CougarCorner

Because I can sum why we lost tonight with one word:

Speed

I know, I know... I sound like one of those freaking retarded SEC fans now. But I'm sorry.
Let's break this down...

- Yes, I know that we should have kept rushing with Unga (when he's getting AT LEAST 5-6 yard per rush, you keep rushing until he fails to. Air Force had 40 rushing plays tonight and 1 pass play. Why? It worked. It works for us, but then we ruin the drive by passing)
- Yes, I know that our pass defense (whether it be how well we pressure the QB, or how well our secondary plays) is absolutely horrible
- Yes, I know that our coaches were a large part of this loss

But all of these issues come down to speed.
If our secondary were faster, we'd be able to cover their recievers.
If our DL and LB's had more speed, we wouldn't watch them be outrun by nearly every QB they face.
If our receivers were faster, they wouldn't have been covered so easily by TCU's secondary.

How about the 75 yard TD TCU got in the 3rd quarter? That dude just flat out outran his two defenders. Just one small example of many.

I think our athletes are more than comparable to other teams in terms of skill, athleticism, and discipline, but in speed we get burnt every time.

I'm not saying that I know the key to recruiting speed... or where we need to look for it... I'm just saying that our lack of speed compared to TCU's killed us tonight.

I'll sum it up with a quote from my fiance - a girl who knows NOTHING about football (yet) and rarely makes ANY comments on the game... here's what she said to me...
"Our guys look really slow compared to their. They are just simply outrunning us."

If it was apparent to her, it ought to be apparent to everyone.

Maybe it's time to go to the basketball section. We're undefeated in basketball. And the thought of this ugly loss will wear off with time....

ESPN just mentioned the word "speed" three times, I think, in their synopsis of the game.

They closed it with something like "And BYU gets blown out at home for the second time this season by a team with speed."

During the highlights, they also mentioned that it was "very apparent" (or something like that) how much quicker TCU was than we were.

Guess I'm not the only one

I actually do have zero football IQ, but I don't think speed was as much the difference maker here as it was lack of preparation to deal with that speed. We knew Jerry Hughes was fast, so why didn't we put another man on the line to prevent him from sacking or hurrying Max over and over again? I thought BYU did a pretty good job stopping their speedy running backs, though.

I definitely have zero football IQ. My observations:

1) Defensive speed for TCU disrupted our offensive game plan and coaches failed to adjust

2) Offensive mistakes for BYU (dropped balls, 1 INT, 1 fumble) killed us. The INT was the most critical of the turnovers. It came on a solid drive that could have closed the gap to one TD. BYU never recovered. And TCU continued to roll anyways, so it may not have mattered in the end.

The problem is that a simple adjustment isn't enough to win this game, not even close. Our gameplan for TCU the last two years has obviously been flawed. There are so many things that need to change before we win these kinds of games...

Well, there's a reason that our season always progressively gets worse as it goes on - we never change.
So yes, adjustments have a LOT to do with it

Watch our offensive and defensive schemes in the beginning of the season, and then watch them in TCU game. Not much difference. One example: the draw play - works sometimes, but is becomming terribly obvious. I remember when BYU used to have an exciting offense.
The only reason it's exciting to watch now is because we have talented players - but the plays themselves are as vanilla and predictable as they come.

I like the idea floated somewhere else of throwing Hall and Nelson into the backfield, a sort of wild cougar (insert Courtney Cox joke here) formation. Who's gonna get the snap? The passer or the runner? It would be crazy and would blow Whittingham's mind.

But, won't never happen.

I really like Nelson's ability to scramble.
Perhaps BYU underestimates how powerful a running QB can be?
Look at FSU when they played us... nearly every time they called a passing play, they either a) completed a pass, or b) Ponder scrambled for 5-10 yards.

For BYU, there's basically two options.... completion, or sack/interception. I'd love to watch a quarterback who can take a broken play and still turn it into positive yardage, rather than something disastrous happen.

Italics wrote:I really like Nelson's ability to scramble.
Perhaps BYU underestimates how powerful a running QB can be?
Look at FSU when they played us... nearly every time they called a passing play, they either a) completed a pass, or b) Ponder scrambled for 5-10 yards.

For BYU, there's basically two options.... completion, or sack/interception. I'd love to watch a quarterback who can take a broken play and still turn it into positive yardage, rather than something disastrous happen.

Hall's not all that bad of a scrambler... if he's facing SDSU. TCU on the other hand is going to dish out more of the "disastrous". I could help but cringe when Hall got blown up and fumbled. BRUTAL.

Completely agree though. Ponder had his way with us too often. No excuse for that.