28-27
Well, for yet another week, BYU underperformed (or at least I hope so).
As a BYU fan, I look at the numbers and have a hard time wondering how BYU didn't win by 2-3 touchdowns. BYU converted every single 3rd down they faced in the second half, and all but 2 in the first half. That's an 85.7% completion rate. Max Hall went 30 for 41 and a pass efficiency rating of 161ish. Harvey Unga looked like he could run anywhere he wanted any time he touched the ball, and finished with 136 yards on 23 carries. Dennis Pitta (pronounced pee-ta according to the announcers) had another monster game and is still the leading receiver in the country. Remind me again why BYU almost lost? Oh right, turnovers.
Harvey Unga fumbled the ball at the goal line which would have given BYU another touchdown. Max Hall threw a pick as they were marching down the field at the end of the first half. That cost them at least 3 more points. On the other side, Tafuna missed an easy pick, which led to a third down conversion for the Huskies. I believe they scored that series. Another 7+ point swing. My prediction was if BYU held on to the ball, they would roll, and I think they would have.
The defense is quite porous right now. Fortunately Jake Locher can't throw the ball consistently or else BYU would have lost this game. They might have lost this game if the Washington receivers could have held onto the ball. But that wasn't the way things shook out. Now BYU's defense has another week to mature and practice up. Next week will be a great test. UCLA came off a stunning upset of Tennessee which vaulted them into the top 25. They'll probably drop out of the top 25 next week after BYU smashes them. Just a hunch.
And finally, on to the most controversial part of the game, the Jake Locher celebration penalty. Funny how we as people feel about selectively enforcing rules. If the rule shouldn't be enforced, it shouldn't be a rule. The NCAA has made a point this year of telling its refs to call excessive celebration penalties. I could cite the exact rule, but many already have. It states that the ball cannot be thrown high in the air. Being the nerd that I am, I used my DVR to do a rough calculation of how high the ball went into the air. It had a hang time of 3-4 seconds. That's better than several of the punts in the Utah-UNLV game. So, we have a rule, and refs told to enforce it, and someone breaking the rule. Surprise, you have a flag.
Don't get me wrong though, I would be incredibly ticked if this had went the other way. No way I like this if I'm a Washington fan. Though that act didn't lose the game for them. The blocked extra point did. It's a 35 yard kick. Straight through the uprights. While not a kicker, I do know a bit about physics. The trajectory would have need to change in order to get it 35 yards, but we're not talking about a 50 yarder here. 35 yards should still be in the "gimme" range. People act as if the penalty forced Washington to miss. Washington has no one to hang this on but themselves. Bad calls happen all the time, especially when Pac-10 officials are involved. The difference between winning and losing is how well you deal with it (most of the time).
4 comments:
To bad UCLA dropped out of the top 25 before they could even play a game as a ranked team this year, eh?
As for how it ended up being close. BYU took the ball to start and had the first half end with WA punting back. So they made three stops; two by punt and one by turnover. We made three stops all by punt.
In the second half, they started with the ball and ended with the ball. We stopped them twice by forcing punts.
They made one stop by forcing a fumble.
The reason this game was close was because there were so few possessions that the mistakes were amplified.
Put another way, if you factor out the three drives that wouldn't have been stops without the officials egregious calls/no-calls then you get to a more expected 49-28.
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