Now that the shear horror of Thursday night’s game has subsided a bit here are a few observations.

What We Know

We are not a top 10 team.  Our offense has become predictable, and is not executing like it did early in the season.  Our defense is so afraid to give up big plays that it will hand out small plays by the dozen.

Offensive Weaknesses

Our O-line got out maneuvered by pure speed and was allowing TCU to get pressure with few linemen rushing.  Our game plan did not utilize the running game effectively.  Our receivers were not able to get much separation.  Whether that was execution or a scheme I don’t know.  I suspect it was a combination of both. Hall also threw into a lot of coverage.  Often the man he threw to was actually double covered.  The defense seemed to know what he wanted to do and was ready when he did it.

Defense

The biggest disappointment for me was that TCU could move the ball pretty much at will.  I think our inside linebacker play is not what it has been the last few years, and our corners play too soft.  I understand that some coverage causes them to play off the receiver a bit, but when you are freely giving up third downs, you need to tighten things up a bit.

Now the Good News

Actually, as bad as the game went, take away the turnovers and the Cougars are probably still in it.  My hope is that this loss will focus the team to correct whatever they need to get back to earlier season form.  It is hard to go undefeated, as can been seen each week as teams drop from the ranks of the X-0 stats.

I remember that during the run for the superbowl, Steve Young’s niner team lost a game to Philly 44-3.  It was a case of some early mistakes and turnovers, leading to players pressing too hard to make big plays and making bigger mistakes.  I think something similar is what happened to us last Thursday night.  But like that niner team, if the Cougs can right the ship to get back on track and “get their head in the game” or (insert your own trite saying here.).  Then they still have a chance to finish out the season strong, perhaps win a share of the conference title (with some help against TCU). BYU can still finish the year ranked, and begin next season with hopes like those we shared in September.

Oct 21st by Jim