“Honestly, BYU practically gave us this game”

By: Geoff J - September 5, 2006

So as I drove home from Tucson late Saturday night the guy on the UofA post game radio show said it best: “Honestly, BYU practically gave us this game”.

BYU was just that close to taking the game on Saturday. But a 48 yard field goal with the time running out won the game for Arizona (16-13) and sent BYU home 0-1. One can only wonder how things would have turned out had BYU committed just one penalty fewer, or had BYU not botched that chip shot field goal, or had BYU made one more block… BYU seems to have become pretty adept at losing close games as of late.

It is hard to tell how good the 2006 team really is after this game though. Is the offense overrated or is Arizona’s defense just that good? Is the Cougar defense underrated or is Arizona’s offense just that bad? Well we will probably find out in the next couple of weeks. If the Coug offense continues to struggles against Tulsa we gots problems. Tulsa isn’t exactly a top defensive team. Even though Beck looked good the overall running game was horrible against Arizona. Rushing yards were in the negative until midway through the second half fer cryin’ out loud. The one bright spot was Fui Vakapuna who crushed a few defenders on several of his carries. Curtis Brown was totally ineffective against this defense.

Of course the penalties BYU got dinged with were lovely gifts to the Wildcats as well. Those sorts of “unforced errors” were more than enough to give the game away. (BTW — What is it with BYU and penalties?? Is it a result of the fanatical effort that Bronco Mendenhall preaches or has BYU always been dinged with this many penalties? I may be wrong but it seems that we are having more penalty problems in recent years than usual.)

The defense did look pretty good from the stands. I suspect that the Arizona offense will indeed prove to be mediocre this year, but the BYU defense still looked solid. Not every opposing QB will miss as many receivers as Arizona’s Tuitama did of course; but even so the BYU defense stuffed the run (with the exception of one big run) and covered the receivers well (with the exception of one long bomb). Expect Tulsa to be a real test for this defense though. One thing is for sure – BYU needs score more than 16 points in every game for the rest of the season if the team expects to compete for the MWC title.

I’ll admit that from where I sat there did seem to be a little bit of home cookin’ going on with the refs. The cheap shot on Meikle on that punt sure seemed that way. But the touchdown that was called off looked legitimate to me. It looked like BYU’s Allen gave that cornerback a two-handed shove in the end zone from where we sat (even if there was a little acting going on). But the refs didn’t lose this game for BYU — I think it was mostly the unforced errors by the offense and special teams.

Anybody else go to the game? How was the TV coverage for the rest of y’all? What were your impressions of the 2006 Cougs?

41 Comments

  1. I didn’t come away too worried about the offense. Well, the running game was crap–Brown didn’t have any pop and there weren’t many holes–but the passing game was solid. The only reason their drives stalled was the stupid penalties that set up a lot of 3rd and longs.

    The defense looked good against the run, and actually not too bad against the pass, but the bad Arizona passing offense is a good reason why. There were a lot of dropped balls and really bad throws.

    The BYU touchdown that was called back was definitely offensive P.I. The receiver clearly extended his arm and gave a little shove. I really don’t think he needed to, though. He was in good position to make the catch.

    The guy who hit Meikle was shoved from behind, so it was probably the right call. But I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have been able to stop his momentum if he wasn’t pushed. Another instance of BYU stupidity costing us big.

    Comment by Tom — September 5, 2006 @ 12:34 am

  2. As I recall penalties have been a sad fact of life for most of the past few years. They were much better disciplined in the golden era of Detmer and the 90′s as I recall.

    While I think BYU deserves criticism for a lot of the errors and penalties to be fair the refs were calling a lot of kind of iffy situations. (i.e. things could have gone either way) The penalties balanced out overall, although a few of ours were huge momentum changers. (Not to mention losing a touchdown)

    I’m pretty worried overall although my friends note that the Defense was better than anyone thought and the things that were wrong were things easy to fix. i.e. discipline. However whereas prior to the game I was nervous about our Defense line now I’m extremely nervous about our Offensive line. A lot of the problems of our penalties and running game can be laid at their feet.

