The First Half Set The Tone

[mizzoucoug]

The First Half Set The Tone

If you believe field position matters, here is how it went in the first half before all of these pieces connected at the hips got worn down.

Nevada received. Bronco likes his defense to set the tone by getting a quick stop, a punt, and giving the offense field position that is better than taking a knee in the end zone and starting on the 25. Ricky tacky hit to the head of the QB on 2nd down, then Kaufusi overrunning the play gave 10 more. Midfield ate 3 snaps. DL bring pressure but linebackers drop back. Bam. Screen for 20. Field goal after that. 3 points, and no field position help for the offense.

BYU Dye return to 17, nearly fumbled it, too. Special Teams does not even get the offense out to the 25. Lasker 3. Leslie 1. Matthews incomplete. Catchable, but barely. Punt. 38 yards. 45 or 50 would be nice.

Nevada starts on their 40. D gets a stop. Punt to 3 yard line.

BYU drives 97 yards, overcoming the hole they started in, partly caused by themselves. But largely caused by the defense and special teams on the first exchange. Bam. Got the lead. 7-3. Just need to extend it and hold it.

BYU gets a stop. Starts on their own 28. Decent, but not great. Marches 72 yards. TD. BAM. 14-3.

Nevada receives it in end zone. Knee. Out to 25. Chance for defense to stomp on their throat. Missed tackle gives up 65 yard screen play on 2nd down. 9 yard run. TD. 3 plays. 75 yards. Oops. 14-10.

Nevada screws up. Pooch kick. Plus offsides tacked on 5 yards. BYU gets to start at the 40. Not because our District helped. Not because of a big kick return by special teams. A Nevada mistake times 2. Six plays and and 60 yards later a 20 yard TD to Matthews. All is well. 21-10.

Time for Special Teams and Defense to step on their throat. Alas. BYU kicks it out of bounds. Nevada starts at the 35. Moves the ball just enough. Field goal. Throat still intact. 21-13.

Special Teams gets another chance to stomp on their throat. 65 yard kickoff return after 87 hesitates then goes. But 36, Hinds, tugged a bit on a shirt sleeve. Just enough to call it all back minus 10 more. BAM. Offense gets it at the 10. No problem. Offense overcomes that special teams mistake and marches 90 yards. TD Matthews.

Nevada starts at the 25. 1 minute left. Does not try to go downfield.

The defense and special teams put the offense in a hole and gave no advantage the entire first half. Had several opportunities to help step on the throat. Did not get any picks or create any fumbles. The offense masked all of this by getting 7 on every possession but the first one and did not ever put the defense or special teams in a hole.

Apparently, the defense and special teams expected the offense to carry them the entire game. Odds are always against that. Because field position matters, and when Nevada got behind, they adjusted, brought pressure, loaded up and cheated up and dared BYU to go over the top after seeing Stewart badly overthrow the 2 shots he took in the first half.

Just rewarded the first half. If I can bare it, I will watch the rest.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

Well documented. Stepping on throats is something that Bronco does maybe once per year. And a lot of times it has more to do with the opponents coughing up the ball to us on a short field. I knew once we hit the magical number, 24, that the coaching staff was done for the night. They earned their ice cream and then paid attention to other things. Happens every year.

[Stirfry]

2nd half went thusly
KO return to 25. ST ok. Missed opportunity to step on throat with a big return. Gotta go 75 yards. Stewart passes 3 times, all comolete, sets up Carter for about a 15 yard run. Missed a shot. Took another shot. Contact. No call. This is what defenses eventually figure out. BYU is not yet a threat to go over the top. Hill could not hit it. Stewart is still overthrowing them in games but hitting them in practice. Special Teams has a chance to make it a 3 score game. Misses field goal.

Special Teams does nothing special on kickoff. Nevada starts at the 26. Defense should be fresh. Screen goes 26 yards. Next one goes 10 yards. Nevada screws up. Holding. Holding again. Tough to go 75 yards. BYU declines 2nd holding call. So 3rd and 18 instead of 2nd and 28. I wondered about that decision. Great scramble effort, bam pass for 15. 4th as ND 3. Made it. Fajardo scramble run to 10. Pass to 1. Fajardo walks it in. Defense did not do anything to stomp on the throat. No stops. No turnovers. Porous.

Lasike returns KO to 26. We miss Hine. ST does nothing special. Gotta go 74 yards. Leslie belted OOB. No flag. Stewart scramble, has to slide short of 1st down in traffic. Nev has adjusted. No more sea of open space to scramble into. Matthews catch called back, called him for holding. 1st and 25. Tough to drive 75 yards. Pass for 13. Lasike drop. Would not have been a 1st down anyway. Anae chewed Stew on sideline about that play. Arelano shanked his punt. ST could have pinned them deep. No. Shank.

Nevada starts at their 45. Short field because of the ST shank ed punt. The D gets a stop, but because of the shank ed punt field position situation, Nevada is able to punt, and pin BYU inside the 10.

