(Blue) Where o where has red gone?

Dear Red,

It has been several weeks since you last spoke to me, and I have to know, was it something I did? We used to have such good times. The laughs, the tears? Is it because we no longer will be in the Mountain West Conference? Is it because you are no longer in the BCS run? (Is it because TCU is mean?) I know they are, I understand. But c'mon red, get back in the game. Talk to me. You complete me!, you are the Yin to my Yang! You are the Country to my Rock n Roll!
I hearby dedicate this song to you, come back to us Red. There is life after TCU.

Love,
Blue

To the matter at hand. Saturdays game was as good as BYU has looked all season. Granted, it was just against those oh-so-poor Rebels, but still. Defense has gotten considerably stout under the care of Coach Mendenhall and it's good to see the retarded 'bend but don't break' philosophy scrapped. Blitzing, pressure, aggression... these are the things that warm my heart. Offense also came through for a first time. Heaps finally had the game we've all been hoping he could have. There was running, there was passing, there were touchdowns and 3rd down conversions and controlling of the clock. Good good good. Problem is that we haven't won on the road this year and the next game is in cold Colorado. We're favored to be better, but the teams look even. Freshman QB's on both sides, more success at home than away, and other such similarities. This game should be a good indication of whether or not we're growing in the right direction on all fronts (I'm looking at you offense). We'll see Saturday.

As for the U... it's probably still too soon.

(Red) Week 1 review / Week 2 preview

Pitt - 24

Utah - 27

The opener for the Utes went really the way I expected it to go in most cases. Pitt was not able to run the ball on the defensive line of the U. Brandon Burton shut down on of the best wide outs in the country. The Ute defense was dominate. Sure they missed a few assignments but that is correctable stuff so I'm not worried about the production of the defense. It could possibly be the best in years. 

The offense was sharp, for the most part. Turnovers and dumb penalties killed any other scoring opportunities. With Wynn, Wide, and Asiata in the backfield this offense is going to be potent and the wide outs have some fire power as well. As long as the Utes don't beat themselves they will be in a good position. And Jordan Wynn put them in many of those against Pitt. Pitt had a hard time defending the wide outs because they were constantly matched up on linebackers and was open. The offensive game plan was solid and it attached Pitt where they were weak, the secondary. 

Special teams have a lot work to do. A blocked punt and a muffed punt. Mistakes like that will cost you a game. And lucky for the U they made a lot of mistakes and still won. They really dominated the game the score just didn't show it. Good win the first week to propel the U into the season.

Week 2 v UNLV

This game is simple. Run the ball. Asiata and Wide should get over 100 yards a piece in this game. UNLV showed a weak run D against Wisconsin last week and they should take advantage of this. Once the run gets established Wynn/Cain will be able to pick them apart in the secondary. Wynn is a game time decision to play because of a strained thumb he sustained in the Pitt game. So hopefully the last 9 days have been enough to get it healed. If not Terrance Cain is more than capable to step in and be able to produce. 

Defensively they just need to stick Brandon Burton on Phillip Payne and then get penetration on the defensive line. Vegas has 2 weapons, Phillip Payne at wide receiver and their scrambling QB Omar Clayton. They shut down that combo it should be a cake walk. 

Utah 45

UNLV 17

BYU 23

Wash 17

 Very good win for BYU to start the season. I was surprised by how well the young guys played for BYU. However the 2 QB system will not work week in and out. They need to find the guy soon. BYUs offense, as of now, is mediocre at best. The WR and RB cores are weak and they did not wow me at all. They just don't have many weapons on the field right now. However they did make enough plays to beat an overrated Washington team. I kinda figured BYU would score about 20ish points against them because Washington's D is just not very good. But Washington's offense struggled all day. I would say mostly because of BYU special teams pinning them within their own 10 on 3+ occasions. Of course this was helped out by Washington's really bad special teams decisions. Overall BYU still has a long way to go but they got off on the right foot.

BYU v Air Force

To be honest with you this is the year Air Force should win vs BYU. It's at AFA, BYU is rebuilding, and AFA is tough to play early. But BYU has their number. Bronco Mendenhall is undefeated against AFA. I think BYU can score some points on them but AFA is a very opportunistic defense and likes to force turnovers. I think BYU turns it over a time or two. I think BYU could struggle with the option attack because they have so many young defenders and this is will be the first time they see it in live action, so I think AFA will put points on the board. However with that said until AFA beats BYU I have to pick BYU. I have picked AFA for about 3 or 4 years now. I think as of now AFA is a better 'team' since they have experience, but BYU has their number.

BYU 21

AFA 20

... sorry for the brief post... I'm tired.

(Blue) Wins for everyone.

