ThRhett on :
No shout out to Weber St?
Tuesday, September 6. 2011Red, Blue And Pigskin
After weeks of fall camp, and months of offseason questions looming over College Football, week one finally arrived to answer questions and clear the picture a bit.
Week one play is now over and there still not a lot I know. Things are just as muddled as ever. Some things I know: I know TCU was on the losing end of a game that had 98 points scored. What that means for TCU's defense, and their team this year, I don't know? I know Utah State had the best QB by far of any local team in week one, and was oh so close to shocking defending National Champion Auburn. I don't know if that choke job at the end will linger, or if the Aggies will learn from it. But I will discuss it later. I know Maryland sported the worst uniforms of the year. This didn't leave me with any lingering questions. Finally, I know that Both Utah and BYU won, but they left more questions than answers. Reality Barges In
I lied, there is one more thing I know. I know there is not a punishment big enough for people who are hideously moronic enough to go out, drink alcohol, and get behind the wheel. Unfortunately tragedy struck the University of Utah team on Thursday after the game when a drunk driver in West Valley City ran a red light and caused an accident that took the life of two people. One of those two deaths was the wife of Utah Lineman Ronald Tongaonevai. It's cliched I know, but it's at times like this that we are reminded that this is just a game. My sympathies go out to the Tongaonevai family as well as to the families of all people who are affected by drunk drivers. Utah Fan, BYU Fan Remember as a kid watching cartoons? Do you remember the cartoons that had a character trying to make a decision, and on his shoulder popped an Angel, and a Devil to argue the good and evil side of the situation? Well throughout the state fans of both teams are having that shoulder conversation. Only instead of an angel and a devil, on their shoulder is a Utah fan and a BYU fan (We'll let you decide which is the angel and which is the devil.) Utah vs Montana State The Utes opened the season on Thursday with a 27-10. A game that saw Jordan Wynn barely get past 100 yards passing, and saw the starters in until the end of the game. Let's listen in as the Utah Fan and BYU fan make their case. Utah Fan: Well at least we won. BYU Fan: You were playing Montana State. A win was inevitable. If you were playing something other than a High School team you wouldn't have had a prayer. Utah Fan: Hey give the Bobcats some credit. Yes, they are a 1-AA team, but they are ranked. Win wasn't guaranteed, just ask Oregon State. Besides they are better than at least three of the teams the Cougars play this year. BYU Fan: Can't wait to see Jordan Wynn play a real defense this year. 101 yards of passing offense. You're going to get killed at the Coliseum this Saturday. Utah Fan: They didn't need Jordan Wynn. The game was locked up in the first quarter, and the coaches decided not to show anything. They clamped down on the playbook. BYU Fan: Think what you want, but you can't feel confident about Wynn. Did he even have a pass greater than three yards. Utah Fan: Look, how hard is it for you to understand that the Utes were just trying to get the win. This wasn't about showing off Wynn. Once the game was decided, and it was decided in the first quarter, the game plan was not to show anything, and not get anyone hurt. Besides, what Utah really wanted to do was setup their run game. Something they did really well with John White IV who ran for 150 yards. BYU Fan: Ooh big deal, he did it against Montana State, a 1-AA team. Let me see them do it for real. Utah Fan: Quit knocking the Bobcats. White showed some nice moves, and speed. Also we always knew the Utes were a team whose defense was going to bail them out for the first few weeks. The defense looked good, Blechen getting two interceptions BYU Fan: Again Montana State... Utah Fan: Look you Zoob can't you come up with a better argument? BYU Fan: How does Utah expect to stop Barkley and Woods this week. Woods just lit up Minnesota for 177 yards and 3 TD's. Utah had problems getting pressure on a 1-AA QB. Utah Fan: False, Utah actually got decent pressure. But much like the offensive playcalling, the Utes didn't get out of Base Defense much. Woods will give that revamped secondary some fits, I'll admit as much, they won't be able to get away with mistakes as easily. Besides, that QB was a scrambler and turned more than a few sacks into positive plays for the Bobcats. BYU Fan: You mean the 1-AA Bobcats. Utah Fan: That's it bring up the 1-AA argument one more time and I'm going to come over there and give you a Pac-12 beat down. Besides, all that matters is we got the W BYU Fan: Barely, against a 1-AA team Utah Fan: That's it you stupid Zoob! BYU Fan: Typical classless Yewt, what's the matter ran out of beer to toss on me. BYU @ Ole Miss Not to be outdone by Utah's ho-hum performance, the BYU Cougars took their vaunted offense into SEC country, and came away with an unimpressive escape of a victory, 14-13 BYU Fan: Ha Victory. Went into SEC country and came out victorious. Rise Up the Cougars are out! Utah Fan: Yea BYU fan, but they didn't deserve to win. Your offense looked almost as terrible as Utah's BYU Fan: What are you talking