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Washington v. BYU

Bronco70

Bronco70

world's worst
Contributor
Since nobody bothered to put together a game thread, I thought I would share my thoughts on this game. I realize the ramblings of a Utah fan are probably unimportant to the BYU faithful, but...oh well.

For the most part, I thought BYU looked pretty good. I was impressed by two players in particular - Nelson and DiLuigi.

I actually found myself rooting for the cougs (shudder) when Nelson was in the game. I rooted against them when Heaps was in. For some reason, I harbor an innate desire for him to fail. I'm not sure why.

If I were Bronco, I would hand Nelson the keys to the car and Heaps the keys to the washroom. Yeah, I know, he's young, inexperienced... fine. Nelson is clearly more of a leader. They need him much more than they need Heaps.

Washington put up a good fight, and I think Locker is the real deal - not Heisman material, but a quality college QB. But they couldn't close when it mattered. I thought we were going to see another drive like the end of the first half, but no dice.

It was an entertaining game. BYU could use a little work in the secondary, but what else is new. They should have another really good season.
 
Good analysis, Bronco. And I'll forgive you for being a UTE fan.
BYU defense was a nice surprise, although I got a little worrried there at the end. DiLuigi is a local boy (went to the HS in the area where I currently live) so I'll be cheering for him every game. Too early to call the Nelson/Heaps duel in favor of either. I know it's nto ideal to have a QB rotation, but if they can make it work, so be it.

I don't expect great things out of BYU: new QB's, RB's and TE's. I'll be happy with 8 wins this season. I see losses @ FSU, TCU, probably Utah and maybe at AF next week.
 
Meh, just another game and another win. No need to fish for attention with a thread. But since there's a thread . . .

Business as usual . . .

The 2-QB system is coachspeak for "We will let the upperclassman play til he screws up and then it's time for the young gun to take over". But Nielson showed what he is capable of (and if you followed his high school and early college career you knew this already). Fiery leader with good feet that can make most of the throws most of the time. Not flashy but a good manager. Heaps obviously showed his talent and why his future is bright. But most importantly both players seem supportive of each other and the system. And it's @#!*% of DCs to prep for two QBs. But all is bright and cheerful when you're winning. We'll see how this system holds up under adversity.

Broke in a bunch of new/young starters and had relative success in all aspects of the game (rushing/passing to multiple positions, moving the chains and big plays, defending the run and pass, and special teams).

As for the game both sides cut loose early but then got conservative. BYU kept bogging down at the end of drives and settling for FGs but Washington was unable to respond (in part because of their own conservative play-calling). Great job by the defense coming up with big stops.

Only real concern was an inability to pressure the QB but again that probably owed to a conservative gameplan of forcing Locker to throw as much as possible.
 
I thought, for the most part, the D line did pretty well. Locker wasn't under a lot of pressure, but Washington was largely unable to develop a consistent running game. They did most of their damage through the air. But I would guess (as much as one can, based on a single game) that the D line will have a decent year. I'm not familiar with BYU's schedule (and FAR too lazy to take the 5 seconds required to google it), so I have no idea who their first real test (of run defense) will come from.

And one more nod for DiLuigi. He's a nice little runner, and I enjoyed watching him break loose.
 
I thought we'd lose. Glad we won.

Our FG kicker will cost us at least 3 games this year, and Logan will cost us another 2. I want to break both of their faces with a metal cleat.

Heaps has got a F'ing rocket of an arm -- I'm glad to see him get some burn, he's going to be a stud. Riley? Meh. Good game, but don't get used to it.
 
Regardless of how good/bad Washington ends up being this year - they are experienced. Beating an experienced team in week 1 is a good sign. Not a particularly exciting game when gauging BYU's explosiveness on offense. Heaps clearly isn't being offered up the whole playbook right now and they basically ruined a couple of his deep drives by going conservative all of a sudden, but he had a few throws that were amazing and a sign of things to come.

