Initial Recap of BYU-Washington

Yes, as Boomer pointed out, I missed the most important game.  However, in missing it, I would like to say that I at least got BYU's score pretty darn close...I just underestimated BYU's D/overestimated Jake Locker.  I haven't actually gone back and looked at the game yet, so I only have my limited views of being in the stadium.  But BYU won the game, 23-17, behind a solid all-around effort by offense, defense, and special teams.  They won the field position battle, the yardage battle, the battle in the trenches, and, most importantly, the scoreboard battle.

BYU Offense:
They were moving the ball just fine, even without a steady QB.  Nelson and Heaps alternated series throughout the entire game.  Through one game, I can see why the coaches couldn't decide between the two.  Nelson did just fine throwing the ball and Heaps did just fine moving around in the pocket and even took off running once (and ended it with the most hilarious, awkward slide I've seen in a long time).  They had good offensive balance with 262 passing yards and 146 rushing yards, with 40 passes and 33 runs.  They didn't miss a beat, regardless of who was taking the snaps.  The question is: what happens when one of them throws a pick or fumbles?  Will the confidence and ability to move the ball, regardless of who is at QB, continue?

Now let's evaluate the offensive positions.
1. The offensive line did a great job.  They allowed the running game to average 4.4 yards/carry, even without Harvey Unga and Manase Tonga back there.  They picked up the blitz and protected the quarterback.  I only recall one solid hit on a BYU QB and that was on a screen play.  The other solid part was that not a single pass was knocked down at the line of scrimmage.  You could hope for a little more surge on third and short, but they got enough of a surge to convert more often than not in those situations.
2. The TEs and WRs had a somewhat poor showing.  As highlighted below, they dropped four passes.  On several occasions they made catches on third down short of the chains.  They didn't get much yardage after the catch.  They didn't break any tackles or make any big plays.  Cody Hoffman ran a different route than the QB anticipated on 2 or 3 occasions (maybe it's not his fault, but I'm thinking it probably was).  It was nice to see 7 WRs and TEs making catches, but not a single one had 50 yards for the game and the only one (Luke Ashworth) that had more than 3 catches only had 24 yards on his 6 catches (also had two drops...).
3.  The RBs gave BYU a chance to win, specifically JJ DiLuigi with his yardage and Bryan Kariya with his blocking.  DiLuigi touched the ball 17 times for 152 yards, including 83 receiving yards and the game-winning TD reception.  The Juice, Joshua Quezada, touched the ball one time for a 9-yard TD reception.  That's a good touch-to-touchdown ratio, for those keeping score at home.  People wondered about this unit after the departure of Harvey Unga and Manase Tonga.  While there are still some issues, particularly in goalline and short yardage situations, they did better than most experts expected.  Kariya looked bigger and he was an absolute BEAST on the blitz pickup.  He took on DEs and LBs like they were cornerbacks.  There was one fumble by DiLuigi on an option pitch, but, luckily, it went harmlessly out of bounds.
4. Riley Nelson was as good as advertised running the ball.  He put on a stellar juke in the red zone that put BYU in a position to score.  Then, on their two-point conversion, he dragged a defensive linemen about 4 yards into the end zone.  That combination of agility and power will be useful in "Tebow" situations (third and short and goalline).  Nelson had one or two questionable throws, but he also had the amazing toss to Quezada in the back of the end zone while running to his right and throwing across his body.  If he threw it a yard shorter it was an interception and a yard further would have put it out of the back of the end zone.  That was an amazing throw.  Heaps throws an absolute rocket.  I don't know how it looked on TV, but in person, he had every bit the arm of Jake Locker, the projected #1 NFL draft pick.  He had a tendency to lead his receivers too much, but he's also working with BYU receivers, he just needs to adjust to their (lack of) speed.  There were no picks thrown by either, and really only one pass thrown at all that had any chance of being picked.