about. We ended up with over 300 yards of offense. The offense was moving the ball, just couldn't put it in the end zone. Utah Fan: Moving the ball? Not for the majority of the game. In fact with 4 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter, BYU had only 86 yards of offense. What happened to this great Saint Jake. What happened to the aggressive play calling Doman promised. Looked less like aggressive, and more like Andy Ludwig calling plays. BYU Fan: Utah did just fine with Andy Ludwig. Utah Fan: And yet, we were excited when he left town. The WR's had no separation. They couldn't handle the DB speed. And the running game was almost non existent, they struggled to get around the corner. The only time BYU moved the ball was with dump out passes to the RB. BYU Fan: Heap still managed to wake up in the 3rd and 4th quarter, drove them down for a critical TD late. They were only a couple mistakes away from 21 points. Utah Fan: Speaking of, you realize Ole Miss was the worst red zone defense last year, giving up a TD on 75% of the possessions. Apparently BYU was exactly what that defense needed, only scoring a TD on 33% of their red zone opportunities. By the way, nice "tackling" on Heaps first TD of the year by the way. Is this a tradition, is his first TD pass every year going to be a pick six? BYU Fan: Give them a break, they're offensive players. The defense however looked amazing. Utah Fan: Against probably the most inept offense in division 1-A. Ole Miss was more conservative in their play calling than Utah, only they had to try and win the game. BYU Fan: All we heard was how that SEC toughness, and SEC speed was going to run us off the field. Just ask the ESPN announcers. Instead we dominated them defensively. Utah Fan: Again, the most inept offense in division 1-A. BYU Fan: Well what did you expect them to do, they were without their expected starting QB, and we injured their top two running backs early. Utah Fan: And yet you still barely squeaked by them. BYU Fan: That's right. All hail Kyle Van Oy. Utah Fan: Hey I've always liked Van Oy. That play showed why he's possibly the best LB on your team. But what was your coach thinking keeping him on the sidelines as often as he was. BYU Fan: Hey give Bronco credit, his defense shut down a vaunted SEC team, and limited them to only 6 points offensively. They didn't even get into the end zone. Utah Fan: Again the most inept offense in division 1-A. BYU Fan: Jealous Yewt. You're just jealous that we beat an SEC team, and not some high school team brought in for a scrimmage. Utah Fan: An SEC team that should fire their Head Coach, for that 4th down play call? 4th and 10, down by 1, 3 minutes to go. You call a timeout and then run a flat pass? Something that BYU has been shutting down all day. Wait, where did Robert Anai get hired at again? BYU Fan: Like I said, jealousy, besides they were scared of our defense, and there's nothing to worry about with our offense. They are going to come around and light up teams just like they did during fall camp. Utah Fan: Figures, a Zoob who doesn't think his team does any wrong. BYU Fan: Say what you want, we went into SEC country and won. Utah Fan: Enjoy Austin, Texas this week. A Loss To Learn From When a team goes over a decade without a winning season, they forget how to win. This is exactly the case for the Aggies. Utah State went between the hedges in Auburn, started a true freshman QB in Chucky Keeton, and gave Auburn all they wanted. Unfortunately for Utah State, a 10 point lead with 3 minutes to go vanished in the blink of an eye. It was a heartbreaking loss for the Aggies. The Aggies went in and weren't afraid of the defending National Champions. True freshman QB Keeton played like anything but a Freshman. Keeton, by far, had the best performance of any local team. Keeton passed for 213 yards. He didn't throw a TD pass, but he also didn't throw an Interception. In addition to hurting the Tigers with his arm, he made spectacular plays with his legs accounting for two TD runs. No drive was as impressive than when the Tigers took the lead for the first time late in the 3rd quarter. Down 28-24, it would have been easy to pack it in. Instead Keeton put together a long 14 play 80 yard drive to take the lead back. Unfortunately, the Aggies are still trying to figure out how to win. The Aggies ended up letting the Tigers score, recover an onside kick, and score again in the final 3 minutes, to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. As the game got close, and the Tigers kept fighting back, the Aggies kept making little mistakes. It's what happens when you have a culture of losing. It's this culture that Head Coach Gary Andersen is trying to change. This very well could be one of those growing moments that's needed. Either way, I would say the chances of USU getting a bowl bid have increased. And to Auburn Head Coach Gene Chizik, I need to ask. If winning is expensive, how much does it cost to barely escape the Aggies? The View From The Red Zone A feeling of excitement usually envelops the crowd on Opening day. That feeling increased dramatically when Brian Blechen intercepted Montana State early in the first quarter and returned it deep into Bobcat territory. Even a ill-advised attempt to pitch the ball couldn't temper the feeling as the Utes ended up opening a 24-0 lead early in the 