GO UTES!

Hooray! The Utes must be living right on and off the field to block that field goal!! Go Utes!

Alright, now that is out of my system, I'll get down to my real break down of the game. The Utes sucked. They played their worst game outside of Notre Dame. (That includes TCU). Yet they still won, is that a sign of how bad BYU is? No, not at all. BYU has really changed this season for the better. What it does show however, is how resilient this Utah team can really be. They got beat down in the early part of the game but only allowed 6 points at half, which left Kyle Whittingham clapping on the sidelines that his team was only down 6. The whole T. Cain thing in the second half failed as much as I thought it would if they ever did it. The offensive problems don't just revolve around the QB position. Again, it's the play calling. As a friend of mine mentioned, they seem to get something going, and change the play calling before it stops working and stop themselves. If something works, do it until it doesn't. Make the other defense make you change your calls.

Am I going to call for Aaron Rodericks's head? Not yet, he is no where near the idiot that Ludwig was and he was making good decisions earlier in the year. What happened? Why is Wynn all of the sudden lining up in the pistol offense which is designed for a running threat at QB, which Wynn is decidedly not. I loved almost every play from the line up where Wynn was in the typical shotgun, and you had 2 RB's either flanking him or lined up on one side of him with a 2 yard gap between them. You can do anything from that and you don't have to worry about the QB's lack of run game. My thing is, if you want to run the option read offense, you need someone who the defense fears will run the ball. You don't need Cam Newton or even an Alex Smith, but Jordan Wynn is so afraid of contact, he'll dive head first or slide 3 yards down field on a 3rd and 5 instead of lowering his shoulder and going for the first down. I think that's when most Utah fan's fell into the Cain for president category. And why run the ball between the tackles on all but 2 run plays? Why not try the Utah shuffle pass, an end around, Eddie Wide actually going wide? Why is every pass a double crossing pattern with the TE's going on a fly pattern? Why not get Shaky the ball on bubble screen's? Why not try Shaky and Brooks on the same side of the field and have one go deep and one do a post or even dual cross posts? If I were a defensive coordinator, that would scare the beegeebees out of me.

I'll give it to BYU though, they played great! If they had been playing a lesser defense, they would have had 21 points on the board at half. The BYU defense really came to play today and it's just amazing how different they are from the beginning of the season. I know I complain about Mendenhall and his pious remarks, but man, he knows how to plan a defense. I almost wish he would get fired and come to Utah as the DC. ALMOST, but not quite.

On a side note, I hate how bad play calls keep coming up. It WAS a fumble in this game, it WAS a fumble vs. SDSU. SDSU got screwed with a no call block in the back vs Missouri, Arizona got screwed last year in a call I can't remember, but they did. Oklahoma filled a complaint against the Pac-10 3 years ago. Just about every week, someone is justified in talking about some horrific call from the officials. They need to be held more accountable. In all sports. I loved when the MWC actually suspended officials this year (and I don't think this one is as egregious as those calls). I hope more conferences and the NCAA takes a note and actually hold these guys accountable for blatantly blowing calls. That being said, I've never blamed a football game on officials because there are way to many factors and players to say that 1 or 2 bad calls make it one way or the other (basketball though, I will blame officials, especially Steve Javy). Again I'm going to bring up Super Bowl XL and the Seahawks. Of all the calls that went against the 'Hawks, the only one I complain about is the "blocking below the waist" call on Matt Hassleback's tackle of the guy who intercepted his ball. Other than that, the offensive pass interference WAS the right call. It's NEVER called, but it was the right one. The holding call, meh, either way. If Seattle had scored TD's instead of Field Goals in the first half or didn't lead the league in dropped passes that year (I swear they did it all in that one game), they would have won that game regardless of the calls. So to all my friends who read this that are BYU fan's, I'm sorry your team couldn't score TD's instead of field goals and couldn't run the ball at all or block someone from blocking your field goal. That is why you lost, not the one call. Sorry guys, but it's true.