Observations following BYU ending its four-game losing streak

BYU’s win over San Diego State was an emotional centerpiece, illustrating what attitude and hard work can give a team.

Let’s face it, this team has not consistently shown a fighting attitude until Saturday on Homecoming Day. Breakdowns led to frustrations, finger-pointing, negativity — all traits that come with losing. It even led, in part, to the firing of Jaime Hill as defensive coordinator. Since DiLuigi fumbled at AFA, this team has had confidence issues. On that fateful play, you could see energy leak out of this team. It stopped on Saturday when Bronco Mendenhall took it upon himself to fill a void in leadership on the squad.

It would be easy to discount the validity of the SDSU win, saying it was just SDSU. But Brady Hoke has lifted the Aztecs to a higher level of play this season, as evident by the should-have-won showing at ranked Missouri and a complete dismantling of Utah State the week before the Aggies played BYU. Ryan Lindley, Ronnie Hillman and Vincent Brown are legit big-time players.

Folks in San Diego are comparing Hillman to Marshall Faulk. Coming to Provo, SDSU was 15th nationally in scoring offense, seventh in total offense, ninth in scoring defense and 22nd in total defense. A year ago SDSU ranked 85th in scoring offense, 86th in total offense, 98th in scoring defense and 74th in total defense.

BYU won Saturday because of emotion. But the Cougars also played a little smoke and mirrors with its own weaknesses.

Some observations:

First, freshman Jake Heaps was not put in a position to have to win or lose the game. BYU’s run attack, which was successful, gave him the needed support to just make some plays and not have to hit home runs.

Second, by controlling the clock and time of possession, BYU’s defense didn’t have to stay on the field and risk exposure by a very good QB and great receiving corps. The pressure packages deployed by Bronco Mendenhall — more than we’ve seen all year — were extremely effective, especially in the last two series of the game when SDSU tried to get in FG position.

The fact is, in just 15 minutes, SDSU’s offense did score 21 points and gain 279 yards on BYU’s defense. This is why the clock strategy loomed so crucial for Mendenhall. To score 21 in 15, you average 1.4 points per minute. Possession was everything in this game, keeping Lindley, Hillman and Brown on the bench.

Third, BYU got lucky on that J.J. Diluigi fumble ruled dead because of a quick whistle. Without that call, it clearly looked like a fumble and it may have been a game changer.

Fourth, you can’t discount the Mendenhall move to pull a Kyle Whittingham and ice the SDSU kicker on that field goal attempted. It worked and that was the difference between overtime.

Fifth, on the other proverbial hand, if Heaps hand not thrown that pick and BYU play callers would have stayed with the success on the ground on first and goal at the three; and if Matt Matthews hadn’t fumbled after a catch in scoring position, BYU’s success and margin of victory could have been significant in this win.

But as they say, if the queen had a few different cells, she’d be king.

BYU is in for a rough week in Fort Worth. Better BYU teams than this one have lost to the Frogs since QB Andy Dalton became very, very good. BYU will once again face a running QB. SDSU’s Ryan Lindley was not a runner, just a pure pocket passer, thus Bronco’s call for effective pressure.

But the news from this past week is that BYU found some spunk and fight. Since J.J. Diluigi fumbled going in for a score at AFA, the Cougars have struggled to find some fight and consistency, wrestling with doubt and a myriad of issues. If BYU had lost to SDSU on Saturday, who knows how the team would react.

Now, Mendenhall can get some teeth into the issue that the Cougars are 1-1 in league play and there is a lot to play for including a bowl game. If Mendenhall can get improvement out of his team weekly, he can sell it.

BYU past opponents have a combined impressive 20-9 record, a winning percent of .689. The remaining teams on BYU’s schedule include undefeated Utah (5-0) and TCU (6-0) and even with those two highly ranked programs, the combined record of the future foes is 15-20 or .428 winning percent.

If you take out the Utes’ and TCU’s sterling marks, which represent 11 of the 15 wins by future Cougar foes, BYU’s most likely chances for wins will come over MWC teams that are a combined 4-20 for a win percentage of .166 including winless UNM and UNLV and CSU who are both 1-5.

In my opinion, how man wins BYU gets, and a bowl berth, will depend on what experts perceived to be a strength of this team in preseason: the offensive line. If that unit performs like it did Saturday, the run game ticks and Heaps gets a chance to mature.