2nd quarter. The excitement quickly died down and gave way to boredom as the Utes decided to shut down the play book. After the middle of the 2nd quarter, there were a few moments of excitement. The Utes attempted a fake punt. The crowd tried to stop a Bobcat TD late in the 2nd half, when the secondary made a mistake in their own end zone, and lost track of the Bobcat WR. But for the most part a lackluster game, sapped the stadium of it's energy for the majority of the game as fans were left pondering a very conservative, and ho-hum performance by the Utes. The Pac-Dud Utah's ho-hum performance was a harbinger of things to come for the Pac-12. USC, despite getting 177 yards of receptions, and three TD's from WR Robert Woods, still had to hold on late to escape a bad Minnesota team. Washington saw their questions at QB linger with only 102 yards passing, while they let 1-AA in state foe Eastern Washington torch them for 473 yards through the air as the Huskies limped to a 3 point victory. The temperature under the already extremely hot seat of UCLA Head Coach Rick Neuheisel got turned up even more, after his Bruins gave up 469 yards of total offense, and lost to Houston. Neuheisel though can counter with the 544 yards his offense gave, and remind people that Case Keenum is in his 6th season, and that Houston puts up a lot of points and yards in every game. No state had a worse weekend though, than the state of Oregon. Every year it seems there is a Division 1-AA team that beats a division 1-A team. This year it was Sacramento State beating Oregon State 29-28 in overtime. The Beavers had to come back from a 21-6 deficit just to force overtime, before falling. The Beavers were without James Rogers, and to make matters worse, now it looks like they may have a QB competition. Beaver fans will remind you they always start the season slow, but this is a new level of slow. Beaver fans also will say they are glad they aren't Oregon Fans. While the Beavers may have lost to a Division 1-AA team, at least they didn't face-plant on national network tv. Fourth ranked LSU took the third ranked Ducks out to the wood shed on Saturday night. The Blur Offense began to come into a bit more focus as fumbles, miscues, and a paltry 4 yards per play average doomed the Ducks to their second consecutive loss. The bright side for Ducks fans is that it seems the only time the Blur Offense can be stopped is when the opponent has at least 4 weeks to prepare, as evidenced by the last 4 losses for the Ducks coming either at the first game of the season, or during their bowl game. Although, this does make one severely question Head Coach Chip Kelly's ability to adjust when he has a long break between games. Historical Matchup This week, mere hours after Pac-12 Conference mates Colorado and California face each other in a non-conference matchup, the Utes will kickoff against the Trojans in the Coliseum for the first ever Official, Pac-12 conference matchup. This will be a game between two underwhelming teams from the first week of the season. Whereas the Utes were able to skate by without opening the playbook, if they want any chance of getting to 2-0, they will need better production all the way around. Meanwhile USC continued in week one, a propensity they've shown during Head Coach Lane Kiffin's tenure, of falling apart late in the second half of games. QB Matt Barkley will look to test the revamped secondary of the Utes. Unlike week 1, we will finally get some answers about the Utes, Offensive Coordinator Norm Chow, and QB Jordan Wynn this week. Does Wynn have what it takes? Has the game past Chow by. All eyes will be on them for the answers this week. No excuses this week. Deep In The Heart Of Texas The Cougars stay on the road this week. After dealing with the heat and humidity against SEC foe Ole Miss, they will now travel to Austin Texas to take on the Longhorns. Texas dispatched Rice with a score of 34-9 that is a bit too familiar to Longhorn fans, of their 34-17 opening week victory over Rice in 2010. While the scores may be similar, the offensive production was much better for the Longhorns this time around. The Cougars defense will get a test, that the inept offense of Ole Miss just wasn't able to give them. As for the Cougars offense, it will be interesting to see if the WR's can handle Big 12 speed a little bit better and get separation from the DB's, or will Heaps continue to rely on short passing routes. Much like Utah fans with Norm Chow, BYU fans will also want to see Brandon Doman be a bit more aggressive. Speaking Of Texas TCU's defense gave up 50 points, as they lost to the Baylor Bears last Friday night in the shocking outcome of the week. I'm sure Horned Frog Gary Patterson will be livid with his team. TCU's defeat snapped three Utah related streaks, as the Horned Frogs defeat was the first regular season loss since, and the first road loss since losing to Utah in the inaugural blackout game for the Utes in 2008. It was also the first loss in the state of Texas since Utah beat them at Amon G. Carter stadium in 2007. Trackbacks
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ThRhett on :
No shout out to Weber St?
Sideshow on :
Yea I could have mentioned that Weber gave Wyoming a run. It'll be interesting to see their matchup w/ the Aggies this week.
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