    As for TV coverage. It was horrible. They’d wait forever to do replays and despite having cameras everywhere would typically give us only one angle. They rarely did wide field shots so it was hard to see what was going on away from the quarterback. The guys doing the commentary were pretty bad as well.

    The only thing that makes TBS look good is the knowledge that CSTV and the Mountain are sure to be even worse. Did anyone watch the CSTV coverage of the Aztec game? I didn’t watch the whole thing but it was like watching a bunch of college interns run everything.

    Now comes the big wait this week: will Dish pick up the game? What will those of us with Dish do come Saturday?

    Comment by Clark Goble — September 5, 2006 @ 12:35 am

  3. (Answering in this thread since it’s probably more appropriate)

    Tom: To be fair, Clark, the offense wasn’t all that bad as far as executing plays goes. They were bad on third down, and the running game was garbage until they started giving it to #1, but Beck had almost 300 yds passing and they looked decent. The problem was penalties.

    The problem wasn’t just penalties it was a lot of carelessness. Yeah penalties cost us two maybe three huge plays. But the O. Line blew it on a lot of other things. Honestly, how were they out powered by the Arizona line? I’ll be the first to admit I don’t understand all the minutiae of things. But wasn’t a lot of the running game and even some of the problems Beck faced due to our line?

    Now I know some are saying Arizona’s offense was so bad that we can’t say our Defense is good just yet. I’ll agree. But you have to admit our D. Line really stepped it up. They really wanted to win and played great. The secondary I’ll grant you. They seem improved but I’m not willing to bet on them just yet.

    It’ll be interesting to see how they do against Tulsa. I have a fear we may start out 0-2. If our Defense plays as well as they appeared to and our Offense comes to town then I think we may win that game. But we’ll see. As Geoff said, we defeated ourselves in that game.

    Comment by Clark Goble — September 5, 2006 @ 12:50 am

  4. Clark: But the O. Line blew it on a lot of other things. Honestly, how were they out powered by the Arizona line?

    I think their whole plan was to stuff the run so they were stacking the box with 7-8 men every play. I get the impression that they wanted to force BYU into passing almost exclusively and rely on their excellent secondary. That strategy obviously worked very well for them. The one thing our guys did very well though was protect Beck — UA clearly hoped to get a lot more sacks in the game with their strategy than we allowed.

    Comment by Geoff J — September 5, 2006 @ 1:02 am

  5. IMO, this game is a summary of BYU’s football for quite a while. Close, but not quite. Giving away too much. (My husband couldn’t listen to it for more than a couple of minutes at a time. Too painful. Sigh. )

    Comment by mullingandmusing (m&m) — September 5, 2006 @ 1:24 am

  6. Geoff J may be right that our running game woes were as much due to Arizona’s strategy as to BYU’s weakness on the O-line. I didn’t notice that they were stacking the box but things really did seem crowded. The O-line did a good job of pass protection and the line and the backs did an excellent job of picking up the blitz. Beck didn’t really punish them for blitzing like he should have been able to. I remember a couple times when Arizona sent two blitzers that were picked up perfectly and he still couldn’t find anyone downfield.

    You’re right about the D-line. The linebackers were pretty darn good against the run as well, especially that #41 (I think—I’m having a hard time remembering names) who single-handedly disrupted a few run plays in the backfield (he also over-persued once, leaving the D vulnerable to the reverse, but that’s a small price to pay).

    One more good thing about the D, I didn’t find myself screaming at the TV about bad tackling very much, which I’m pretty pleased about. There were a few mistakes on that front, some of which were very costly (like that crazy run on Arizona’s last drive) but overall, tackling wasn’t all that bad.

    Comment by Tom — September 5, 2006 @ 6:25 am

  7. The TV coverage was pretty bad. They commented pre-game how Arizona couldn’t afford any mistakes because BYU was such a disciplined team. What the –? Do some research.

    I think there was certainly some advantages given to Arizona by the refs. I didn’t think the offensive PI against BYU was that blatant, and Arizona’ WR pushed off far worse, and was not called on it.

    I think Arizona was committed to stopping the run, and it worked. Our defense looks good, and we should be alright.

    By the way, the conference looks terrible.

