Do you ever have Deja Vu, Mrs. Lancaster?
I don't think so, but I could check with the kitchen.
Up in Logan, the Aggies finally shook off their personal Phil Connors, by taking the Wyoming Cowboys to task.
Meanwhile in Provo, we learned that Riley Nelson brings fires to the rest of the Cougars, but is there anything else we can take from the start of the poo-poo platter schedule?
Next Verse, Same As The First
10-7 Halftime deficit? Check.
5 Turnovers? Check
Defense getting worn down, by offense that keeps putting them in bad situations? Check
This past weekend's game against Arizona State was as close to an exact duplicate of their game the previous week against Washington as any one team could ever play. There were a few subtle differences. This time the majority of the turnovers happened in the second half. Unlike last week the offense was not moving the ball in the first half. The biggest difference though was the Utes actually managed to score on the first drive of the second half, and actually had a 14-13 lead, with the ball, with five minutes left to go in the third.
Other than that, it was the same turnover field, mistake prone second half by the offense, the led to the defense getting put in tough spots, left on the field too long, and eventually wearing down. This game was best summed up by a 6 play offensive stretch for the Utes, that started at that five minute mark. Those six plays:
John White Fumble
John Hays Interception
John White 8 Yard Rush
John White 9 Yard Rush
Reggie Dunn fumble.
And that is how you turn a 14-13 lead, into a 35-14 deficit.
Rating Hays
I guess there is a reason that Jon Hays was going to be playing QB for Nebraska-Omaha, and not for some other Div 1-AA team this spring. Hays wasn't extremely terrible, but he was far from good.
Sure Hays showed an ability to keep plays alive, and to make plays with his legs. Something which is very necessary with the terrible offensive line the Utes have. Hays also showed he had a lot of heart, and willingness to take a hit.
Unfortunately, Hays showed that he was just unable to adjust to the speed of the opponent. His decision making always seemed about half a second slow.
The other big concern for Hays is that he simply does not have the necessary arm strength. His passes would float in the air, for way too long, which then allowed the defender to get into position to make a play. On his two first half interceptions, this was extremely evident as the passes were completely under-thrown, but the pass where this was most obvious was on the flea-flicker on their first drive of the third quarter.
On a play where the WR had gotten open, and the ASU defense had completely bit on the run fake, a well thrown ball would have led to the WR walking in for an untouched TD. Instead, the ball floated in the air, and not one, but two ASU defenders were in position to make a play. Fortunately the Utah WR was able to jump higher and catch the reception.
Hays isn't terrible, and more playing time (Which now that the Utes have announced Jordan Wynn is going to have surgery on his left shoulder, and therefore miss the rest of the season, he will now have in abundance) can possibly help speed up his decision making, but if Hays continues to float his passes, the Utes could be in deep trouble.
The Utes need to keep Hays as a game manager, and absolutely cannot rely on him to win a game this year.
Hays' Biggest Obstacle
Unfortunately for Utah, and for Hays, the biggest obstacle that will hurt him is his offensive line. Through five games, the line has shown a distinct inability to open up any holes. Unless we are referring to the holes that the defenders run through to get to the Quarterback.
When the Utah offensive line isn't allowing their QB to get sacked, or preventing the running backs from getting any yards, they are busy killing offensive drives with stupid holding penalties. Especially on the left side, where John Cullen has caused his fair share of big plays to be called back. The most recent being DeVonte Christopher's 74 yard catch. With as often as Cullen has allowed defenders to get to the QB, the most surprising thing wasn't the penalty, it was that Cullen was even in the vicinity of the defender to get called for a holding penalty in the first place.
Offense Help Out Your Defense
This week the defense will get a huge test from a running game perspective. The Panthers of Pitt average 176 yards per game. In the air Tino Sunseri hasn't improved much from when the Utes saw him at the beginning of last year. Pitt's leading rusher, Ray Graham, averages 6.0 yards per carry, and his lowest yardage output of the year was 86 yards. Graham also has 9 TD's.
For the past two weeks the Utes defense has been stout, before getting left out to dry by the Offense. Once again, and honestly for the rest of the season, the Utes defense is going to be called on to put Utah in a position to win the game. But there is only so much they can do. Especially when the offense trots out drives of 1 play, 1 play, and 4 plays.