There were three areas of concern for me on offense (besides third down conversions): red zone play-calling, dropped passes, and the inside/power running game.
1. Red zone play-calling: on two occasions Heaps led the offense down the field with a pass-run-pass set-up (or at least a 2-1 ratio).  As soon as they got close to the end zone, they went run-heavy.  Perhaps it was to protect Heaps' confidence (what would happen to HIM if he threw a pick down there in his first game?), perhaps it was a lack of trust in Heaps in the red zone, or perhaps it is just the way the play-calling works in the red zone.
2. Four dropped passes in crucial situations: Heaps can be blamed for 1.5 of his 3 drops as he led receivers a bit too much on two occasions and was a bit behind on the third.  However, in all 3 cases the receivers got two hands on the ball.  In two cases, it was experienced receivers dropping it, with a chance to give BYU a first down in field goal range to give them a two-score lead late in the third quarter.  The third was a freshman TE in the end zone, and it would have been a great catch.  Nelson threw a money ball on a corner route to Luke Ashworth in the 4th quarter that would have put BYU in field goal range and a chance to get a two-score lead in the fourth.  It was a well-thrown ball, he was open, and he's an experienced guy.  He just dropped it.  If any of those four drops were catches, it's a different ball game.  The one lucky part was that none of the drops fell into the arms of a defender.
3. The inside/power running game: Bryan Kariya is the power running back and he was the only BYU rusher to average less than 5 yards/carry at 2.5 yards per.  If you take out his long rush of 8 yards, he had 7 carries for 12 yards.  Overall, BYU had a lot more success running outside than inside.  When they ran outside, they had more success behind the left side of the line.  When they did have success inside, it was behind the right side.

The biggest issue they'll have against Air Force among those three would be the dropped passes.  Air Force is so sound defensively, too many dropped passes and one will find it's way to a defender.  As far as third downs are concerned, BYU's size on the OL should open it up for more third and short situations, where I would anticipate BYU to convert at a higher rate.

BYU's Defense:
This was the ultimate in bend-but-don't-break defense.  They bent twice in the fourth quarter, protecting a 6-point lead, but stiffened up as Washington approached the red zone.  Locker was held less than 3 yards per carry, despite only being tackled behind the line of scrimmage once all game.  They ran the ball well besides Locker and the Huskies did throw for 266 yards.  The main things the D did that allowed them to yield only 17 points were completion percentage (only 54%) and third (33%) and fourth down (0 for 3) defense.  It helped to win the field position battle too: Washington averaged starting at their own 16-yard line.

Let's evaluate the play of the 3 levels of the defense.
1. The defensive line did not get much of a pass rush (only 1 sack), but they did prevent Locker from doing much of anything on designed runs or scrambling on designed passes.  Perhaps making a concerted efforted to contain Locker was the reason for the lack of pass rush.  They did control the line of scrimmage, especially in third and short situations.  However, they didn't make plays behind the line of scrimmage and they didn't do a very good job against the running backs, who averaged about 7 yards/carry.
2. The linebackers were very active.  It helped that they were fresh with constant substitutions at middle linebacker.  The interesting pattern for me was to see Kyle Van Noy come in on passing situations as they went with a 2 DL, 5 LB look.  He never got to the QB or made a play in pass coverage, but it was a nice wrinkle to see from a typically vanilla defense.  Pendleton contained Locker on that pivotal 3rd down play with 2 minutes left and forced him to throw on the run into coverage.  He also got in Locker's face a few other times.  He is an animal when he blitzes and his pass coverage in the flat is superb.
3. The DBs stepped up when they needed to.  They did very well against 3-step drops.  But that 5-step drop, 15-yard dig and post play was open most of the night.  However, they only missed two tackles that I recall, one by Brian Logan on a pass play to Kearse in the flat, and the other by Steven Thomas on a running play by Polk.  On a side note, both plays were cleaned up Jordan Pendleton.  Brian Logan needs to stop celebrating after every pass breakup, especially because half of the time the receiver just drops it...he did make THE stop in the end zone with 2 minutes left, so I'll give him props for that.  One of these days, probably in an MWC game, he's going to draw a flag (and rightfully so: knock it off).  Brandon Bradley got hurt (I never read anything about the extent of the injury) and Corby Eason played a significant amount of time, but was never tested.  Steven Thomas did well in his first game as the QB of the defense.  Twice I saw him correct senior LB Shane Hunter in his positioning.  That takes confidence to tell a starting MLB he's in the wrong place!

The main areas of concern were the pass rush, the 5-step drop plays, and making plays behind the line of scrimmage.  I don't see those impacting next week's game against option-based Air Force though.  BYU typically improves dramatically from Week One to Week Two, so we should see an even better BYU team next week, provided they don't get complacent and/or overconfident.

I will go back and watch the game with my wife later today and let you know if I saw anything different or new.  She learned why BYU went independent this weekend: she was 1 mile from the stadium with someone who has cable, and could only listen to the game on the radio...

What was your take on the game?  Better than expected?  Worse?  The same?  What groups did you think exceeded expectations?  Which ones will need to improve the most?