BYU Cougars:  Post-game report card against Washington Huskies

By Todd Erickson  |   Monday, September 08, 2008  |  Comments( 0 )

BYU Cougars
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If you happen to drink the same Kool-Aid as ESPN’s Mark May, Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler, among others, then you would believe that Washington manhandled BYU this past weekend and the Pac-10 officials screwed one of their own teams out of a sure win.

You would believe this despite the fact the Cougars compiled 135 more total yards on offense than Washington, and twice penetrated the blue zone on impressive drives (one of them 97 yards in length) only to turn the ball over to the Huskies on an interception and fumble.

Winning isn’t easy in Seattle. EA Sports research lists Husky Stadium the sixth-toughest college venue to play at for visiting teams (the top five are Florida, Tennessee, Ohio State, LSU and Oregon). EA’s ranking is primarily based on how rabid the fans are and the noise they can generate to confuse the visiting team.

BYU Offense

1. Max Hall was nearly perfect against the Huskies. He made one bad pass -- underthrowing Dennis Pitta at the Washington 15-yard line late in the second quarter -- resulting in a pick. Interception aside, he finished 30-of-41 for 338 yards and three TDs.
2. Usually sure-handed Austin Collie dropped five well-thrown balls in the game while catching five for 74 yards and one touchdown.
3. Harvey Unga was a beast unleashed; he rushed for 136 yards on 23 attempts (5.9 yards per carry) and added five receptions for 39 yards. The big negative: He fumbled the ball at the goal line after a 97-yard drive at the close of the third quarter.
4. Tight end Dennis Pitta continued to rack up huge numbers, catching nearly everything thrown his way (10 receptions, 148 yards, two TDs).
5. Michael Reed had seven receptions for 55 yards, with two clutch grabs on key third-down situations.
6. The offensive line didn’t give up a sack and opened up some huge holes for the running game.

The two turnovers and Collie’s drops reduce an otherwise 'A' grade.

Grade: B-plus

BYU Defense

1. The front three did an outstanding job against the run and constantly pressured Jake Locker, picking up four sacks and causing a fumble that Washington recovered. Locker’s long gainers came from the linebackers missing gaps and from his remarkable scrambling ability.
2. The secondary gave up 203 yards passing to Locker and if he had been more accurate, Cougar defenders would have easily allowed 300 yards. Clearly, the secondary is the weak link in the defense. Props to Scottie Johnson for closing in quickly and making a couple of amazing open-field tackles on Locker.
3. The key to beating Washington was containing Locker and the defense struggled mightily with that assignment. Not including the sack yardage applied to his rushing stats, Locker had 95 yards on the ground for the day and came close to engineering a Husky upset of the Cougars.

Grade: C-plus

BYU Special Teams

1. CJ Santiago had two punts that averaged 27.5 yards. Enough said.
2. O’Neil Chambers totaled 94 return yards on four attempts with a longest runback of 32 yards. Austin Collie returned one punt for 2 yards.
3. Mitch Payne was 4-of-4 on extra points. Justin Sorensen lost a bit of the boom he showed last week in his kickoffs and Washington ended up averaging 20.8 yards per return (83 yards on four returns). The kickoff team did a fine job of covering each of the kicks.
4. The blocked PAT that won the game raises the final grade from a C-plus.

Grade: B-plus

Check out Todd's live gameday blog from last Saturday's frenetic 28-27 win over Washington
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About Todd Erickson

Todd Erickson is a member of the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and pens the RealFootball365 Top 25 college football power rankings and "Fourth and inches..." weekly columns from August thru January. He is currently working on the second edition of Road to the Rose Bowl...
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