    SD St. loses their game vs. UTEP despite UTEP throwing 4 INT’s. SD St. also lost their starting QB.

    Wyoming struggled for 3 quarters against a really bad Utah St. team.

    Utah got rolled by UCLA (and former BYU recruit, Ben Olson, who looked great).

    New Mexico lost at home to Portland St.!

    TCU struggled with Baylor.

    UNLV might be a sleeper pick. They have a former USC QB that rolled up huge yardage against ID St.

    Could be an interesting year.

    Comment by Tim J. — September 5, 2006 @ 8:27 am

  8. Agreed about the conference. I think if we want respect we have to pick up the whole conference. Even though I’m anything but a Utah fan (largely because of the annoying sports radio here) I want them to be excellent this year. If we can get three teams ranks for a few years in a row that’d be excellent. It’s only one game thus far, but things don’t look good.

    Comment by Clark Goble — September 5, 2006 @ 10:14 am

  9. Same old BYU.

    Comment by Eric — September 5, 2006 @ 10:35 am

  10. At least BYU looked a lot better than Utah… If I remember correctly, this is basically the same Arizona team (with Tuitama at QB) that crushed UCLA last year near the end of the season.

    Comment by Geoff J — September 5, 2006 @ 10:38 am

  11. BTW – Dick Harmon called out BYU’s offensive coaches for being pansies with their play calling in his column today. Sounds reasonable to me…

    Comment by Geoff J — September 5, 2006 @ 10:48 am

  12. Didn’t see the game. Just heard about the results. I’m always sorry to hear when BYU loses a football game.

    I miss Norm Chow.

    Comment by danithew — September 5, 2006 @ 10:53 am

  13. I was curious about why they kept giving the ball to Curtis Brown rather than Vakapuna who seemed to make a lot with a little. (Especially considering the line)

    Comment by Clark Goble — September 5, 2006 @ 11:47 am

  14. Me too Clark. Runs up the middle were not working at all. The one run play that did consistently work was Fui to the outside. It appeared BYU figured that out too late to be able to really take advantage of it though. Plus it seemed like every time the Cougars could have used that outside run they shot themselves in the foot with another false start or something and were forced to pass.

    Comment by Geoff J — September 5, 2006 @ 12:00 pm

  15. Two criticisms I’ve heard a lot and just am not learned enough technically on to say much about are about coaching errors and audibles. Beck wasted several time outs when he got flustered – leaving BYU with nothing at the end when they really needed them to adjust to Arizona’s final drive. Further several times Beck seemed to adjust by giving the ball to Brown who was then immediately taken down by a flood of red uniforms. The second being call playing by the offensive coach (who admittedly was new).

    Can we chalk part of this up to the newness of the offensive team on the coaching side? But what about Beck getting flustered? It was hard to tell on TV, but how noisy was it? Was Beck having trouble being heard?

    Comment by Clark Goble — September 5, 2006 @ 12:07 pm

  16. A big part of it is the new timekeeping rules in College Football which are meant to speed up the games. Instead of starting the play clock on the snap, they start it immediately the ball is ready. This caused a whole lot of confusion in just about every game I watched.

    RE: Crowd noise. It didn’t seem too loud on TV, and it also appeared that there were quite a few BYU fans present.

    Comment by Tim J. — September 5, 2006 @ 1:18 pm

  17. Tim, the new timekeeping might explain a bit, although one would have hoped they’d practiced that over the summer. (i.e. I don’t think it justifies some inexplicable things)

    Regarding BYU fans, I saw lots of single blue shirts out in the midsts of the red. But they didn’t really get many camera shots of BYU fans surprisingly. But hey, at least we got a shot of the color commentator drinking pickle juice.

    Comment by Clark Goble — September 5, 2006 @ 1:40 pm

  18. Agreed about some of the play calling. They should have gone for some of those fourth and shorts. Vakapuna could have punched them through.

    Comment by Eric Russell — September 5, 2006 @ 1:42 pm

  19. I don’t think the call to kick that short field goal was a mistake. Those three points would sure have helped. The odds of botching it were pretty low even though that is exactly what the Cougs did…

    Comment by Geoff J — September 5, 2006 @ 2:04 pm

  20. It was funny as they were setting up for the field goal everyone in our room said, “I have a bad feeling about this.” And sure enough they screwed it up.