Utah won, BYU won, USU... almost one. Pretty good for Utah. Quick points:

* The youth on BYU and Utah (especially on defense) are looking better than we could have hoped.

* Two Quarter Backs didn't prove to undo BYU, between Heaps and Nelson, there were many capable hands to move the offense.

* There is work to be done for both teams. BYU could polish it's defense against the run, and generally be crisper on offense. Utah could try not to fumble and whatnot.

* High five to BYU special teams for winning the field position battle in a big way. UW mistakes were key, but lets give credit where credit is due.

*Good job on no turnovers. There were only 2 fumbles all game and

* All of the old great QB's (even MacMahon) were back in town and everyone felt warm and fuzzy inside.

* I was particularly impressed with JJ DiLuigi. Unga who?

Enough of that, the past is past. This week we play Air Force in Colorado... scary. According to Jeff Call of Deseret News, BYU has a much better record against AF in games later than September (14-2) as opposed to games in September (2-2). Granted, it hasn't happened very often, but BYU is still working out kinks and AF is extremely disciplined, tricky, fast, and dirty. (Not always dirty, but sometimes). It will be interesting to see how this plays out. My prediction is BYU 27, AF 21. This is based on the hope that the defense can pull it in and stop the option. There are a lot of new guys on the front line, so that's far from a certainty, but I have faith.

Utah and UNLV... Hmmm. Nobody really knows what to expect out of the new UNLV coach. They lost their first game but the coach had a pretty good record from Montana so who knows. Also, Wynn seems to have a boo boo. Something about his thumb. I don't really think it's serious enough to stop him from playing but lets not forget Cain is still around if they need him, and he is nothing to sneer at QB wise. Asiata should be even more balanced out this game, it's in SLC, and etc so I don't expect Utah to struggle too much. I predict Utah wins, 34 to 13.

(Red) Perseverance on the front range.

This is going to be a smaller post, I want to rewatch the game to get a little better feel. However, I watched pretty much the last quarter and a half and I hope we see that team all the time. Yes Blue was right, the Utes did play lackluster and if it were not for some picks the game would have been different. Same thing if Max Hall had not of thrown all the ints versus FSU. Turnovers are part of the game and RoJos picks were not your typical interceptions. It's not like he was just standing there and him thrown to him. He had to make plays on the ball. With Utahs lackluster effort they did put up 450 yards of total offense, while Terrance Cain threw for 250 yards, 2 TDs, and a 75% completion percentage. And after the 2nd half started Cain was 12/13, and that 1 incompletion was on a drop in the end zone by Aiona Key. So Cain played perfectly in the second half. He also ran for 71 yards. He has showing some very much Brian Johnson like traits in that second half. The key point of the game was right after CSU scores and they are up 17-3. Immediately Utah gets the kick off to around the 40 yard line on a good return. Play one Cain runs for about a 10 yard gain on a scramble. The next play Cain rolls to the left and hits Reed on a 50 yard td pass over the arms of a DB. Just a few plays later Robert Johnson gets his first pick when he doesn't fall for a play action pass to go deep. Right after that Utah goes on a 17 play 70 yard drive to tie the game. A lot of teams down 14 points would have gave up, this Utah team had a lot of fight and basically took over the game and beat down CSU in the last quarter and a half. Really outside of the 2nd quarter and the first half of the 3rd Utah played well. The first quarter they had 140 yards but only 3 points. Had a problem punching one in. But in the last part of the game they had no problems at all. Eddie Wide had 103 yards on 17 carries and between him, Cain, Shaky Smithson, and Sausan Shakerin the Utes will have a solid running game with out Matt Asiata. Cain is a great runner and can throw on the run as well. David Reed 140 yards receiving, some good runs as well. And Cain had his best day yet statistically and helping lead the team back for a win. The defense was good and bad throughout the day. They got to the QB and forced turnovers, they just let a guy run for 100 yards. Which will happen from time to time but something I'd like to see cleaned up a little bit. Yeah they were sloppy at times, thats to be expected off a bye week. But once they got everything together they weren't to be stopped. I figured CSU would fight with it being their homecoming and also like I stated, Steve Fairchild is a damn good coach. But like I predicted, the Utah athletes would win the day. And they did. Basically if the Utah team that played in the 2nd and first part of the 3rd shows up consistently they lose to the upper tier MWC teams. If the team that shows up that fought back. They can win this conference title. Developing consistency is now the key.

As for BYU vs UNLV I wasn't really able to see the game outside of a few highlights, but BYU did what they were supposed to. UNLV has given up it appears on the season and their coach. Hall didn't throw a pick, which is a first this season. I know BYU did struggle on occasion with the UNLV athletes, which is still the achilles heel of BYU.

Prediction and preview of Utah/UNLV to come later. I do think the Utah D will be the best Vegas has seen to this point though.