BYU Cougars: Report card vs. Utah State

By Todd Erickson  |   Saturday, October 04, 2008  |  Comments( 1 )

BYU Cougars
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Ugly. Uninspired. Disappointing. The list of adjectives that could be used to describe BYU’s lackluster 34-14 over occasional instate rival Utah State is seemingly endless.

Despite leading 34-0 after the first three quarters, the Cougars’ performance against the Aggies was riddled with sloppy and careless play. It was hardly a reflection of the program’s theme this year, “Quest for Perfection.”

It might sound a bit harsh when you consider BYU left Logan with a 20-point margin of victory on Friday night, but that’s what high expectations will do for a football program that aspires to be among the very best in the nation.

From a fan’s standpoint, the sloppy 20-point win also failed to exceed perhaps the most important measuring stick for this game -- 58-10 -- that had already been laid out by the TUN (team up north) earlier this month.

BYU Offensive Grade: C-minus

The best play of the game was Austin Collie’s 76-yard touchdown reception, but if it hadn’t been for Collie coming back on the ball in triple coverage, Max Hall would have ended up with three interceptions instead of two. Despite a couple dropped passes, Collie ended with an outstanding line of eight grabs, 132 yards and two TDs.

Hall looked especially rusty on the night, constantly telegraphing passes, throwing into double and triple coverage while neglecting open receivers on the opposite side of the field. As funny and Jim McMahon-like as it might seem, he even registered a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty.

The offensive line provided stellar protection for Hall throughout the first 3 1/2 quarters of play, but finally yielded its first sack of the season near the 4-minute mark in the game. A noticeable drop in execution by the offense was evidenced by 75 yards in penalties (123 total team penalty yards).

The line play in the rushing attack was inconsistent throughout the night. Four drives were quashed by the Aggie defensive surge, forcing field goal attempts instead of advancing toward pay dirt. Several times, Harvey Unga hesitated at the line or was forced to run horizontal as daylight vanished at the line of scrimmage. Still, Unga ended up with 89 yards on 22 carries.

Fui Vakapuna ran the ball just three times for 7 yards, proving far more useful catching the ball out of the backfield (three receptions, 17 yards). In all, the rushing game was a huge disappointment and the weak link in the offensive attack, netting just 129 yards against the Aggies.

The Cougars came into the game with a third-down conversion success of nearly 75 percent. The inability to move the ball on the ground was the major factor in barely converting over 50 percent of third downs in the game (7 for 19).

Take away the 7 points the defense and Brandon Bradley accounted for, as well as the three turnovers that handed the offense a shortened field, and the 27-point performance against the Aggies would have been reduced by 10 or 13 points -- probably not enough to even win the game.

BYU Defensive Grade: B

The Aggies earned 322 total yards (127 yards rushing, 194 yards passing) and 23 first downs against BYU. Their offense owned the Cougars in the final 15 minutes, although that was arguably garbage time because the score was already 34-0 at the end of the third quarter. Still, it came against the first-team defense, albeit a fatigued unit.

Utah State sports a speedy and elusive backfield and Brigham Young offered a workmanlike performance in containing the Aggie weaponry, including five sacks and several hurries. If it wasn’t for the defense forcing two fumble recoveries and an interception in the first quarter, the Cougars’ fast start would have been negated and an upset might truly have taken place.

BYU’s defensive backs tend to play loose coverage off the snap and a good portion of Utah State’s receiving output came on total yards after the catch. This could spell a serious problem for a young Cougar secondary if they fail to improve and tighten the noose against better passing teams (UNLV and TUN, for instance) on the schedule.

The rest of the season will bear out the Aggies have a dangerous offense that has quick-strike capability. If they can manage to play with the same intensity that they were able to muster in the fourth quarter against BYU, they are going to win two or three more games this year.

The defense was flagged twice for roughing the quarterback and penalized a total of 48 yards in the game.

BYU Special Teams Grade: C

Mitch Payne was 4 of 4 in extra points and kicked a 21-yard field goal and a 45-yarder. He also missed a 30-yard chip shot and had a 35-yard attempt blocked.

The kickoff defense looked porous at times, although it did force and recover a fumble in the first quarter. One of the Aggie returns in the third quarter went for 61 yards, but a penalty nullified the runback.

Freshman O’Neill Chambers averaged 27 yards on two kickoff returns. He also totaled 9 yards on two punt returns. C.J. Santiago averaged 42.5 yards on two punts.

Like the Cougar offense and defense, the special teams unit failed to put together a solid performance in every phase of their game and they'll need to step it up when they head back into conference play next week against New Mexico.

Overall Team Grade: C-plus

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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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