View From The Redzone
As Utah got the ball with about two minutes to go in the first half, I looked at the score and saw the familiar 10-7 score from last week. As I gazed at the scoreboard I just knew this was feeling too much like the previous week. Utah had to do something.
As Utah started to drive the ball in that last drive, I started to feel some relief. A field goal, anything, would be nice to get that score to change. Whatever the Utes did, they could not go into halftime with that 10-7 score. Just too much bad mojo from last week hung around that half time score. Then Jon Hays floated a goal line interception cementing the half time score.
While it started to look like I was worried for nothing in the third quarter as Utah drove down for a TD, and even held a 14-13 lead with 10 minutes to go, part of me always knew that Hays goal line interception was the nail in Utah's Groundhog Day like performance.
The Joys Of Scrimmaging
Late, very late, Saturday night, the Cougars finished beating the San Jose State Spartans 29-16. The question is what to take from the game.
Should the Cougars be excited that they seemed to find a new running threat in Michael Alisa? What should they think about McKay Jacobsen finally being used in the offense with 63 yards, including a 40 yard pass?
Or should they be worried that they gave the Spartans 16 points? Should they be worried that once again, in the second half the offense started to stutter and stall. Should they start jumping back on the Jake Heaps bandwagon, after Riley Nelson looked erratic, including two terrible interceptions?
One thing I know you can take out of this game, is that San Jose State was actually worse than expected. I guess there is a reason that the team had Juniors who were going through their first ever two game win streak. At least, the Spartans didn't kick a punt off a teammates helmet.
Is Michael Alisa that good, or was it the competition? We won't know until Alisa does it against a decent opponent. Unfortunately for the Cougars that won't happen again until they play TCU.
Same goes for the whole Riley Nelson/Jake Heaps debate. It really won't matter who is playing QB the next two weeks. Either one should be able to lead the Cougars to wins. However, Nelson does bring an entirely different fire to the rest of the team. They are playing with a different attitude than with Heaps is in the game. Until that fire is gone, BYU must stay the course with Nelson, no matter how erratic he is.
What about the offense stuttering in the second half, or the defensive secondary being a little soft? There is room for concern there, as both seem to be a continuation of problems from earlier in the season, but at the same time, it could also be written off by the fact that the Cougars may have let their foot off the gas pedal after getting a 23-3 lead.
There was one surprise though, and that was the nice 40 yard pass from Nelson to Jacobsen. What kind of shoulder surgery did he go through last year, because even that past used to be beyond his capabilities.
Damming The Beavers
Oregon State finally broke through in the win column this past week against Colorado, and in so doing, ruining what would have been this season's first Ackbar Alert Trap Game. An early season QB controversy has led to the Beavers going with Freshman Sean Mannion.
However the Beavers best chance in this game relies on star WR James Rogers. Rogers was sidelined early in the season with an injury, and has slowly been working his way back into past form. The Beavers will look for him on the offense, and if the Cougars can keep him in check, they should be able to come away with a victory.
Best Way To Avoid An End Of Game Letdown
How do you avoid another heartbreaking finish with your team on the losing end? Simple. Put up 63 points in an absolute shellacking of your opponent. Utah State did just that by beating the Wyoming Cowboys 63-19. After two consecutive games that ended in a heartbreaking fashion, the Aggies needed a victory like that.
Most impressively, they finally began to trust Chucky Keeton to throw the ball. All Keeton did, was cement his place as the state's best QB with a 213 yard, 4 TD performance.
Robert Turbin meanwhile added his 4th consecutive 100 yard game.
How long has it been since the Aggies had the best QB, and the Best RB in the state. Add in LB Bobby Wagner and you could almost make an argument for best defensive player.
Conference For The Taking
The Aggies now open up conference play, and are a legitimate dark horse candidate to take the conference title. Their toughest competition will be departing Fresno State, or Hawaii. Unfortunately they get both team on the road, starting with Fresno State this weekend.
Programming Updates
Good news for Cougar fans. This week's game against the Oregon State Beavers manage to avoid a complete live blackout, as KBYU and FSN came to an agreement to split broadcasting duties. This means that BYU fans will be able to watch the game live on KBYU, or channel 11, at 2 p.m. mountain time on Saturday.
Meanwhile for the Utes, the time for their game against Cal on 10/22 has been announced. The game will kickoff at 5 p.m. Mountain time, and will be broadcast on KJZZ, or channel 14.