There was hope. It lasted longer than most people anticipated. I still had the hope after half time. The defense looked pretty good for most of the game. But the offense continued to sputter and couldn’t stay on the field long enough to score or to provide the defense with some rest. The defense seems to have developed a personality and was playing assignments and executing pretty well. Andrew Rich is becoming one of my favorite BYU players of all time. I know he is hurt, but he is bringing it on every single snap. He had 10 solo tackles and he consistently shows up at the line of scrimmage to make the play. The defense really shut down the run early on. In the end they only gave up 108 rushing yards. This is what kept TCU out of the end zone early. BYU also kept TCU at 7-16 on third down conversions. The biggest problem I saw there was that the defense couldn’t stop TCU from converting when it counted the most. They especially seemed to struggle on third and long. The good news is that when TCU ran option plays the defensive personnel stuck to their assignments and shut it down. They also got into the backfield and sacked Dalton almost as many times as he has been sacked all year. Corby Eason’s sack on Dalton is one of the best hits I’ve seen from this team all year. I couldn’t believe that Dalton didn’t drop that ball. Players were consistently in position. They are starting to look like a Bronco coached defense. This defense has the talent to be very good.
The offense still looks confused and the play calling looks like practice. In practice, when a play does not go well, it is not uncommon for the coach to make the offense run it again until they get the timing down. Someone needs to inform Robert Anae that this theory is only applicable to practice situations. In game situations, if a play is stuffed for a loss of yards, it is usually ill-advised to call that play again two plays later. Even if you run it to the other side. Those draw plays with the pump fake are not a good idea. I know Anae feels like the choreography is pretty tricky for the defense. But nobody is buying it. Even worse was when they mixed in the pump fake/spin around/hand off draw. By the time all of that was done the hole at the line of scrimmage had closed back up.
Again this week the offense struggled on third down. They only converted 3 out of 14. On third down at least one receiver needs to run a route past the first down marker. Consistently this season Anae has called passing plays in third down situations where there is not a single receiver past the marker when the ball goes into the air. The offense also failed to take advantage of 2nd and short yesterday. Those are just a couple of elements of sustainable drives that continued to elude the offense yesterday.
I know that we are all upset about Patterson’s decision to go for it on 4th and 3 so late in the game. I probably would have kicked the field goal. However, it is TCU’s right to go for it there. At the end of the day the defense is responsible for keeping them out of the endzone. I see it as running up the score. I don’t think it shows much class. But if the defense stuffs them, the conversation is over. If a team doesn’t want to get shown up like that they need to play better football.
Last week I discussed the fact that it is hard to tell at this point in the season how good any of these teams really are. Keep this in mind. Four of BYU’s five losses have come against teams ranked in the top 25. BYU is now through the portion of their schedule that I have starting calling “the gauntlet”. This team may be better than they look right now. Games against Wyoming, UNLV, Colorado State and New Mexico should give them the opportunity to prove that.
-Matt
Rise and Shout 
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