UNLV and Pass Defense

UNLV has played the #86 hardest schedule to date--in other words, they have played cupcakes, and lost to cupcakes. For BYU who has been doing its best to imitate a cupcake this season, that is a good sign--it takes a gawdawful team to play a schedule that easy and go 1-7. BYU's schedule is now the #57 hardest in the country, but 3-5 after that.



The best team BYU has beaten is SDSU (6-2). The worst team we have lost to is USU (2-6).



The best (only?) team UNLV has beaten is winless UNM--one of the two worst teams in the county with the Akron Zips. The worst team they have lost to is CSU (3-6).



The biggest stat for me this weekend is UNLV's pass efficiency defense---it's #113 in FBS. They allow QBs a PER on average of 153+. And they haven't exactly played a schedule of teams that historically post high PERS--Idaho, UNM, WVU, CSU.



So, in short, I'm calling in a blowout on Saturday. I think Heaps will have a breakthrough, and I think BYU will run a fairly balanced gameplan with a 50/50 split between runs and passes.



We need this game to get Heaps to enjoy playing the game again, because until he does, not much is going to change. Once his receivers get a taste of success in the passing game, they'll get excited and I think that excitement will be contagious.



I'm looking for Heaps to go about 24/35, 2 TDs. I can even overlook a pick by the freshman if the rest of his line looks like that--he's averaging a pick every 33 attempts now--Hall threw one every 34.5 attempts for his career, so I'll accept a pick from the kid in an easy win where he puts it in the air 30+ times.

Basically the minimum rule of thumb is tha the QB should put it in the end zone more often than he puts it in the other teams hands and many times more often that he puts it in the opponents end zone.



If he hits the numbers you posted and even adds a pick or two - I would call that a breakout game and a foundation to build on for the future and I will also want to see a couple of series from Lark so that we start to develop a back-up QB.

snoscythe wrote:
UNLV has played the #86 hardest schedule to date--in other words, they have played cupcakes, and lost to cupcakes. For BYU who has been doing its best to imitate a cupcake this season, that is a good sign--it takes a gawdawful team to play a schedule that easy and go 1-7. BYU's schedule is now the #57 hardest in the country, but 3-5 after that.



The best team BYU has beaten is SDSU (6-2). The worst team we have lost to is USU (2-6).



The best (only?) team UNLV has beaten is winless UNM--one of the two worst teams in the county with the Akron Zips. The worst team they have lost to is CSU (3-6).



The biggest stat for me this weekend is UNLV's pass efficiency defense---it's #113 in FBS. They allow QBs a PER on average of 153+. And they haven't exactly played a schedule of teams that historically post high PERS--Idaho, UNM, WVU, CSU.



So, in short, I'm calling in a blowout on Saturday. I think Heaps will have a breakthrough, and I think BYU will run a fairly balanced gameplan with a 50/50 split between runs and passes.



We need this game to get Heaps to enjoy playing the game again, because until he does, not much is going to change. Once his receivers get a taste of success in the passing game, they'll get excited and I think that excitement will be contagious.



I'm looking for Heaps to go about 24/35, 2 TDs. I can even overlook a pick by the freshman if the rest of his line looks like that--he's averaging a pick every 33 attempts now--Hall threw one every 34.5 attempts for his career, so I'll accept a pick from the kid in an easy win where he puts it in the air 30+ times.

Good post. Hope you are right. That would be great. I agree about heaps. He needs to have a good game he can feel good about. This team needs something to boost their confidence.

UNLV has played 4 ranked teams.



I read that our SOs was #5 and theirs was #14? :skeptic:

Mars wrote:


UNLV has played 4 ranked teams.



I read that our SOs was #5 and theirs was #14? :skeptic:

That was a few weeks ago before we both started playing patsies:



http://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/ranking/strength-of-schedule-by-team" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Let's hope that the bye week helped the passing game with timing issues and route running. I do think we win easily and score over 30, not sure the passing game will be the reason. Just would like a decent game--200 yards 1 TD, no picks. And grind them down like 31-10.

If we don't get to at least 200 yards I will be sorely disappointed. Even with a conservative run first game plan, we should be able to get to 200 yards. I'm also expecting at least 1 passing touchdown.

hawkwing wrote:
If we don't get to at least 200 yards I will be sorely disappointed. Even with a conservative run first game plan, we should be able to get to 200 yards. I'm also expecting at least 1 passing touchdown.

To be honest, I think we'll see the same kind of "balanced" game we've seen in BYU blowout victories the last four years--get up big early with the pass, and salt it away with the run game, the end result being about a 50/50 split between the run and pass.

Just about what I expected, but UNLV was so inept that we were in the position of salting a win away with the run right after halftime.



Heaps looked smooth, in-sync, in control, and impressive. He was stepping up in the pocket when pressure came instead of retreating, he was squaring up his shoulders on his throws on the run, and his follow-through was good and loose again. Most importantly, he looked like he was having fun again. If you're not having fun, things aren't going to go well. It was nice to see Jake do what we all wanted him to do. Now just to keep the ball rolling at this point.