My thoughts and questions on the game last night...

First of all, props to Craigo for selling me the best seats I have ever had to a BYU Football game! The drive from Idaho Falls was worth every minute I have been able to spend with my son regardless of the outcome of the game!



Here are some random thoughts that I could not hear/see from the 'live' experience.



* Was the personal foul that took us out of the blue zone on the int legit? What did the announcers say about the horsecollar on Robertson Daniels? There was never an explanation given about what went on.



* Did Bronco really call the timeout that saved the Huskies a 5 yard delay of game penalty (early in the 4th quarter iirc)? I could see the UW coaches signaling time out and then the announcer said BYU called it and the scoreboard reflected that after that. If that was the case, what was the explanation given on TV for that call? It appeared the backup QB was flustered and we were going to move them back and get the ball.



* What did Bronco mean on postgame when he said the TD to the TE in the 3rd qtr was on him and the DC not on Unga for coverage? For a non-football savvy mind like mine, who would have switched to cover that gigante any better than Unga in that short window of time?



* Was Friel hurt? I watched him in the 4th qtr and he looked either hurt or lost. He was slow and plodding on his routes. Did not look the least bit quick or anxious to find the seam.



* Was the hold on Lasike legit? It looked like he flat got pancaked and as a result his pass rusher went down on top of him. It negated a first down conversion iirc and cost us some momentum.



* Not to cry sour grapes but what were the ESPN announcers saying about the holding going on against VanNoy and Kaufusi? I watched no less than 2 obvious holds against each of them but I don't think I saw a single hold called against them.



* Wrubell and co. said something about our drop percentage having gone up this season compared to the last two. I said it at the beginning of the season and I'll say it again, "Our biggest coaching loss from last year was Ben Cahoon." He was a statistically proven difference maker and I have yet to read a single thing that justifies letting him go.



* Last but least, why would we make such a huge adjustment in our KO's just because of a breakdown in coverage on the TD return. That change seemed so kneejerk and imo cost us in terms of confidence. I get that you don't kick it right to the fast guy but JS is good enough he could either put it out of the endzone or at least to the far side (even when the returners were standing together in the middle, rather than pooch kicking it and giving them great field position and putting added pressure on our "D".



All told, I enjoyed the game. The UW fans near me were kind and respectful. Everyone (around me) cheered both bands and cheered all players who got up after injuries. One semi-neutral fan (from SanFran who just wanted to watch some good football) kept asking me, "What the he** our coach was thinking" regarding our play calling?



Go Cougs!!!

J. Child

Ammon, ID

Random responses:



Hold on Lasike was the right call, but was less egregious than the hold on Fua on the UW first TD. Dude was held allowing the RB to skirt around the outside and into the endzone. UW held all night and was never called.



TE TD: Coverage call was for safeties to protect the corners of the endzones and so safeties were flowing outside and looking outside when the ball was thrown, leaving right up the middle of the coverage under protected.



The actually called PF penalty on Kaufusi was a bad call, but they missed a cheap shot headbutt to their QB on the same play so it ended up being at least fair.

Kaufusi was rightfully penalized by a late hit the back on an offensive lineman who was away from the play. Kaufusi was not correctly penalized and ejected for jumping and heading butting the Washington quarterback.



He should have been kicked out of the game for that dirty play.

Going to have to respectfully disagree on Kaufusi. I pass rush in our flag football games and have been in this situation.

If you will look, you will see that Kaufusi had his arms up at first. He pulled his arms down in order to avoid tackling the quarterback. The natural physiological reaction is for your head to come down when you pull your arms back. I believe Kaufusi was trying to hold back, but it made him look like he was head butting. If you don't believe me, run full speed and jump with your arms up as if to block a pass and then pull your arms down and see what happens with your head.

runbyu1 wrote:
Going to have to respectfully disagree on Kaufusi. I pass rush in our flag football games and have been in this situation.

If you will look, you will see that Kaufusi had his arms up at first. He pulled his arms down in order to avoid tackling the quarterback. The natural physiological reaction is for your head to come down when you pull your arms back. I believe Kaufusi was trying to hold back, but it made him look like he was head butting. If you don't believe me, run full speed and jump with your arms up as if to block a pass and then pull your arms down and see what happens with your head.

I agree with runbyu1 on this. First, did you notice that Brandon turned and put his hand down to help the QB up after the play ... then left when he realized there was a pick. Second, IMO, it looked LOT worse in slow-mo than real-time. The ESPN announcers made a lot more of it than it was, but it admittedly looked bad. My first reaction was, "no way, he just targeted the qb!" ... then I watched again and came to the same conclusion as runbyu1 ... just a natural anatomic reaction to pull the hands down and trying to pull back.