Nelson looked good. Just one of those guys that doesn't seem to get rattled, plays within himself, and leads. I think you probably run the system as is until after the Florida State game and then if Jake plays relatively well in that game, you start swinging the reps more toward him.
 
TroutBum said:
Our FG kicker will cost us at least 3 games this year, and Logan will cost us another 2. I want to break both of their faces with a metal cleat.
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Going 10 yards wide on a 22 yard field goal is never a good sign. And the sad thing is that BYU hasn't brought anybody to replace him yet. Guy has been around 4 years and they just stick with him for some reason. His older brother was a bad ***. Him? Not so much. The punter was good though. Not surprising though because he was good last year too.
 
Here are my thoughts:

Very good game considering all that BYU had to replace.

I thought their defensive line in particular played well. That batted down pass at the end of the game was bigtime. The secondary still looks undersized and slow. I'm not sure why Bronco keeps recruiting these 5'7" DBs.
Nelson showed that he could play. His leadership combined with his dual threat ability reminded me a lot of Doman.

Heaps on the other hand reminded me a lot of Brett Farve. Cannon for an arm and takes waaaaayyyyyyy too many chances right now trying to squeeze things in there. Heaps could have easily thrown for 2 interceptions today. Perhaps it was him throwing to hard, but the receivers need to do a better job of holding onto the ball. They had several uncharacteristic drops. One of them from Jacobson on a crucial 3rd down that could have allowed BYU to go up by 2 scores. The receivers don't have the big play ability like the Utes or Horny Toads do, but they need to make that up with better hands (which wasn't the case today).

JJ Di Lougi showed me a lot. He clearly was the offensive player of the game.

I also think that Washington did BYU a huge favor by running the ball so much. Nearly every time they went deep they found success. I was surprised by Sark's conservative play calling tonight. I thought he could have caused a lot more damage had he stopped running Locker as much and tested BYU's secondary more. Perhaps he felt that they needed to run the ball more and control the clock to keep BYU's offense off the field?

After watching the Oregon St. game, I'm just amazed at how tough the PAC-10 is going to be this year. Oregon is tough, had a good chance at beating TCU, but just couldn't do it. They're a solid team that is going to improve. Oregon clearly looks like the best team in the PAC. But lets not forget about Cal, Stanford, or USC. I still think that Washington is going to be solid.

I think Heaps should get the start. It's unfortunate, because I think Riley is the better QB right now and gives BYU the chance to win RIGHT NOW. I also found Nelson to be far more entertaining, as he can both run and pass. Yet, Heaps is the prototypical BYU QB. He's the QB of the future and they might as well get going with the development process.
 
Duck Rodgers said:
Going 10 yards wide on a 22 yard field goal is never a good sign. And the sad thing is that BYU hasn't brought anybody to replace him yet. Guy has been around 4 years and they just stick with him for some reason. His older brother was a bad ***. Him? Not so much. The punter was good though. Not surprising though because he was good last year too.
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Actually, they have someone, he's just on a mission. Sorenson kicked his Freshman year and then left for his mission. He'll be back for next season.
I think BYU tended to rely a little too much on Riley's running ability. There was one instance in particular on a 3rd and short where they called a QB draw that didn't get the first down and killed a promising drive. I was actually under-impressed with Heaps. It was probably my own expectations due to all the hype, but he failed to wow me.
Di Luigi impressed the crap out of me. I was really worried about the running game, but he stepped up. We'll have to wait and see about the rest of the season, but so far, so good.
The defense appears to be about the same as usual. Solid front seven, good safety (Rich), and questionable corners. What's new?
Oh, and one more thing:
Bronco70 said:
If I were Bronco
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But you are Bronco, duh.
 
catratcho said:
I was actually under-impressed with Heaps. It was probably my own expectations due to all the hype, but he failed to wow me.
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You have pretty high expectations for a redshirt freshman thrown into the fire then. If anything, he clearly showed his talent and made a few throws that only about 10% of starting college QBs could make.
 
catratcho said:
The defense appears to be about the same as usual. Solid front seven, good safety (Rich), and questionable corners. What's new?
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Ya, it's trues isn't it. And with all the good QBs BYU will face this year it's just a matter of time before those guys get destroyed.
 
