe they should pay them more.
Comment by Mark B. — October 3, 2010 @ 7:33 am
This is why I quit watching BYU football this year and have moved on to my professional team….Go Seahawks!!!
Comment by ama — October 3, 2010 @ 10:33 am
There must be something about Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk on pride that we can work into this discussion. Or Nephi’s curse upon those who trust in the arm of flesh.
Comment by Mark B. — October 4, 2010 @ 5:26 am
Ouch. BYU reportedly has the worst defense in the nation.
Comment by Clark — October 4, 2010 @ 9:31 am
Worst run defense at least Clark. #120 out of 120.
Comment by Geoff J — October 4, 2010 @ 2:27 pm
I just signed up to your blogs rss feed. Will you post more on this subject?
Comment by badmash — October 22, 2010 @ 10:51 pm