Thoughts on the BYU game

[jkflamebo]

JasonB and PonyME you are both spot on.

Need some sort of coaching pivot on offense for the next game asap. Doing what we've done so far works great for Houston Christian, but will be a failure for everyone else remaining on our schedule.

Stick to the throwing QB.

[Graceland Tar Heel]

Preston Stone can't be feeling too good right now.

"Sorry, we have to sit you because we can't block for you and you'll get killed. Oh, and that was a bottom half B12 team, and now we go into ACC play. Ready to compete?"

I think BYU's Defensive Game Plan was to go wild after the QB at the start, full burners, so the 'QB controversy ' would mean Lashlee benches Stone and plays Jennings. They did that because they felt certain that they could contain Jennings, which would mean that even Maryland would not be a factor.

[mtrout]

JasonB and PonyME you are both spot on.

Need some sort of coaching pivot on offense for the next game asap. Doing what we've done so far works great for Houston Christian, but will be a failure for everyone else remaining on our schedule.

Stick to the throwing QB.

That sounds nice but the "throwing QB" had -21yds of offense vs BYU.

[soccermom]

Our “throwing QB” needs some help from the O line to be better. They provided little protection for him. Our offense, and coaches, need to make repairs during this week and come up w/better plays.

[1983 Cotton Bowl]

I'm not a football expert, so I always learn a lot reading the "Thoughts" thread after each game. Right now I'm really concerned about the QB situation, which seems to flow from the o-line situation. It sounds like what we really need is Preston's ability to make accurate deep throws, but as long as our O-line is a trainwreck he is unplayable because he's not a runner. On the other hand, Jennings can make plays with his feet and overcome some of the o-line deficiencies, but he hasn't shown an ability to make passes like the one Preston hit with Maryland at the end of the Nevada game and stretch a defense. Ie, they are both limited in ways that are hard for us to overcome. Seems to me the best solution is for the o-line to get fixed and play Preston. But is that realistic. . . I don't know. Am I off-base?

I felt bad for Preston. He never had a chance out there. I didn't see the game live b/c I was doing something else, so at first I just saw the stats and thought he bombed. But after watching, I really don't put that on him. The o-line was death. Every time he took a snap there were immediately 2 or 3 Cougs right in his face.

[indianmustang]

I'm not a football expert, so I always learn a lot reading the "Thoughts" thread after each game. Right now I'm really concerned about the QB situation, which seems to flow from the o-line situation. It sounds like what we really need is Preston's ability to make accurate deep throws, but as long as our O-line is a trainwreck he is unplayable because he's not a runner. On the other hand, Jennings can make plays with his feet and overcome some of the o-line deficiencies, but he hasn't shown an ability to make passes like the one Preston hit with Maryland at the end of the Nevada game and stretch a defense. Ie, they are both limited in ways that are hard for us to overcome. Seems to me the best solution is for the o-line to get fixed and play Preston. But is that realistic. . . I don't know. Am I off-base?

I felt bad for Preston. He never had a chance out there. I didn't see the game live b/c I was doing something else, so at first I just saw the stats and thought he bombed. But after watching, I really don't put that on him. The o-line was death. Every time he took a snap there were immediately 2 or 3 Cougs right in his face.

it seems like every team got a playbook on how to beat SMU

[Charleston Pony]

I actually got to attend the BYU game and agree with all the comments about how the OL was a train wreck that made it difficult for our offense to function. Lashlee commented in his post game that we have 8 quality guys and all the pre-season comments suggested they are trying to make them somewhat interchangeable. It certainly appeared to me that all it took was moving a couple of guys out of their strongest positions to create chaos and communication issues that lead to one jail break after another. Better get that fixed before TCU or it's going to be a long season.

