I have to say that I don't think there's been a much more satisfying weekend of football for me in quite a long time.
First of all, BYU absolutely rocked. Sabrina and I had contemplated buying scalper tickets because we figured this would be a great game. At least great as defined by Sabrina: A close game that BYU would pull out at the end. Boy are we (or at least Sabrina is) glad we didn't do that. The last time I saw BYU dominate a team that incredibly, it was Utah State. But last I checked, UCLA was first in the receiving votes category of the AP poll (roughly translating as #26 in the country), not a Utah State-type team. And honestly, I don't know that I have ever seen BYU dominate someone so thoroughly. Friday night, while hanging out with some friends, I jokingly said that I expected UCLA to be easier for BYU than Utah State was for Utah. I really didn't believe I would be correct. (Though Utah needed all 4 quarters to score 58, while BYU didn't score any points in the 4th.)
That leaves Wyoming lined up for BYU this week. I really don't want to be arrogant or anything, but I'm really struggling to see any situation in which Wyoming wins. BYU's offense will keep them in all their games this year, even if the defense is poor. Wyoming's been struggling with the likes of North Dakota. If BYU scores less than 40, Wyoming can have another "moral victory".
So, on to the rest of the MWC.
UNLV. I don't know what to say. Sabrina and I were watching the Utah game until after midnight because we had some friends over for the evening. We didn't check scores until then. When I saw the UNLV score I was convinced that somehow, somewhere, there had been a typographical error. UNLV knocking off ASU, the #15 team in the country? and it was an away game for UNLV as well? Naw, no way. Well, heck froze over last night. I have to say congrats to UNLV, and I'll actually give them a chance to beat BYU when the time comes. (Not a big chance, but they earned a lot of my respect last night)
New Mexico. Finally UNM played like I expected them to. At the beginning of the season I felt they should be contending to be in the top 3 of the MWC. Up to this point they hadn't shown much of the presence they had last year. But by knocking off Arizona @ Arizona was something that BYU didn't even do when they had the chance. Kudos to them.
Wyoming beat North Dakota State 16-13 on a game winning field goal with 4 seconds left. Good thing too, or that would have really given us an excuse to ask them to leave the MWC.
TCU smoked Stanford. Yay for another MWC team beating a Pac-10 team. TCU vs. BYU will be an intense game. I think BYU will win because it's on Thursday night. TCU hasn't won a Thursday night game since the illegal block Utah game in 2005. Karma has punished them ever since.
Air Force hung on against Houston. Our thoughts are with all those in Houston right now (especially since I have family there).
SDSU lost to San Jose. Well, at least it wasn't North Dakota State.
Utah beat Utah State. Soundly. Sabrina and I got into an interesting conversation over this game. When should certain calls during the game be considered "running the score up." I felt that the Utah fake punt when they were up 23-7 was in bad taste. Sabrina challenged that saying that this is a great opportunity for the U to practice things they actually might need later on. I also questioned the U leaving Brian Johnson in the game through the middle of the 4th quarter. Was the game really in doubt? Do you really want your star quarterback hanging in there, running the football on designed plays, when there's no chance that the other team can win? It would seem to me (trying to be unbiased, those it's most likely a futile effort) that especially with how much Brian Johnson has been roughed up during his career, they would want to pull him as early as possible to make sure he stayed safe. Any die hard Ute fans (aka Tyler) want to comment on that? No smack talk intended with this one, just your take on it.
Anyway, back to running up the score. I honestly felt bad for Utah State. I knew it would be a lop sided victory. I feel so bad for them because I remember the years when BYU wasn't good, it was painful to watch your team get whooped on every game. In some ways, I wish Utah didn't score that many points on them. Yet for some reason, I had absolutely no remorse over an even worse embarrassment for UCLA. Some how it just felt satisfying for BYU to dominate every single aspect of the game. Sabrina agrees with me on this one. Maybe it's different because UCLA has actually won a game this year. My best theory is that I'm tired of Pac-10 superiority talk, and seeing one of the "better" teams in the Pac-10 ground to a pulp spoke volumes to the world that BYU (and the MWC) is getting better. Much better.
3 comments:
I agree that Johnson was in the game way too long - and I loved that BYU pulled Hall fairly early in the third. Coach Whitt always leaves the starters in the game into the fourth quarter (a decision I disagree with). Every game they've dominated under him, I've wanted him to pull the quarterback a long time before he actually does.
I also agree that its far easier to enjoy watching BYU slaughter UCLA by a ridiculous score than it is to watch Utah do it to the Aggies. I like the Aggies and wish they were better. I don't have any problem with their faked punt though.
The national people needed to see BYU dominate a game (because they didn't believe that they could do it). All of us locals (or those that follow BYU closely) knew that the Cougars hadn't yet played to their potential. They did yesterday and showed that they are an impressive offensive team. It won't be long before they're cracking the top 10 (and hopefully, Utah won't be far behind)...
The good news is that I've already got my 14th row tickets for the Utah-BYU game in November!
The Arizona vs. New Mexico game was in Albuquerque, not Tucson.
If Utah does not lose to teams they should beat, it will set up a game between Utah and BYU, both being 11-0 with a chance to go to the Fiesta Bowl. A good chance that College GameDay would be there for that one.
The Pac-10 is bogus this year. This week they went 3-7 out of conference, with all their losses coming to teams that are not ranked (with the exception of BYU-UCLA, and Oklahoma-Washington).
I will say that BYU absolutely deserves to go to the Fiesta Bowl if they go undefeated, but I have already heard BYU fans say after the game yesterday that they should be considered for the national title. No way, they blew that opportunity by just squeaking by Washington. While Oklahoma made Washington look like a JV team (granted Oklahoma and USC without question are the best two teams in college football right now.) Nonetheless a great showing for BYU and the Mt West Conference yesterday.
The relevant comparison of the BYU-Wash game to the Wash-Okla game is that Washington was very different. Both BYU and Oklahoma dominated Washington. BYU however had very bad luck while Washington had a perfect game. For example, in our game we fumbled into the endzone and WA never fumbled. In our game a long-3rd-down pass-play was tipped and caught instead of intercepted for a touchdown. In the OK game, a long Washington offensive play came back for an offsides call.
WA sold out to beat us and it still wasn't enough. They had nothing left for Oklahoma and had given Oklahoma gobs of film.
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