BYU outlasts UNLV in a shootout
Max Hall confidently marched BYU’s offense down the field for the winning touchdown in the fourth quarter to extend BYU’s dominance at home.
It was an exciting game, made for TV.
It was not the 23-point win Las Vegas oddsmakers had predicted.
Going in, I knew UNLV would chalk up yards on big plays and they didn’t disappoint those who know this Rebel offense.
Omar Clayton is the best quarterback BYU’s defense has faced since losing at Tulsa last year. He continually and accurately attacked BYU’s zone defense while making big plays. His receivers are as good as the Cougars will face until Utah. But Clayton’s accuracy is better than that of Brian Johnson.
So in this regard, BYU’s defense faced it’s toughest offensive test of the season when you mix in RB Frank Summers. Trouble is, almost everybody’s defense the Cougars will face from on now will be far better than the one they saw in UNLV.
Bottom line?
BYU’s defense did a lot of bleeding on Saturday. But like we’ve seen against Washington, UCLA in the bowl game and against the Utes last year BYU had one more play hanging in the balance and delivered it.
There will be plenty of people down on BYU’s defense after the last two games. When they’ve faced firepower the last two weeks, they’ve allowed 36 and 32 points respective.
UNLV and TCU exposed a weakness in BYU’s defense, a sagging zone that keeps passes in front of defenders. Trouble is, few teams have been able to accurately attack it without turning the ball over or having the QB make mistakes, get sacked or fumble.
On offense, we saw Robert Anae and Max Hall distribute the ball to more playmakers. I don’t think Dennis Pitta touched the ball for about three quarters in the middle of this game until the end on BYU’s final offensive play, a two-point conversion.
I thought Hall was outstanding. Collie is BYU’s best receiver ever and his sixth-straight game over 100 yards cannot be ignored. But the Cougars could have been better on third downs. They also had some dumb penalties on offense that forcd them into long yardage situation, killing a couple of drives.
I thought I’d see more yards from Harvey Unga in this game, but if you combine his 84 yards with the 9 carries and 71 yards from Fui Vakapuna, you come up with 155 yards. And Hall ran for 29. Not too bad against a bad defense.
Improved over last week? Yes.
Good enough to win the rest of the games? Maybe. Likely no.
But they can improve more.
They’ll have to be better on defense and the addition of Andrew Rich and Brandon Bradley into schemes will help down the road.
What you saw in this game is something the remaining MWC teams might struggle doing: Shuffling in a myriad of players like Matt Putnam, Bradley, Colby Clawson, the Doman kid and others, who are making the difference in the fourth quarter with some depth. This is one reason a fresh Putnam made such a big play on that sack at the end of the game.
The good news out of this game is that the defense did make plays when it counted and BYU won.
The bad news is that it was so close at home, a place the Cougars play their best ball. BYU has only one remaining home game and must play at CSU, AFA and Utah.
It will have to get better. They cannot afford to play without home-type energy and intensity at CSU, AFA and Utah. And we’ve seen that happen at Washington, USU and TCU.
BYU’s offense can help the defense by being more efficient and producing points while holding on to the ball for long periods of time.
I can see the Cougars winning those road games and it boiling down to the Utah game. In that game, I think the x factor is the play of Ute QB Brian Johnson. He is no Omar Clayton. He is not that accurate and he is up and down and inconsistent. But if this Cougar defense faces him on an up day and he makes plays with his arm and legs, the Utes will win.