Debacle in Provo

BYU DEFEATS THEMSELVES WITH TURNOVERS, UTAH WINS 54-10

What happened in Provo, Utah last Saturday night should leave Cougar fans shaking their heads, wondering if the offense is going to become a part of the team. Again, the defense held them in the game until near the end of the first half when Utah put a drive together and scored just before halftime, making it 14-10. The Cougars had an offensive series after that just before halftime, but produced nothing.

It was the same old story for the Cougars. It began with their first series of the game. They proceeded to fumble the ball away and helped the Utes score a defensive touchdown with the fumble recovery. The next series saw some promise as BYU moved the ball into Utah territory only to fumble it away. Fumble #2. Utah marched down the field to the BYU 12 yard line where their defense held. Utah missed an easy 29 yard field goal. Partial redemption, they dodged a bullet.

The next drive looked impressive. Starting at their 20, the Cougars moved the ball all the way down to the Utah 6 yard line. If BYU were to score, it would make the fans forget about what happened on their first two possessions. But, no. BYU coughed it up at the Utah 3 yard line and the Utes recovered. Three possessions, three turnovers; at least 7 points lost.

The Cougar defense did its job, holding Utah’s offense to just 52 total yards in the 1^st quarter. The offense did put a drive together that finally produced some points-a 46-yard field goal. Considering they doubled Utah’s offensive output, the score could have been at least 10-7.

The second quarter saw Utah moving the ball more, though still no points at midway point. They moved into BYU territory twice only to be stopped on downs and an interception. The offense finally clicked for the Cougars with a 66-yard drive, finished off in traditional BYU fashion, a 32-yard touchdown to Ross Apo putting the Cougars ahead 10-7. It gave the Cougar faithful some hope as the defense had held the Ute offense in check and that it looked like the Cougars were finally running on all cylinders and would go into halftime ahead.

But the Utes finally found a glitch in the Cougar defense just before halftime. Quarterback Jordan Wynn completed 5 of 6 passes for 63 yards culminated by a 30 yard touchdown to his tight end Jake Murphy. That was Murphy’s third catch in that drive. Utah found on certain patterns that their tight end was open against BYU’s defense and capitalized on that. So at the half Utah was up 14-10.

Utah started off the second half the way it ended the first. Their opening series was a 5-play, 75 yard drive with a 59-yard touchdown pass at the end. A pass interference penalty on 3^rd down and 3 aided that drive. That was the Cougars’ third pass interference penalty of the game.
The fans did not have long to wait to see what direction their team was going. Most coaches would like to see their offense come out of the locker room after halftime with some fire in their bellies, move the ball down the field for a score and send a statement to the opposition. The Cougars’ first series of downs was a 3 and out. Nothing like letting air out of the balloon in front of the hometown crowd on your first home game of the season.

Between halves, Coach Bronco Mendenhall said, “They need to play with less emotion.“ It is understandable. He wanted them to focus their energies on being more efficient and precise instead of allowing emotions to dictate their actions. Legendary basketball Coach John Wooden said, “…if our emotions take over, we’re not going to execute near our personal level of competency, because both judgment and common sense will be impaired. When our emotions dominate our actions, we make mistakes.”*

Utah’s next possession saw them score a field goal. This became 17 unanswered points scored against the Cougars in a matter of not more than 9 minutes, the Cougar defense had become vulnerable. Three drives totally 157 yards now has BYU in a hole. They are down 14 points, 24-10. Their offense has only averaged 15 points the first two games. Though the offense showed promise in the first half, do they have enough to even tie the Running Utes, let alone take the lead. There is a lot of pressure here and when your team knows they need to achieve more than they have so far, emotions within the players can not help but rise to the surface.

True to Coach Wooden’s statement, emotions took over, at least for BYU’s kickoff return man. He fumbled the kickoff inside their own 5 yard line. Utah recovered and a touchdown ensued, making an even deeper hole for the Cougars to come out of, 30-10. It never got better. Another fumble and interception led to 14 more points. While the offense did threaten one time inside the Ute 20 yard line, they turned the ball over on downs. It was not possible to focus on precision offense while being beat up. Utah scored 40 points in the second half, 24 were the result of turnovers. So the defense is not altogether to blame. The offense and kickoff teams put them in many no-win situations. But where is the offense? All three running backs from last year’s team are back--Di Luigi, Kariya, and Quezada. In three games, they have a total of 193 yards amongst the trio with an average of roughly 3 yards a carry. Last year, these three totaled over 1900 yards with a 4.73 per carry average. They averaged almost 32 carries and 151 yards per game. This year, those averages are down to 3.0 yards on 20 carries, and 48 yards per game. It doesn’t make sense that three returning running backs with prior year success would be limited in their touches for the sake of a new offense bent on the pass. It’s turning the Cougars into a one-dimensional team. That makes them too predictable for opposing defenses.

Offensive coordinator Brandon Doman is not proving his worth to the Cougars. They need a running attack to complement their passing game. With 56 passes and only 11 running plays during this debacle, it is evident that the Cougar offense is not only predictable, but lends itself to turnovers--this game producing seven of them. Trying to become better doing the same thing over and over will not work. And if Coach Mendenhall can see improvement in this game, then he is only deluding himself and his team.

*Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success, "Self-Control", pg 54.