Glog: BYU vs Wisconsin

Welcome to the biggest game of the year for BYU!  We're pretty confident, but this one will show us and everybody if we're really any good.  Before the season, I picked the scores for all the games, and I picked us to lose 41-7.  So my expectations are low.

Rod Gilmore is our analyst - I like him.  I don't know this play by play dude.

Gary Andersen is the UW coach.  Anybody who could turn USU around has got to be a solid coach.

Windy there today, which probably means no FG attempts outside the 10.

1st drive - UW ball

KVN with another TFL!  Brings up a 3rd and long, which is not a sure thing with our D this year.

Ugh.  We have to get more pressure on these 3rd and longs, he had all day to make that pass.

UW dominating us at the front line.  Not a good sign.

Hadley goes out.  We'll miss his 'stache.

So far our secondary has looked solid, tight coverage.

This game is reminding me of the Stanford-Oregon game.  Stanford just dominated the line and got 4-5 yards on every play for these 7 minute drives.

Easy TD for UW.  Not a good sign for us, but a very good sign for my 41-7 loss prediction.

2nd drive - BYU ball

Nothing to say here.  Good protection on the 3rd and long is the only silver lining.

3rd drive - UW ball

'Unga makes the impact player list - surprise of the day!

Stuffed on 3rd down!  Key stop there, we don't want to dig out of a 14-0 hole.

Just found out the Falselev is out.  Rats.  He's a key, more on the offensive side than the PR side.  Good hands, shifty moves.

4th drive - BYU ball

3rd and long again.  Let's see if we can pick something up.

"Pick" was a bad choice of words there.  Hill overthrows Hoffman and UW picks it off.

5th drive -UW ball

I wonder if Andersen is over there on the sidelines thinking, "This is so much easier with Big 10 talent, it's almost unfair".

Sorenseon almost with the INT!  Would've been nice to come down with it.

Fumble!  BYU picks it up!  Let's see if our O can move the ball more than 3 yards.

6th drive - BYU ball

First 1st down!  A couple quick hits there, good playcalling.

7 yards to Mahina.  We need to continue to get our TE's involved.

Down to UW's 40 yard line.  Prime punting range.

Into the red zone, getting everybody involved!  Really enjoying this.  Let's see if we can get a TD.

3rd and 7 from the 13.  4 down territory, I'd think.

Wow - I can't believe they gave Hill the incomplete pass there.  I further can't believe that Bronco trusted Sorenson to make that FG.  Good call, though, he made it.  Another red zone trip without a TD.  Until we improve this, we're not going to beat tough teams.

7th drive - UW

Did our band travel all the way to UW?  Or is their band playing our fight song?  If so, kudos to them.

They almost broke that kickoff for a lot of yards.  Good arm tackle.

Manu with the great break through the line!  D starting to step up.

"Jonathan Pigskin" is what Rece Davis called Johnny Football just now.  Great name - Susan Hansen approved.

Read the screen all the way, D with a 3 and out.  Solid!

8th drive - BYU

Interesting that Rod thinks that BYU still has BCS chances.  I'm skeptical, considering we're not ranked.  I mean, that would be great, but even if we do win out, I can't see it happening.

End of 1st****  We're only down 7-3 to a good team on the road, I can't be too disappointed about that.  D has been solid after that first drive, and O showed some signs of life in the last drive.  If we can score more TDs, we can win.  But FGs aren't going to do it.

Wow - I had no idea Camp Randall was so ugly from the outside.  Solid concrete, who designed this, Joseph Stalin?

Gutsy call on 3rd and 8 with the run!  Worked to perfection with a long run.  If that wouldn't have worked, I'd be complaining pretty hard in this very space.

Another throwaway and Hill had all kinds of time.  We must not getting anybody open.

Great pass on 3rd and 10 to Friel!  Huge play there.  Great catch, too.

Deep pass to the end zone and the defender practically tackles Hoffman before the ball gets there. No flag - bad sign of things to come.

New Taco Bell ad with the white guy and the steak sandwich was awesome.  "That was a travel."  Sandwich looks pretty diarrhea-tastic, though.  I rewound it and watched it 3 times.  Possible new favorite commercial.

10 bucks says Bronco punts it from the 32 if we throw an incomplete pass here. 

Obviously, not many options here, but why not go to Hoffman in the end zone again?  What's to lose?

