I agree that the play calling seems atrocious once we get inside the red zone or to scoring time (Anae vs Utah). Doman seems to be stuck in the Anae era once he gets here, and has been even more inefficient than Anae so far.

That was nothing more than an average to below average defense at best, and we couldn't score touchdowns 4 straight trips to the red zone. That is a huge cause for concern. Hopefully he learns that you have to force the defense to cover the flats, the corners and the back of the end zone if you are going to try plays up the gut with less than 10 yards to go. Three straight plays up the gut from the 10 should be cause for a firing unless you have a huge offensive line and have been dominating the line of scrimmage all game (which we haven't done for years).

It seems like this is year 3 of keeping the play book closed at the beginning of the year. In principle, it makes sense. But in practice, we have not been able to effectively open up the play book the last few years. Sure, hide some trick gadget plays that are easily discernible by the formation; but lets hang 50, instead of 30 on WSU and be ranked 24 or 25 today and 21 or 23 next week.

Instead of having a few trick plays, or plays with very unique looks, why not have 4 or 5 plays coming from the same look/formation which makes it impossible for a defense to prepare for just off of one play? Why not be so explosive and unpredictable that we don't have to "close" the playbook. Lets show teams are playbook, and then add a few variations to those plays during the week to make our offense impossible to prepare for?

Imagine having 5 primary formations for the red zone, with 4 primary plays for each of those formations?! No way a defense could be completely ready for that, even if they have seen every one of those formations run once or twice per game.

I did not see a bad defense. I did not see a great defense. I saw a defense that was only occasionally good and usually mediocre. Simply mediocre.

Conversely
Utah has a very good, possibly great defense.
ND - see Utah.
GT - see Utah.
BSU - I did not watch their game and thus have no firm opinion - although result of game would indicate that they may be reasonably good - not great

Yes - all will be better than WaZoo. Simply Better.

You didn't see a bad defense?

You didn't see BYU WR's just walking into the endzone wide open on easy corner routes? You didn't see them missing EASY interceptions?
You didn't see them giving up a 7 yard per carry average to the outside?
You didn't see their DBs giving our WRs somewhere around a 16 yard cushion?
You didn't see one or two of our WRs open every single play, all game, on basic routes?
Did you see press coverage one time that game?
How about the linebacker's not knowing their zone, and receivers getting double covered leaving others wide open?

They were a bad defense and if the offense doesn't pick up the slack by scoring 30+ points a game, I don't think they win more than 2 or 3 games this year. Which is pretty much the same thing they have done each year. WSU didn't need Mike Leach as a coach. They scored fine last year. They need a defensive genius like Mendenhall as coach.

This was not a bowl team that we played. The offense was mediocre against our incredible defense. The defense was bad against our average offense.

It seems like this is year 3 of keeping the play book closed at the beginning of the year. In principle, it makes sense. But in practice, we have not been able to effectively open up the play book the last few years. Sure, hide some trick gadget plays that are easily discernible by the formation; but lets hang 50, instead of 30 on WSU and be ranked 24 or 25 today and 21 or 23 next week.

Instead of having a few trick plays, or plays with very unique looks, why not have 4 or 5 plays coming from the same look/formation which makes it impossible for a defense to prepare for just off of one play? Why not be so explosive and unpredictable that we don't have to "close" the playbook. Lets show teams are playbook, and then add a few variations to those plays during the week to make our offense impossible to prepare for?

Imagine having 5 primary formations for the red zone, with 4 primary plays for each of those formations?! No way a defense could be completely ready for that, even if they have seen every one of those formations run once or twice per game.