Tough to go 90 yards. Pass to 17. Stew scrambles. Has to slide in heavy traffic short of 1st down. As said before, Nevada has adjusted. Pass. 1st down. Long pass, overthrown. Still cannot hit those. Lasike gets 5. Pass 1st down. Pass 1st down.. Sets up Carter for 15 yard run. Fumbles. He was able to push it oob as it came out. Everyone has been asking where that backward lateral thrown overhand like a pass has been since it worked well at UCONN, but we have not seen it since. Algie Brown being out is why we have not seen it. BAM. It Comes now, To Houk because nobody is open downfield and we do not want Stew running it. Pass complete. Houk spins. Stripped. Fumble. Wells are officially off. By now it is clear, Nevada is going for the strip on nearly every tackle. It us working. Why can't the BYU defense accomplish the same thing?

Nevada starts at the BYU 48. Great field position. It matters. BYU had moved the ball 60 yards before fumbling. Had they started their drive even on the 25, this fumble would have been deep in Nevada territory. But no. BYU started on the 10.

Nevada. BYU 48. Takes a shot at endzone. Misses. 4th and 1 at start of 4th quarter. BYU still up by 7. Defense just needs to stop a 4th down play. They fail to do so. Warner misses a shot to pick it. 3rd and 5. BYU burns a time out. Could have used this on the last drive of the game. Wasted it here. 4th and 2. BYU defense just needs to stop a 4th down olay. We are still ahead. Failed to do it. BYU tipping off coverage after Fajardo claps. Nevada takes advantage. Back shoulder pass over the top. BAM. TD. 2 point conversion pass complete. BAM. Game tied.

No return on kickoff. BYU has to go 75 yards - again. Field position. Defense and ST have done nothing to create field position all night. Lasike 6. Pearson drop. Stew scramble. Heavy traffic. Gad To Dive Head First For 1st down. No more sea of open space. Nevada clearly has taken that away. Pressure. Throw away. Lasike 3. Sack. Taunting do Stew. No call. Koroma rips the guy off Stew. 15 yard penalty. 4th and 30 at the 15. Tough to go 75 yards or more every possession. Good punt, but ST gives up a huge return. No flag on questionable block.

Nevada starts at midfield. Again. End zone shot. Daniel missed opportunity to pick it. TE 19 yard catch and run. Fajardo runs 25 yards. TD. BYU down by 7.

BYU ST could help with a big KO return. Nope. BYU starts at the 21 with 79 yards to go. Stew scrambles. Contact. Stripped. Close call knee was down right as it came out. Ruled a fumble. No review.

Nevada starts at the BYU 20. Fajardo runs to the 6. Butler TD. BYU down 14 with little time left.

No return on the kickoff. BYU has 75 yards to go, again. No time to have the 5th string RB run the ball. That is why he never saw the ball in the 4th quarter. Catch and run. Lasike for 20. Shot. Missed as usual. Pass Nelson 5. Mahina 5. Lasike. Catch. Fumble oob. So fumble oob, does not seem to count as a fumble. Matthews 9. Matthews 1st down. Stew sack. Nevada continues its adjustment to bring more pressure. Matthews 7. Shot. Overthrown. Again. 4th and 8. Houk 1st down. Stew scrambles to the 10 - hit hard. Holding declined by Nevada on sack. Matthews 1st down. Nelson TD. Stewart hammered to the turf as he threw.

ST gets a chance to redeem themselves. On sides kick. Does not go 10 yards. Penalty. Plus offsides again. Another penalty.

Nevada starts at BYU 39. BYU burns it's last two timeouts. Defense holds. 4th and 7 at 36 with clock ticking. Punt. 10 yard line.

BYU has a little over a minute to go 90 yards. 90. Not even 2 minutes. No timeouts.

Matthews 1st down oob. Cstew scramble oob. Flag. Nevada off sides. 1st down. Stew scramble. Strip. Fumble. Game over.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

I'm surprised this isn't being discussed more. Special teams is the most frustrating part of this entire season for me. Our special teams is killing us. How many times can we get an off-sides on a kickoff? I've got to think we're close to the top if not at the top of the list for off-sides on kickoffs this year. We give up long returns over and over and we even had a delay of game on an opening kickoff....

If we're losing because we are missing over half of our starters due to injury that's ok. If we're losing because of being off-sides and not playing assignments that's not ok.

[frdbtr]

Special teams wasn't great but this game was lost by the defense. They couldn't get Nevada off the field. Simple as that. Never got a stop on a 4th down play, rarely got stops on 3rd down. On 3rd and 18 Pikula had a free shot on Fajardo and instead of wrapping up he goes for the "big" shoulder hit and Fajardo just spins out of it and runs for 15 yards. This game was lost by the defense. BYU needs to fix their defense or Bowl eligibility is in serious trouble this year.