Punt goes into the end zone of course.  What's the inside-the-40 punt total for the year?  8?  Good time to paste in something I found interesting from TMQ (Tuesday Morning Quarterback) on when to punt:

• Inside your own 20, punt.
• From your 21 to 35, go for it on fourth-and-2 or less.
• From your 36 to midfield, go for it on fourth-and-3 or less.
• From the opposition 49 to opposition 30, go for it on fourth-and-4 or less.
• From the opposition 29 to opposition 3, go for it on fourth-and-3 or less.
• From the opposition 2 or 1, go for it.
• Exception: inside the opponent's 25, attempt a field goal if it's the fourth quarter and a field goal causes a tie or gives you the lead.

According to this, Bronco made the right call.  Not much to do on 3rd and long.

9th drive - UW

KVN with another amazing play!  This guy is hands-down the best defensive player ever.  No argument there.  I mean, the INT was pretty lucky to fall on his body, but I feel like other defensive players would've still screwed that up, and I can't really remember KVN screwing up sure INTs ever.

10th drive - BYU

Just off the fingertips of Mathews!  So close...would've been huge!

Hoffman is getting murdered on every play by the corner.  Lots of grabbing and early touching before the ball gets there. Probably not going to get many catches without help from the refs.

Wait - Brian Urlacher?  Who's that?  He's not even playing anymore, how good could he have been?

Hoffman had steps there, but Hill overthrows by 5 yards.

11th drive - UW

Nothing makes me ffwd faster than when NASCAR people appear on the screen.  And worse - Rod makes commentary about it!  NOBODY CARES ABOUT NASCAR, Rod!  And if they do, they're wrong.

5 missed tackles on that long run.  Also, a blatant hold at the line.  How many flags on UW so far?  1?  Oh, I see.

4th and 1... you have to go for it here.  Too long for a sure FG.  Bronco would punt.

 Big hit by 22!  Who's 22?  Nice play, 22!

Of course, the kicker who has never made a FG makes it from 38.  He'd have missed that against Ohio St.

12th drive - BYU

Not a surprise that we have nobody open downfield, their corners are probably jumping on our WR's shoulders and riding them like horses.

13th drive - UW

Big hit by Fua!  3rd and 4 coming, need to get a stop here.  10-3 at the half and the ball is not a bad position to be in.

Need to get more pressure on the QB, he's got all day.  We could use Ziggy here!

Ball tipped at the line.  Good play, but the play was well-covered, possible INT we could've had there.

TD.  Too much time for the QB!  You have to rush more than 3 there.

 HALFTIME

It's interesting that UW has 2 losses and they're ranked #24.  Their 2 losses are to OSU and ASU, both ranked.  The highest 2 loss team is S Carolina at #12. 12 spots higher!  Well, SCar lost to Tennessee, who has gotten creamed by everyone, and Georgia, who isn't ranked either.  "But Kent, SCar beat #5 Missouri!" Oh, then nevermind.  Totally justified.  Let's forget that Missouri is awesome, and not the fact that other top 25 wins have been over Georgia and Florida, both unranked.  Apparently all you have to do to be in the top 10 is to be in the SEC and win 3 conference games.

14th drive - BYU

I'm not counting that last drive of the half.

Is it possible for us to have a kickoff withOUT a block in the back?

Ugh.  3 and out.  Now I'm rooting for UW to score 41 points and BYU to get 2 safeties.

Terrible punt!  Didn't we have the wind for this punt?  Not looking good.

15th drive - UW

Sorensen is an excellent defensive player - a lot like Francisco from a few years ago.  We'll be in a tough position next year without him and Van Nuy.

We bring the pressure on 3rd but they have a quick hit.  I still like the fact that we brought it.  We need to get more pressure.

Break there with a bad pass to a wide open WR!

16th drive - BYU

We're averaging 32 points a game and over 500 yards.  That's a pathetically low point average for how many yards that is.  Speaks to our red zone inability.  We need a "points per yard" stat.

Williams with a drop there.  He has terrible hands, we know this from the Virginia game.  For Williams to be considered a top 10 all time RB, he needs to be a better pass-catcher.

Williams bailed out with the offsides call.  We need a score here.

Huge surprise - Apo doesn't come up with a catch that he should've.  Apo is my least favorite BYU player - people have been talking about him like he was supposed to be better than Hoffman.  He's been dropping catchable passes his whole career.

And just to illustrate my point, Hoffman makes a great catch for a TD!  How many catches has Hoffman caught where there's been a pass interference call?  But, yeah, Apo still might be better than him.

17th drive - UW

That Hyundai ad where they show BYU for the first seconds really threw me off when I first saw it.  I thought, "Wait, is this BYUTV?  Is this a BYU commercial?"  I'm surprised we made the cut, and got so many clips.