The Thriller said:
After watching the Oregon St. game, I'm just amazed at how tough the PAC-10 is going to be this year. Oregon is tough, had a good chance at beating TCU, but just couldn't do it.

.
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Sorry, but this is what I got out of your post.
2 Pac-10 teams lose to MWC teams and it shows that the PAC 10 is gonna be tough this year..:rolleyes:
 
CONAN said:
Ya, it's trues isn't it. And with all the good QBs BYU will face this year it's just a matter of time before those guys get destroyed.
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Well, Jake Locker is (was?) a Heisman trophy candidate and the pre-season pick to go #1 in the draft. I don't think the Cougs will face a better QB than Jake.

The lack of pressure from the D-Line and LB's was by design. They were supposed to keep Locker in the pocket and prevent him from running. In fact, that game saving deflection at the end was a textbook play. Manumaleuna said his role was to just engage the lineman and then stay in run contain. Mendenhall said on a short drop, the D-linemen are supposed to get their hands up. So the play was defended exactly as outlined. BYU had spots where they didn't play well and so did Washington. Let's hope it was a case of both defenses being better than people had thought. I guess we'll see in 11 more games just how good both teams really are. But to shut out a QB like Locker in the 2nd half - that's something no one expected.

As for the diminutive CB's - well, I'd much rather have a short corner that can run with a receiver than a 6 ft-er who is 3 steps behind. You at least force the QB to make the throw over the top. And only a handful of college QB's are able to do that on a CONSISTENT basis. Sure, you'd like to have a tall, fast CB. But BYU's honor code eliminates a lot of possible recruits right off the bat. So you go for the best of the rest.
 
I watched the TCU Oregon St. game more then this but what I did see I wasn't impressed with Locker considering all the hype he is getting (could've been the play calling) and I saw more of Washington's offensive when I flipped to this game but the little I did see I was more impressed with the Y's QB's then Locker (again cause of all the they hype).
The TCU game (likely) cause both teams D is their strength I wasn't that impressed with either offense and expected more from TCU's QB. But it was a more entertaining/quality game so that is why I found myself watching it except when it went to commercial.

Question did Washington's special team play as bad as the times I saw it commit unforced errors.
 
Scorpjazz said:
Sorry, but this is what I got out of your post.
2 Pac-10 teams lose to MWC teams and it shows that the PAC 10 is gonna be tough this year..:rolleyes:
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TCU may be in the MWC but they're a national championship contender. They're clearly the best team in the conference right now and were nearly upset at home (Cowboys stadium is basically home) by Oregon St making a long trip.

The difference is, the Pac-10 has about 5-6 teams that are just as good as the top of the MWC. The MWC has 3 teams that can compete, the rest of the conference is garbage.

So if you're going to try and look at things objectively and compare how the Pac did against the MWC this weekend, why did you conveniently "forget" what Oregon did to New Mexico?

Does Oregon have to put up 1000 yards of total offense and not just 720 before you'll acknowledge them? A little intellectual honesty would be nice.
 
Nelson started, but Calhoun saved his highest praise for Heaps.

“I think the one kid is a slam-dunk (NFL) first round pick,” Calhoun said. “He’s as slam dunk as it gets.”

BYU has had quarterbacks like Ty Detmer, Steve Young and Jim McMahon, but Calhoun said Heaps’ potential trumps them all.

“I think he’s more talented than any QB they’ve ever had there,” Calhoun said.
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https://gazetteafasports.freedomblogging.com/2010/09/05/rembert-might-be-doubtful-for-byu/6643/


Yeesh. Maybe just trying to get in Jake's head before the game, but nevertheless.....said after dude has taken about 30-35 snaps in college. I mean....anybody that sees the kid throw will believe that anyway....but still....kind of early.
 
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