[1983 Cotton Bowl]

I really like Jennings. . . but his body of work so far (which is pretty extensive for a backup) seems to be that he can move the ball between the 20s, but struggles to finish drives and he hasn't shown the ability to stretch the D. Is Preston better overall? Not sure. But it is telling that going back to last year we have scored 11, 17, 14, and 15 points in each of the games where we've played a power 5 team. Throw in the AAC championship game against Tulane, and it was pretty much the same story for Jennings. . .lots of field goals and drives that stalled. Our D won that game.

In 3 of those games Preston was the main guy, and in 3 it was Jennings. That is concerning.

[Charleston Pony]

Watching that BYU game and seeing our OL get trucked the way they did gave me a little bit of a reality check. While I'm not ready to abandon my 7-5 season prediction, I had to reconsider the hype train most of us jumped on after we brought in players from OU, OSU, ND, Georgia, Arkansas, etc... Most of the guys we got through the portal may have been prized recruits out of H.S. but it's not like we stole starters or impact players from those teams. Our guys aren't going to play another game this season where they will be able to out match the opponent physically...like we did last year in the AAC so like Lashlee said post game, we should expect every game from here on out to be like the BYU game where a handful of plays will make the difference between winning and losing.

[RunPeruna]

A question that I would like answered...Did we have a timeout available at the end of the game? If so,why would we end the game with a timeout available? On espn.com it shows we called our 3rd timeout with 1:58 in 4th which was during/right after the 2 minute timeout. Is that the case? On tv nothing was said about it that I recall. Showed we had one available. I thought there were very questionable time management decisions coming down the stretch. With 2:49 on the clock BYU snapped for their 3rd down play before their fg. We could have called timeout with 2:40 (ish) on the clock before BYU attempted their FG. We didn't and the 2 minute timeout was used after the kick so we got no benefit from that. Then we didn't use our timeout during our drive (understandable didn't really need to). Then when BYU took a knee for the 3rd time there were approximately 18 seconds left. We could have used it and at least had a chance to block the punt or get a return and hope for a miracle. I get it that our chances were slim-none at that point but to just let the clock run out is unacceptable to me. Maybe I'm completely off base. I honestly hope so.

[JasonB]

Preston Stone can't be feeling too good right now.

"Sorry, we have to sit you because we can't block for you and you'll get killed. Oh, and that was a bottom half B12 team, and now we go into ACC play. Ready to compete?"

I think BYU's Defensive Game Plan was to go wild after the QB at the start, full burners, so the 'QB controversy ' would mean Lashlee benches Stone and plays Jennings. They did that because they felt certain that they could contain Jennings, which would mean that even Maryland would not be a factor.

Just to add to this... having Jennings in the back pocket actually contributes a little bit to a lack of adjustment.

If you have to stick with Preston, you adjust the types of patterns you are calling so that RJ opens up in the area behind the blitzing LBs and has a ton of space to run into. Pass into the blitz.

Instead, because we switched QBs, now they go into an 8 man drop and contain and hold you to field goals.

[CA Mustang]

A question that I would like answered...Did we have a timeout available at the end of the game? If so,why would we end the game with a timeout available? On espn.com it shows we called our 3rd timeout with 1:58 in 4th which was during/right after the 2 minute timeout. Is that the case? On tv nothing was said about it that I recall. Showed we had one available. I thought there were very questionable time management decisions coming down the stretch. With 2:49 on the clock BYU snapped for their 3rd down play before their fg. We could have called timeout with 2:40 (ish) on the clock before BYU attempted their FG. We didn't and the 2 minute timeout was used after the kick so we got no benefit from that. Then we didn't use our timeout during our drive (understandable didn't really need to). Then when BYU took a knee for the 3rd time there were approximately 18 seconds left. We could have used it and at least had a chance to block the punt or get a return and hope for a miracle. I get it that our chances were slim-none at that point but to just let the clock run out is unacceptable to me. Maybe I'm completely off base. I honestly hope so.

You're correct, SMU did have a timeout left. Both teams made clock mistakes, but SMU's were more egregious. That's on Lashlee. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys30mA0F_y8&t=301s