Monday, September 12, 2011

Reactions from the Texas game

Obviously, all of Cougar Nation was devastated by the loss against Texas on Saturday night. We all thought a 13-point lead was safe - especially with the way our defense was playing.

Anyway, here are a few of the things I took away from the game: 

Play-calling

I hesitate to do this, because it was only Brandon Doman's second game as an offensive coordinator. However, we were promised unpredictability in this offense, and in the second half of that game, we didn't see it. After halftime, we started to rely on a run game that didn't work in the first half and certainly didn't amount to anything in the second half either.

What I don't get is why we went away from what was working. Throws to Apo and the tight ends was working and working well against that Texas defense, but in the second half, it didn't look like we ever tried it again. We could have at least squeezed another field goal out of that offense, couldn't we?

Oh! I almost forgot how angry I was when we got the ball back before halftime with 1:40 left and we decided to run out the clock (until the penalty). 100 seconds! That's basically a two-minute drill scenario. Couldn't we have at least try to score some more points before the Texas coaching staff got a chance to make mid-game adjustments?

Defense

I'm not ready to jump off the defense's bandwagon. They straight-up dominated the entire first half (so did the offense  **sigh**). They were definitely prepared for Garrett Gilbert, but David Ash and Case McCoy? Not so much.

The second half saw Texas' running game walk all over us, but when it comes down to it, they only scored two touchdowns in that half. It looked a lot worse than it really was. BYU's defense still made some major stops in that second half.

Bottom line: The amount of points BYU has allowed its opponents still ranks as one of the 30 best in college football, and the rushing defense, while only in the top 50, has played the 11th hardest schedule so far (according Jeff Sagarin). Both Texas and Ole Miss were considered rushing teams. Top 50 ain't so bad.

Malcom Freaking Brown

Another reason to not get too worked up about the defense is Malcom Brown. BYU won't be the last team to have a hard time stopping him. One of the top RB recruits of 2011, Brown broke tackle after tackle on his way to 68 yards. While that doesn't sound that impressive, anyone watching that game knew the difference he made. When he becomes the starting RB for Texas, he'll be doing a lot more than that.

Jake Heaps

Jake Heaps has definitely been underwhelming in the first two games, but the good news is that Texas and Ole Miss might end up being the best two defenses he faces all year. I know a lot of people thought that Heaps would come out lighting secondaries up, but that's not realistic.

Brandon Doman has said that, right now, Jake is not as good as the picture fans have painted in their minds, and that's on us for creating these lofting expectation that he hasn't reached yet. However, it would be wrong to say he isn't progressing.

If you really think Jake Heaps was awful in that Texas game, I really, really, really want you to go back and watch that Utah State game from last year. Watch the TCU game. Watch his first 3-5 starts from last season. If you really don't think anything's changed, then we really can't have an intelligent debate.
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Enough of that, let's start focusing our energy on Rivalry Week!

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