    Comment by Clark Goble — September 5, 2006 @ 3:43 pm

  21. BYU sold about 6,000 tickets. One whole section on the west side near the endzone was all BYU fans (for the most part). It was VERY loud where I sat. Between our section and the nosebleed section of the Cougar Club there was a decent representation despite what the TV showed. I was disappointed they lost and appalled by the lack of hospitality. Even my UofA friends were shocked that the student section was yelling F*** You, BYU! Some friends of ours who travelled from St. George complained that students yelled obsenities at them and their children as they entered the stadium. Classless U of A!

    Comment by Brian T — September 5, 2006 @ 5:36 pm

  22. Well, it looks like my prediction of a perfect 0-12 season for BYU is off to a good start… *still grinning evilly*

    Comment by Capt. Obsidian — September 5, 2006 @ 5:39 pm

  23. All BYU needs to do is reinstate funding for the only sport with historical ties to Joseph Smith (*cough*wrestling*cough*).

    Then the BYU football team will again gain national prominence. Until then, I fear the Lord is displeased with the church’s university forsaking historic ties to its founding.

    And I’m not joking.

    Comment by Ivan Wolfe — September 5, 2006 @ 9:13 pm

  24. Unfortunately that tends to be typical where BYU goes Brian. Utah State is even worse and don’t mention Wyoming.

    I was surprised that the UoU fans were making a showing. Apparently according to some reports more than 10,000 showed up at UCLA. I’ve been pretty critical of fair weather Utah fans in the past. I mean BYU fans have stuck by them through some pretty tough years of late. But it’s nice to see some excitement north of point of the mountain that doesn’t just involve being anti-BYU.

    Comment by Clark Goble — September 5, 2006 @ 9:51 pm

  25. Short of moving BYU into the PAC Ten or making it an indep. like Notre Dame and allowing it to face some serious competition year in and year out and showing the top standouts Nationally that they can be top 25 draft picks, BYU will continue to wallow in mediocrity. There arent enough Mormon standouts who can field a top ten team year in and year out and the ones they do get they lose to better programs (i.e. Ben Olson and UCLA).

    Anyway, until some of that happens it will be continual frustration.

    Comment by David — September 5, 2006 @ 10:20 pm

  26. And I’m not joking.

    Uh oh… I was totally chuckling until I saw that part. Now I am mildly creeped out by you Ivan…

    (Ok, not really)

    Comment by Geoff J — September 6, 2006 @ 12:56 am

  27. Well, y’know. We’re all irrational about something. My father is/was one of the top amateur freestyle and Greco-roman wrestlers in the USA (won four Gold medals at the national championships one year – he’s been out of it for a few years due to a severe shoulder injury) – so I was raised with an immense, deep love for wrestling as a sport (though I was never very good at it and don’t personally compete anymore).

    And since Joseph Smith was know for his wrestling abilities, well

    anyway – I may be irrational, and it’s Title IX’s fault more than BYUs, but BYU really screwed up when they cut Wrestling – and since then, I’ve just found it impossible to support BYU sports at all.

    Comment by Ivan Wolfe — September 6, 2006 @ 10:42 am

  28. Sounds like a reasonable thing to be irrational about to me Ivan.

    Comment by Geoff J — September 6, 2006 @ 11:12 am

  29. There was one thing I forgot to mention about the UA game. I thought the UA coaching staff did an excellent job using the press as decoys leading up to the game. All they talked about was stopping BYUs passing attack. BYU bit hard on that and planned to run, run, run. But when the game started it was clear that Arizona was baiting BYU into running all along and their real plan was to stuff the run entirely and force BYU into short passes all night. I think Coach Anae was too slow to recognize the ruse and adjust and that could have been enough to have tipped the balance. Perhaps it was a sophomore mistake but it was a painful one to be sure. Had we gone with fewer inside running attempts sooner it could have made all the difference. As we mentioned, Fui running to the outside was working but we started on that plan to late in the game.

