A Win is a Win is a Win

Despite last Saturday’s BYU-Washington game being on Fox Sports, I didn’t see any of the game. I was too busy building shelves in my garage. But Greg Wrubell, Marc Lyons, and Nate Miekle were there to keep me company. I did see the highlights that evening, so my thoughts will be relatively brief and mostly the result of hearing the game.

First let me say that I have added Washington’s Husky Stadium to my list of stadiums I really need to visit. Greg and Marc raved on and on what a beautiful setting it was. They even referenced some national writers (including Kirk Herbstreit) who have ranked it as one of the Top 5 or 6 places to watch a college football game. I’ve always liked that you can travel to the game by boat (Wrubell informed me that Tennessee is the only other stadium with that feature). I also found it interesting that the field runs east-west, instead of north-south like virtually any other football field. I wonder how they get away with this and I can only think that it is usually so cloudy up there maybe the sun isn’t much of an issue. One thing I’ve never liked about Husky Stadium is the loud horn they blare whenever Washington scores a touchdown. My disdain for this started in 1986 when BYU played up there and lost by a score of something like 52-21 (off the top of my head). That horn just kept going off again and again. Other than that tradition, I think I’d like the stadium and hope to get there when BYU plays there again in 2011.



The game ended with me having only one major concern for the offense. And it’s not the turnovers per se. The problem I see is that they weren’t able to throw down the hammer on Washington when they could have. After BYU methodically marched down the field for a touchdown on its first drive, the defense forced a 3-and-out. BYU got the ball back and if they could have produced another long drive, would have gone up 14-0 and used up nearly the entire 1st quarter. Instead they ran 3 plays and punted back to Washington (who went down and tied the score). Late in the game, BYU was knocking on the door for a touchdown that would have put them up 28-21 when Harvey Unga fumbled into the endzone. Washington recovered and got the ball back. The defense held and BYU scored on its next possession, but had Unga punched it in, the second score would have given the Cougars an unreachable 35-21 lead. They just need to seal the deal when they have the opportunities.

There are more concerns on the defense, but in one case my concern is similar to that of the offense. I believe it was early in the 2nd quarter when Husky QB Jake Locker (great football name, by the way) fumbled and the ball rolled toward the BYU endzone. Despite having a player with the best chance to recover the fumble, BYU failed to do so. It set Washington up with a 3rd down and 23 yard to go scenario – usually a sure stop for a defense. Instead, David Tafuna had a Locker pass go right between his hands and into the arms of a Washington receiver for a first down. Opportunity squandered. My other concerns with the defense are how open Husky receivers seemed to always be. Greg and Marc sounded like a broken record, “Locker overthrows his receiver again, but AGAIN the receiver got behind the BYU defense.” A more accurate QB will make BYU pay if they don’t fix that problem. Also, BYU’s depth at linebacker is a concern. The starters are fine (David Nixon and Colby Clawson on the outside and Matt Bauman and Shawn Doman on the inside), but behind them there is not much experience. Let’s hope for good health and lots of pressure on the QB from BYU’s outstanding defensive line. A few years ago, Bronco switched his defense from a 4-3 to a 3-4 since he had more depth and talent at linebacker. Is it too late in the season to switch back now?

So BYU got the win, and a win is a win, but they should have won by much more. Hopefully they can get these wrinkles ironed out and have a big win against UCLA on Saturday. I have faith they can.

(Notice I made it through the entire post – until now – without mentioning “The Call”. I think much more has been made of it than needed to be. I can’t really decide if it was a good call or bad rule or both. My take: I thought it was basically an inconsistent enforcement of a rule. Utah had a player throw the ball seemingly just as high after a TD against UNLV the same day and did not receive a flag. There needs to be some consistency so that players really know what the consequence of their action will be. But no game, win or lose, can be blamed on one call. Especially when there is one play after the call. And it was a play on which BYU outplayed Washington. Nevertheless, that play certainly was affected by the call. The bottom line is that both BYU and Washington should be grateful for all of the national publicity they have received as a result of the call. Remember, there is no such thing as bad publicity.)