(Blue) When the S@#$ hits the fan...

Today the sun arose, and thus began the dawn of our discontent. Yesterday was a dark day all over the Wasatch front and frankly, I think the weather reflected the mood after the games. Which games? The UofU/Oregon and the BYU/FSU games of course. Lets just say that I disliked FSU before, and now I really can't stand them. For all that, the blame for this terrible loss falls squarely on the shoulders of BYU. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised, this seems to be SOP for BYU, get within touching distance of something great, than screw it up royal.

Lets review: Week one, amazing victory against #3 ranked OSU. Nobody gave us a chance, but we got it. Than a slow start against Tulane, but wailed on them for a big win. Now, the best part about all of this was that both these games were on ESPN and FOR ONCE there was a lot of positive talk nationally about us. Perhaps it was the Cinderella story feel to it that people seem to enjoy, perhaps we were coasting on some hard won conference respect the Utes gained last year. Either way, we were finally in a position to beak into the top five nationally for the first time in like, forever. Probably the nineties. Anyway, then what happens? We come home(where we are usually good), and get CREAMED by FSU. Now the referees REALLY didn't help, but I'd say that was the least of our troubles. Biggest issues: Hall is crap(sorry man, I am sure you are a nice guy, but I have never been all that for you since the beginning and you constantly prove my disapproval right) with 3 interceptions and general ineptitude by being flustered. Our defense, which has been really tough last two games, just couldn't do anything against their O line and no cover ability. That let them do pretty much whatever they wanted. And finally, our kicking game sucks. Seriously. We pretty much gave them two first downs every time we kicked it off.

A separate issue I have with BYU is the following: FUMBLES. Now look, I played one year of football when I was like 11. But one thing I learned, and I suppose everybody else who plays also learns. TWO HANDS ON THE BALL! Seriously, I had the misfortune of witnessing our game personally, and I predicted accurately almost every one of our turnovers just by how reckless and sloppy the play before was going. So yeah.

As for the Utes, that was lame. I don't like Oregon. And the fact that the boys in red could have pulled it out and then crapped out is really lame. I saw a few highlights and it seemed that turnovers equally toasted both of us. Sorry guys, seems like the streak is over. But I think that is probably a good thing. There is enough going on in players heads already that that kind of extra pressure can't do anything positive (much like our retarded theme last year- Perfection).

So what does this mean? Basically it means that for our conference, TCU is the last hope. And for either the Red or the Blue to get the conference (which is pretty much all we have to live for at this point) we have to knock them off. So I'm torn. Do I want to drag TCU down to our level so we can win the conference? or do I want them to beat us so the MW(Mountain West) can at least make a respectable national showing? I can't decide, but the way we are playing, it probably doesn't matter what I want.

The thing that burns me worse of all is that all of those critics who say that all of this other conferences are so much inherently better: Pac 10, Big 12, ACC, etc) and that the MW can't hack it; well now they feel completely justified in their opinions. That really bites, because I know it's all BS, but ours is a difficult position to defend when we have a weekend like this.

So in reflection, if we were to look at the MW as a team, these two games were indicative of how that team is fairing. There is great great potential, and we should be putting touchdowns on the board, but on fortunately, we choke and give up a big turnover. Maybe the MW could be rolling. Should be. But we just threw a pick and had it run back on us for a multi-million dollar touch down. (for those of your that aren't sharp, that is reflective of the good bowl money we won't be seeing now)