AmmonCougar1 wrote:



* What did Bronco mean on postgame when he said the TD to the TE in the 3rd qtr was on him and the DC not on Unga for coverage? For a non-football savvy mind like mine, who would have switched to cover that gigante any better than Unga in that short window of time?

...



* Not to cry sour grapes but what were the ESPN announcers saying about the holding going on against VanNoy and Kaufusi? I watched no less than 2 obvious holds against each of them but I don't think I saw a single hold called against them.

...



One semi-neutral fan (from SanFran who just wanted to watch some good football) kept asking me, "What the he** our coach was thinking" regarding our play calling?



Go Cougs!!!

J. Child

Ammon, ID

First, I gotta admit I ALWAYS love seeing Ammon show up anywhere! As a native Ammonite, it brings a smile to my face!



Regarding the coverage ... it was on Bronco because he called a stupid coverage. His defensive play call opened up the middle in massive ways. It was just the wrong defensive play call, the team did the best they could with what their assignments were.



Regarding ESPN announcers ... first, they generally did a decent job. They did NOT comment on the numerous holds that were not called. Holding and PI were common occurences, but weren't called. The refs, I thought, were slow to throw flags on either team last night, and quick with some whistles blowing plays dead. Because I feel like no-calls went both ways, I'm not left with any room to really complain about the refs.



Finally, my nephews (who played at BYU) and I watched the game together. We all agreed with that "semi-neutral fan" you reference ... especially in the 3rd quarter. Good grief! We had been moving the ball with passing in the second quarter ... so the third quarter we are going to catch them off-guard and run-run-run-kick, right? 297 yards in the first half, and 70 in the third quarter!

I agree that Cahoon was the biggest coaching loss. The receivers would have worked harder and caught more which would have made Hill, the line and Anae look better.



This team did not live up to its potential.

mtnradio wrote:

Going to have to respectfully disagree on Kaufusi. I pass rush in our flag football games and have been in this situation.

If you will look, you will see that Kaufusi had his arms up at first. He pulled his arms down in order to avoid tackling the quarterback. The natural physiological reaction is for your head to come down when you pull your arms back. I believe Kaufusi was trying to hold back, but it made him look like he was head butting. If you don't believe me, run full speed and jump with your arms up as if to block a pass and then pull your arms down and see what happens with your head.

I agree with runbyu1 on this. First, did you notice that Brandon turned and put his hand down to help the QB up after the play ... then left when he realized there was a pick. Second, IMO, it looked LOT worse in slow-mo than real-time. The ESPN announcers made a lot more of it than it was, but it admittedly looked bad. My first reaction was, "no way, he just targeted the qb!" ... then I watched again and came to the same conclusion as runbyu1 ... just a natural anatomic reaction to pull the hands down and trying to pull back.

We'll just agree to disagree. I saw him jump, then lower his head in a motion that looked like a headbutt. He also got there late. I thought it was a dirty play borne out of frustration of game getting out of hand. A game where he was being held all night long with no calls.And then the one time he gets free, he gets there late and his frustration for the better of him.



It was still deliberate helmet to helmet contact. I thought he should have been sent packing. I wouldn't be surprised he is suspended for half in the first half next year (like Ridley was after the Houston game).

I saw what Spiff saw. Jumped up and into leading with helmet.



The penalty that was actually called was legit and the hit, like the QB hit, was stupid and unnecessary.



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There were a few blatant holds that weren't called on UW.



There were a few plays where there was a defender reaching for the ball carrier with a stretched jersey who just missed the tackle, and a couple times that a defender squaring up to hit the runner got spun around from a tug on the jersey. On one play a d-lineman broke through between two o-linemen and then just after his pads and legs cleared both of them he came to a complete dead stop with nobody between him and the QB.



This occurred on key plays that sustained drives like third and long that resulted in first downs on scoring drives, so the calls impacted the score. They occurred near the ball carrier, so it's not like they were hard to spot or occurred away from the play.



Each conference trains their own officials and there are differences in what they call and what they let slide, but I'd like to see the NCAA step in and take over all the officiating. It would make the officiating a lot more consistent, and would eliminate conflicts of interest and the appearance of bias.



In fairness, I'm a homer and may have missed equally bad holds from our team, and the officiating may have been consistently favored the offense.