Monday, September 6, 2010

Final Notes

First, an error in my original post: Brian Logan's play in the end zone was not on 3rd down on the final drive with 2 minutes left, but on the first fourth down of the 4th quarter with about 12 minutes left.  It was still huge.

After watching the game over I need to make a few adjustments in my initial analysis.

First off, conditioning played a huge role.  You could see the skill position players on offense for UW losing a step late.  The LBs and DL were sucking wind as well.
Second, the field position battle was won by BYU in part because of themselves, but it was mostly Washington mistakes.  Bad angles by punt returners let a couple punts bounce and stay inside the 20.  And of course, there were also the 3 big miscues on kickoff returns.
Third, it was really inexcusable for Washington to get 3 points at the end of the half like they did.  BYU had them 3rd and 8 with a minute left.  They got a field goal after marching nearly 80 yards in 5 plays after that.

The O-Line played well, but the QBs made them look better by moving around in the pocket, and Riley Nelson by taking off a few times.  So I'm downgrading their performance slightly.  It was still a great job with just two or three QB hits.
The TEs played a lot better than I had originally thought.  They made some nice plays in the passing game and had some great blocks in the running game.
Kariya was even more of a beast in pass blocking than I thought.  At least three times he came across the formation to pick up a blitz on the opposite side of the field.  At least twice he took a DE down to the ground.
The DL did a lot better job on the pass rush than I gave them credit for.  While they didn't get to Locker a lot, they collapsed the pocket around him and made him throw a lot of balls off-balance or on the run.
The LBs did an even better job in run support than I originally thought, but their pass coverage left a lot to be desired, with the exception of Jameson Frazier.  Credit Washington though for creating and taking advantage of mismatches.  Additionally, my man crush, Jordan Pendleton, did a great job in Washington's backfield but got beat twice on pass coverage, once for a TD and once on the late first half drive that led to a field goal.
The DBs missed a few more tackles and had a few more blown coverages than I thought.  In addition, Brandon Bradley took very bad angles on two different big running plays (the big third down run on Washington's first possession/scoring drive and then again on Locker's TD run).  Andrew Rich had some big hits and snuffed out the Locker run a couple of times.  Corby Eason defended a few passes fairly well.  Steven Thomas whiffed a few tackles, but did well in pass coverage.
BYU needs to do a better job finishing drives.  They had to punt from between the 35-45 four or five times.  One more play and those are field goal attempts instead of punts.  Two or three more plays and they are TD drives.  That's inexperience and should improve throughout the season.

Just a side note.  I had a chance to watch TCU's game against Oregon State.  Andy Dalton looked a lot more like the Andy Dalton of two years ago than he did last year's dominating presence.  He ran with supreme effectiveness but his passing was a bit lacking.  He could throw screens and deep balls, but nothing in between.  The intermediate passing game will make those two even easier.  TCU was not able to run the ball up the middle, but they ran wild outside.  The most effective rushing play was the zone read, Dalton keep.
Defensively, they were susceptible to the draw play and got beat deep on several occasions.  They did a great job getting to the QB, as always, and continue to snuff out screens as well as any team in college football.
They looked beatable Saturday night (most teams do in week one), but if they tighten those areas up, they'll be near-impossible to beat down the stretch.  They won't face a team with playmakers like the Rodgers brothers all season, and they held them to 158 yards and two TDs.  If they hold opposing teams' star RB and best WR to that yardage/TD total the duration of the season, they will certainly go undefeated.

2 comments:

  1. I thought Heaps was trying to show how hard he could throw the ball. Granted he can throw it REALLY hard, but that isn't conducive to slow, untested receivers with average hands. Washington didn't look like they really wanted to win, which seems strange considering Locker coming back was supposed to be the springboard to a big season.

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  2. Heaps is like a lot of great quarterbacks; he throws hard, putting the onus on the receivers to catch it correctly. They will learn the technique if they want to play. Collie had to do so when playing with Peyton.

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