All of you Utah and BYU homers save your, "we won big" crap for someone who didn't watch the games because I sure did and I wasn't impressed with either team, especially since they both PLAYED AT HOME! I'll start with Utah because they should have put up at least 40 on Pittsburgh.
First of all let's do as I usually like to do and that's look at the numbers.
Team Stats | ||
| | PITT | UT |
| First Downs | 17 | 21 |
| Third Down Efficiency | 5-14 | 7-14 |
| Fourth Down Efficiency | 1-1 | 0-0 |
| Plays-Net Yards | 64-266 | 63-405 |
| Rushes-Yds | 36-82 | 27-122 |
| Passing Yds | 184 | 283 |
| Kick Return Yds | 75 | 63 |
| Punt Return Yds | 18 | -2 |
| Passes | 16-28-1 | 21-36-1 |
| Punts | 4-178 | 4-125 |
| Fumbles-Lost | 1-1 | 2-2 |
| Penalties-Yds | 12-75 | 11-99 |
| Time of Poss. | 34:6 | 25:54 |
As you can see from these stats Utah had almost 100 more passing yards, 139 more total yards than Pitt had, and had a better rating on third down. Jordan Wynn threw 21 completions and three touchdowns and yet they still only managed to score only 27 points to Pitt's 24. Pittsburgh practically stopped running the ball in the second half along with Utah. Utah's defense shut down the All-American Dion Lewis holding him to only 75 yards. Last season this Utah defense couldn't stop anyone. Yet they still let Tino Sunseri and company come back to tie the game up.
Meanwhile Utah stopped running the ball altogether with Matt Asiata and Eddie Wide III both combined for 112 yards on 25 carries. That's over 9 yards per carry. Not only were they having a great game but Utah needed to run clock off in the fourth quarter and did not allowing Pitt to get back into the game to force overtime.
I get that Pittsburgh was ranked #15 in the AP Polls. So what! That's why they call it pre-season rankings. It means that at camp they looked pretty good, however, that doesn't mean that they looked good in the regular season or season opener for that matter. Pittsburgh did not and for anyone that knows anything about Dave Wannstedt you should know that all of his jobs are based off of another head coach's i.e. Jimmy Johnson's Super Bowl rings.
- 41-57 record with the Chicago Bears
- Fired from Bears after back-to-back 4-12 seasons
- 42-31 record with the Dolphins
- Wannstedt resigned as head coach midway through the 2004 season, with the Dolphins record standing at 1-8.
- 35-27 at Pitt including Utah loss thus far
- Only two winning seasons since he took over the program
Let us go down south shall we.
BYU on the flip side of things on Saturday should have really put up some big numbers against Washington. Again let's take a look at the numbers.
| Team Stats | ||
| | WA | BYU |
| First Downs | 20 | 23 |
| Third Down Efficiency | 5-15 | 5-16 |
| Fourth Down Efficiency | 0-3 | 1-1 |
| Plays-Net Yards | 70-394 | 73-408 |
| Rushes-Yds | 31-128 | 33-146 |
| Passing Yds | 266 | 262 |
| Kick Return Yds | 20 | 72 |
| Punt Return Yds | 0 | 26 |
| Passes | 20-39-0 | 24-40-0 |
| Punts | 6-271 | 6-223 |
| Fumbles-Lost | 2-0 | 2-0 |
| Penalties-Yds | 5-66 | 6-60 |
| Time of Poss. | 25:53 | 34:7 |
Now unlike Utah these numbers are a bit deceiving. Yes this game was close, but here's why. One, Washington actually had the lead in this game for more than just a few minutes unlike the game in Salt Lake City. Utah on their first possession matched Pittsburgh and didn't blow it until the second half. Kudos to BYU for actually coming back. However, here's where it wasn't impressive and really needs to be fixed.
| Brigham Young Cougars | Comp | Att | Yds | Pct | Y/A | Sack | YdsL | TD | Int | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riley Nelson | 11 | 17 | 131 | 64.7 | 7.7 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 168.3 |
| Jake Heaps | 13 | 23 | 131 | 56.5 | 5.7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 104.4 |
Here's the big problem I see and it all starts at this position as I have outlined above. This team isn't built like Florida Gators of old and these two BYU QB's couldn't even carry Chris Leak or Tim Tebow's jock strap let alone wear it. However, having said that Nelson is the better of the two QB's.
- Who threw the touchdowns against Washington? Nelson
- Who had a better completion rating? Nelson.
- Who has been waiting four long years to start and has been the backup to some pretty good BYU QB's? RILEY NELSON!
If you're one of those Cougar fans who thought this was an impressive win than think again! Not only was this not impressive, but Washington was unranked, didn't have near the weapons you have, and still had a chance to win the game towards the end. BYU also had the ball more than 9 minutes more in actual time of possession. For you math wizards that's more than half a quarter that your BYU Cougars couldn't do anything against a mediocre Pac-10 opponent. It isn't like you were playing Oregon St, Oregon, or USC. Just ask TCU and New Mexico how hard it is.
So ends week 1 in college football. While it is good that the Mountain West played well aside from New Mexico crapping a goose egg it is still only week one. If Utah and BYU wants the United States of America to recognize them as BCS contenders and deserving of automatic bids than they they need to schedule better, play better at home, and look better. (Which BYU has sorta done for next season)
Maybe they should watch the Utah State film from Saturday. I'm sure they could give BYU and Utah some pointers on how you play a BIG-BOY football team on the road.
2 comments:
I think Byu D was quite impressive to start this year. they stopped the running QB which in the past they have had a problem with. The two QB system worked better than I thought it was going to. The D really stepped up there was a few plays they misses assignments but over all the was a good game.
You're right. The BYU D was impressive at the end which I guess is where you want your D to step up. However, the BYU D with all of that talent shouldn't have even let Washington into the game. So for me I guess that is where I thought they weren't as impressive as they could have been. We'll see how the season goes though.
Post a Comment