Daniels' tackling has been terrible this game.  Through the first 8 games, he was surprisingly solid.

The problem with playing ND every year is that I have to root for them every game.

Brought pressure and we finally get a sack! 

18th drive - BYU

Good overturn by the refs.  If anything, that was the cleanest guarding of Hoffman all game.

3rd and 13 is a little long for a trap play, no?  We need to get a good punt here.

What a punt!  61 yards?  Check your math, buddy.  That's 75 yards right there.  Maybe the first bounce was 61.

19th drive - UW

The announcer asks "What are the odds that the championship game will NOT be Bama - FSU?"  This is exactly what's wrong with the BCS, the fact that it's so likely with 4 games to play.  I know that it's going away, but the fact that it existed for so long was just baffling.  I will complain about the BCS until I'm dead.  In 2050, I'll be telling my grandkids, "In my day, there wasn't this 68 team tournament gobble-de-gook.  It was 2 teams!  Voted in by the media!  In those days, we knew how to pick a winner!

Our D looks tired.  Every play is a good handful of yards.

End of 3rd****  It's looking unlikely we'll pull this out.  I'm rooting for us to at least make it close, but UW looks pretty dominant.

touchdown

20th drive - BYU

Where's my pizza?!  I ordered it an hour ago!

3rd and 2 here.  We have to go for it if we don't get it.  Let's run it here.

We ran it.  Didn't work.  At least UW planned for a punt and burned another TO.

Rod makes the point "Bronco does not believe his defense can hold them."  I no longer like Rod.  You HAVE to go for it here.

Penalty - we still should go for it.  What good does punting do?  Give it to UW to run 5 minutes off the clock and get more points?  Look, we're not going to win this game playing conservatively, so why not sell out early?  We punt.

21st drive - UW

They pick up 30 yards just like that.  I'm glad we punted it.  As a coach, you have to be realistic with your D.  If they're not stopping the other team, own up to it and keep the ball as much as possible.

They're getting 5-7 yards on every play and all they do is run it up the gut.  Glad we punted.

4th down!  We stopped them!  Bronco made the right call to punt - we're getting the ball at the 10 yard line with 4 fewer minutes.  Plenty of time to score 3 times.

How can Planet Fitness guarantee a "Judgement-Free Zone"?  Are they kicking people out who sneer at others?

22nd drive - BYU

Hoffman once again proves that he's the best.  Ever.  In the history of everything.

Even if we miraculously come back and win this game, UW is clearly the better team.  They've dominated the trenches on both sides.  I think last year's D would've kept us closer with Ziggy on the D-line, but last year's O wouldn't have gotten us more than the 10 points we have. 

NOW Rod says we shouldn't punt. I don't know why Bronco is waiting until 4th down to punt, we could throw an INT or fumble it on 3rd.

23rd drive - UW

ESPN shows a BYU asst coach as "Bronco Mendenhall".  The camera crew must be confused as to who's the head coach, they've been showing that dude all game.  I don't know who that dude is, but I know who Bronco is at least.

24th drive - BYU

Still no pizza.  I just called, "It's on the way" they say.  The place is 10 minute walk, a 3 minute bike ride, and a 2 minute car ride (lots of stop signs) from my house.  I could have walked there, made the pizza myself, and walked back.  At least I get to save money on the tip.

We burn a TO on 3rd.  If we had any glimmer of a shot, it now is gone.

Go for the TD here.  You need 2 TDs still, and we need the stats.

25th drive - UW

Pizza finally arrived.   I stiffed the delivery guy, and he was clearly disappointed.  Listen buddy, the pizza took 90 minutes to get here and I live right next door.  When I delivered, I was hoping to not have to give the pizza away for free, let alone get a tip.

26th drive - BYU

ANOTHER picked up flag.  The other refs must feel eviscerated with the main ref overruling all his calls.

Apo with another drop.  There's this dude in my ward who thinks that Apo is a "great receiver".  He also thinks (no joke) that the BCS is better than the playoffs.  I was absolutely, completely baffled when he told me that.  I had no idea these people still existed.

End of game - UW 27, BYU 17

The head coaches shake hands at midfield.  The production lead at ESPN says, "Wait, THAT'S the head coach of BYU?!?!?"

As mentioned earlier, BYU was beaten by a better team.  We stayed relatively close, but we just aren't good enough yet.  Maybe next year.  I'll be happy if we can beat ND, but we'll need to stuff the run more consistently.