Is this Defense as good as advertised?

Keeping The "air raid" out of the endzone, scoreless in the 2nd half, 2 turns overs, etc.



I know WSU is young and learning a new system, but the D shut them down completely. 3 of those points should be awarded to the refs.



If we clean up the penalties, this could Defense could live up to the hype and by Bronco's best ever!

Yes, yes it is.



If those Pac 12 called an honest game - and didn't try to step right into the middle of it - we win that game by a wider margin, and we completely shut them out.



This is a top 5 defense, as long as they keep playing and don't give up on the qb when the offense doesn't move the ball, time after time (That is coming: very, very soon.)

I didn't see any quit in the defense. Even after the offense "stalled" in the second half.



Defense looked good. I'll wait until we play BSU to judge how good/bad the defense is. At any rate, they should keep BYU in any game they play this year.

The defense looked better than good. They were phenomenal.



Yeah, they didn't quit. And more credit to them. But it is easy to keep playing hard when the offense is converting FG's and you have the lead. (Let's see what happens when they keep giving the offense the ball on their side of the field, the team is losing, and the offense can't score anything more than a FG time after time. It happened a few times last season, and Bronco looked the other way as Utah ran for something close to 200 yards in a quarter and a half on the same play. He even made excuses for them.)



Next week is a gimme. Then we'll see what the offense and defense are made of.

Teams that have held a Mike Leach offense to fewer points than BYU did today? Nebraska and Oklahoma both in his first year as head coach at Texas Tech (Oklahoma won the national championship that year, Nebraska finished the season Ranked #8 with 2 losses). Only other team to hold a Mike Leach offense to a single score (7 points) was Texas in 2001 (11-2 finished season ranked #5).

TCU held him to without a TD in 2006 if I remember correctly.



Still a really cool thing though.

Was Leach still the coach then? Wikipedia only has him as head coach through 2005.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Tech_Red_Raiders_football_under_Mike_Leach" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I stand corrected, I missed the links to his final few seasons. TCU who ended the season ranked 22 in 2006 allowed only 3 points and that same year Leach lost to Colorado by a score of 30-6 which has to rank as Leach's worst loss ever (Colorado was 2-10 on the year).

Mythranor wrote:
Was Leach still the coach then? Wikipedia only has him as head coach through 2005.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Tech_Red_Raiders_football_under_Mike_Leach" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

He was "fired" in Dec 2009



Our D is looks like at least top 10. Our DBs were the players of the game to me. Teul had lots of time and appeared to never have anyone to throw to. Even on the called back TD the DBs were in perfect postion. Just a very talented WR that made a play. If that guy ever gets a work ethic to match his talent he would do real well in the NFL.

Yeah, he was fired after the 2009 season.

They said on the post game it was the 3rd time Leach's career his team didn't score a TD.



I thought WSU would have a lot of kinks to work out and I expected them to perform like Arizona in the opener back in 2007. And they did.



You can't install an entirely new and different offense and expect a good offensive outing.

SpiffCoug wrote:
They said on the post game it was the 3rd time Leach's career his team didn't score a TD.



I thought WSU would have a lot of kinks to work out and I expected them to perform like Arizona in the opener back in 2007. And they did.



You can't install an entirely new and different offense and expect a good offensive outing.

But, but, in practices they had like 50 different receivers rotating through and moved the ball down the field so fast they traveled back in time! What happened? ;)



It seems like this WSU team has a whipping boy mentality. They thought they were going to be incredible, but after getting picked off twice inside the 20, their body language side, "Oh no, here we go again." Wilson especially. After that TD was called back, he was pouting all over the field - affected his route running, leading to the Johnson pick. I hope our defense is able to destroy all our opponents like this, but most of the teams we play won't just roll over and die for us after getting smacked around for a quarter or two.

Aside from those games listed, in 2006 TCU held T. Tech to a field coach, Colorado beat them in 2006 and kept them to 6 points as well.



Those are the only other examples I can find.



BYU's defense is good this year. Really, REALLY good.

I know we've had some great defenses in the past. I don't remember holding anyone to negative yardage rushing. Has that happened before? Has it happened against a BCS Conference team?



Great Effort!

Great Start!



Go Cougs!!!



L Hatton

Louisville, KY

YES! Sorenson was great. KVN was better. But lots of stars. JJ, though not perfect, was on the whole great!! Sender Hadley was maybe D MVP. But D as good as advertised.

Unsung hero was Ziggy. Very noticeable drop off when he was not out there pass rushing. He is the real deal and will keep getting better.

KYCoug wrote:
I know we've had some great defenses in the past. I don't remember holding anyone to negative yardage rushing. Has that happened before? Has it happened against a BCS Conference team?



Great Effort!

Great Start!



Go Cougs!!!



L Hatton

Louisville, KY

BYU also held UTEP to -12 yards in the bowl game 2 years ago.



http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=303522638" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The defense is for real and I don't think any of us are surprised by that. But what impressed me most was how tight our DB's played their receivers. I didn't see any big cushions out there. HOWEVER, we cannot sit back like that against Wynn. Our pressure is still a weakness and we can't afford to send 6 guys and not get to the QB like we did 2x last night. Our blitzes up the middle still suck.

BYU literally shut OFF the best reciever in the pac 12 last night. We have a new "glove" when it comes to our db's to be able to shut down such a dynamic reciever. The reason the qb didn't throw to guys when he had time was because no one was open.

Mark it down. This is Vannoy's last year. That dude is going to the NFL. He was unstoppable. He would have had 5 sacks in one game had he not been held and that was only on the two that I saw. He was getting in with ease



I was very impressed with how much better ziggy has gotten getting around players. his technique has improved a lot. that was a huge deal to see him come out and contribute at such a high level.



spencer hadley looked fast and aggressive.



I was impressed how how well our line was pushing even when they were only rushing two guys.



Defense played very very well. I don't think the announcers gave them enough credit. jordan johnson was a star. he got in wilson's head early and was very effective. the hit he had on that receiver who had caught it for a first down was incredible. what a stud.



i hadn't bought into the defense hype but after watching them last night i am feeling really good about the defense.

Technically, the defense shut out Leach. But the Pac12 awarded them 6 "participation" points.