    Comment by Geoff J — September 6, 2006 @ 11:17 am

  30. David, #25, I’m not sure that’s true. I think part of the problem was that BYU started taking Mormons for granted so a lot of fantastic LDS players ended up with big programs like USC, UCLA or others. If BYU can be at least 8-4 this year, then I think the attrition will end and we can really start rebuilding the program into a regularly ranked one.

    What we need is more help from the rest of the conference. Utah really seems to be getting their act together, despite last weekends embarrassing loss. TCU is good, if not great, right now. About on par with where BYU used to be typically. If we could just get some of the other programs to improve then I think we’d be good. Remember that we have played some pretty outstanding teams. Remember the win over Miami? And even the last couple of years we played some standout teams such as USC (where we competed surprisingly well considering our team at the time) But no one wants to schedule us unless we start winning those non-conference games consistently.

    Ivan, #27, it is surprising given how popular wrestling is in the state and the powerhouse up in Heber that BYU doesn’t have wrestling. I’d sooner they drop lacrosse than wrestling. But it all has to do with the gender equality rules as you say. I know a lot who feel just as passionate about men’s gymnastics which I believe was also dropped.

    Geoff, #29, interesting theory. I’m not sure about that, although it was abundantlyclear than Anae didn’t adjust terribly quick to events on the field. He’s new so hopefully he’ll not make that mistake again. This was actually something I was worried about before the game with the new coach.

    Comment by Clark Goble — September 6, 2006 @ 11:37 am

  31. David (#25),

    Why would going independent or joining the PAC 10 make BYU better? Regarding the recruiting: The honor code is the main deterrent to a lot of our recruiting and that will stay no matter what conference we are in. It is not like the NFL scouts ignore BYU right now anyway so a great player could use BYU as a launching pad into the NFL as much as any PAC10 program (and that is the primary concern of most top players I think). And if winning is the goal, a team that could go 8-4 in the MWC would probably be 6-6 (or worse) in the PAC10 so changing conferences would just make winning more difficult.

    The primary advantage might be better national TV coverage but that is not a given unless you’re USC anyway. Other than the bigger bowl payouts for the program (which has little effect on individual players) I don’t see many advantages to pining away for an invite into the PAC10.

    BYU already has the facilities and fanbase to return to the top 25 every year. If Bronco can prove himself a winner as a coach and BYU can show some real stablity the top recruits will pour back in — LDS and non-LDS alike.

    Comment by Geoff J — September 6, 2006 @ 12:09 pm

  32. BYU would garner more respect playing in the PAC Ten and help its polling year in and year out. When they do build a great program and win a lot of games they get knocked down for having a weak schedule.

    Not too long ago the team complained about BCS bias during a very impressive run only to get blown out and humiliated by Hawaii that year. Cased closed with regards to future complaining as long as that can possible occur year in and year out.

    And I hate to resurrect this but who is making decsions out there and deciding not retain guys like Norm Chow and letting top talent like Olsen slip away? Nepotism seems to have a strong lock on decisions and fails to see the big picture. Until the failed pattern of key decision making is addressed we’re going to see other embarrassing situations.

    Comment by David — September 6, 2006 @ 12:59 pm

  33. David, BYU might garner more respect, but so what? Unless BYU changes I don’t see them being anything more that at the bottom of the PAC-10 and I can’t see the PAC-10 wanting to be the PAC-11 anyway. (Wasn’t this all discussed in the waning days of BYU and the WAC?)

    Further there are some great rivalries in the MWC. At a minimum the UoU ought go where BYU goes. There’s also the issue that it’s not just about football but also basketball etc. (I’ll admit I don’t care about basketball, but still. . .)

    Anyway it’s not going to happen so it’s kind of moot to talk about such “what-ifs.”

    I’m not sure talking about the Chow days is worthwhile. There was a lot of contention there. Plus the athletic department has gone through quite the shakeup over the past few years. So even if there were some valid concerns (and then the issue of how Crowton was treated) things have changed. A lot of the faces aren’t even around. Crying about what happened in past years is pointless. The issue is where we go now. And further it’s too early to be making too much out of a single loss.

    Now if BYU finishes 6-6 then I think some complaining is in order. But there was going to be a tough rebuilding no matter who took over.

    Comment by Clark Goble — September 6, 2006 @ 1:26 pm

  34. Actually, the move these days in College Football is towards a 12-team 2-division conference with a conference championship game, which means big bucks. The Pac-10, though, is usually well behind the times in college sports, but I bet it eventually happens. If it does, I think you’ll see Utah and BYU move over together. Both schools are attractive because they compete very well in many sports. But who knows?

    I don’t agree that they HAVE to make the move, though. They’re fine where they are at, as long as they continue to schedule a big non-conference game or two each year.

    We’ve also done a pretty good job in the past recruiting non-members. Ronney Jenkins, Steve Sarkisian (who is the USC O-Coord. and a hot head coach prospect), etc.

    Also, what if an NFL coach comes back to take the reins–Andy Reid? Mike Holmgren? They would attract a ton of interest if that ever happened.

    There is NOOO way Chow is coming back. That bridge was burned long ago.

    Comment by Tim J. — September 6, 2006 @ 2:06 pm

  35. The most compelling reason I have heard that BYU will never be invited to be part of the PAC-10 is that most of the PAC-10 conference championships are held on Sunday. I don’t see them changing that in order to invite BYU to the PAC-12.

    Comment by Brian T — September 6, 2006 @ 3:23 pm

  36. Interesting point, Brian. In all honesty, it’s the Pac-10′s loss. Think of all the other sports BYU competes well in. The conference would be wise to get them on board.

    Comment by Tim J. — September 6, 2006 @ 3:33 pm

  37. Re the classlessness of UofA fans (or any other fans) … when I had season tickets to BYU football and basketball during my BYU days, I witnessed the classlessness of BYU fans on numerous occasions directed at the opposing school’s cheerleaders and teams. I saw garbage thrown, profanities yelled, and very little interference from the ushers. It only got worse when we played Utah. So it happens, even at BYU. I just don’t get bothered by it anymore.

    Comment by queuno — September 7, 2006 @ 7:53 am

  38. I’ll have to dig up all of the sources, but there have been many discussions on CougarNet and other places over the years discussing the Pac-10 issue. The consensus is that because BYU is not considered a “research university”, the Pac-10 does not want to include BYU as a full-fledged member. The Sunday factor is another, but the “research university” issue is a main — if the *the* main — factor.

    Comment by queuno — September 7, 2006 @ 7:55 am

  39. (Last in a quick series)

    Don’t knock TCU. They’ve built a solid program. 49 wins and 4 bowls in 5 years. BYU would kill for those numbers. Even during the Edwards era – those would have been good numbers.

    I’ll be at the TCU game in a couple of weeks, and I’ll have mixed allegiance (I’ll wear my BYU shirt and my TCU hat).

    Comment by queuno — September 7, 2006 @ 7:59 am

  40. Commenting on #7 (TCU struggling with Baylor).

    I watched the whole TCU game on TV. TCU played on the road in very hot and humid conditions. They played without their first- and second-string RBs. Their starting QB was knocked out of the game; they played the second half with a redshirt freshman QB. And in the second half, they DOMINATED Baylor. Baylor had the 7-0 halftime lead, but TCU outscored them 17-0 in the second half and was just milking the clock in the fourth quarter. It very could easily have been 24-7.

    It’s interesting to note here in the DFW area, that the TCU win over a Big-12 school was greeted by a collective yawn. Even though it’s Baylor, it’s still a win over a Big-12 school. But the expectations of TCU fans and DFW media are that TCU should easily win the conference this year. Wins over lower-tier Big-12 teams are now expected.

    Comment by queuno — September 7, 2006 @ 11:14 am

  41. It’s interesting to note here in the DFW area, that the TCU win over a Big-12 school was greeted by a collective yawn.

    The whole world yawned about that. Baylor stinks. They would be middle of the pack in the Sun Belt conference. That goes to show what an scummy racket this whole BCS cartel is.

    But I agree with you that TCU is an excellent program. They have a good chance at making a BCS bowl this year (despite their pending loss to BYU).

    Comment by Geoff J — September 7, 2006 @ 1:55 pm