BYU Resilient in Win Over UCF

BYU had every opportunity to give up in this game against UCF like it did last week against Utah.  The offense gave up points early and failed to move the ball consistently.  The defense gave up several big plays and missed a lot of tackles.  Special teams was average for most of the night.  But BYU manned up and gutted out a win.  It wasn't pretty, but it wasn't as ugly as last weekend (and it was good enough to beat at least 4 of its next 8 opponents).  In fact, I was ready for them to throw in the towel after that early third quarter possession where Heaps had two misfires after a fourth down conversion that led to a punt.  But the defense rose up and gave the offense field position, which led to the first rushing TD of the season.

There are still questions about the offense.  The defense has to be tired after 4 consecutive physical contests where they have been on the field a lot due to offensive ineptitude.  But both stepped up and made some crucial plays late in the game.  Special teams obviously turned the game, but the defense kept BYU in the game.  The offense punched it in the end zone when they had to.  It was a team win.

Offense
The offensive line was decent.  The running game resurrected itself, as BYU RBs were fighting for, and getting, extra yards all night long.  BYU had nearly as many rushing yards tonight as they did the previous three games combined.  The running backs had 31 carries for 137 yards, with a lot of those yards earned after contact.  I give a lot of the credit to the RBs finding lanes.  UCF had guys in the backfield to make plays, but the RBs actually made them miss (or Mendenhall cleaned up the play and opened a lane) and gained yardage.  The running game allowed BYU to avoid punting, going three and out (excluding an INT on the third play of a first quarter drive, in which the running game put BYU in 2nd and 5) until the final drive of the game, where BYU was merely attempting to run the clock out.

Jake Heaps is not good right now.  He has a great arm.  He is missing a lot of throws though, taking chances when he doesn't need to, gunning it when he needs to use touch, taking something off when he needs to gun it: he just doesn't have a sense of how to get the job done.  Yes, he was hurt by a half dozen drops tonight, some should have been caught, but most should have been thrown better.  Even with the drops, 3.8 yards/attempt is just nowhere near good enough.  8.3 yards/completion is worse.  Doman put Heaps in a position to succeed again tonight (like he did at Ole Miss), but Heaps failed to answer the call (like he did at Ole Miss).

I think Doman being in the booth helped BYU in two ways.  First, that DiLuigi TD is a playcall that Doman on the field may not make.  The OLBs of UCF were crashing on the FB on the I-Formation runs all night long.  Doman on the field may miss how those guys were leveraging, because it's a very subtle thing to see, but in the booth, it's obvious.  Doman faked to the FB and pitched outside to DiLuigi who scampered 16 yards for the TD.  Second, it helped him figure out how to attack the D in the passing game.  Unfortunately, Heaps missed on Doman's best play call: a play-action (non-out) post that had Jacobson running free towards the end zone.  Heaps still throws the out a lot.  A lot of those out routes came off of audibles (I paid close attention to that tonight).  UCF starting sitting on it.  Heaps eventually loosened it up with short throws over the middle, which Heaps is still very proficient at.  However, Heaps again failed to capitalize on any intermediate throws.  He was atrocious over 10 yards over the middle.  BYU doesn't need that throw to win right now, as long as they can complete short passes over the middle.

Defense
This was the ultimate in bend but don't break defense.  BYU allowed 4 drives of over 60 yards, but only allowed 10 points on those drives.  They only forced 2 three and outs the entire game.  They were on the field a lot, with UCF holding a 4-minute advantage in time of possession.  They gave up some big plays in the passing game.  But they forced three turnovers.  They sacked Godfrey 4 times.  They sent numerous guys to the bench, injured.  Again.  They held UCF to under 2.5 yards/carry, with a mobile QB.  Other than his 2 rushing TDs in the red zone, BYU kept Godfrey bottled up on the ground the entire night.

I've said all along that the BYU corners would be no different than previous seasons, which is to say very, very average.  That has been totally true.  The big difference in the passing game this year is that the safeties can't cover worth a lick.  Well, that and the corners don't come up on screen passes as well as Logan and Bradley did last season.  Even the Linebackers aren't great in coverage either.  But Van Noy can erase a myriad of errors by getting after the QB, getting his hands in passing lanes, and forcing run plays back inside.

Really, everyone on the D had some good plays tonight, excluding the safeties whose only factor in the outcome was that their blown coverages and missed tackles made the game closer than it would have been otherwise.  The defensive line continues to eat up blockers and prevent opposing O-Lines from getting to the second level.  The LBs continue to make plays in space.  The pass defense is very bad though.  Lucky for BYU, they only play two teams the rest of the season with passing attacks that are currently better than their own pathetic one!

Special Teams
For once this unit was special because of good plays and not as a euphemism for handicapped.  The blocking on Hoffman's kick return TD was beautiful, and thanks to UCF for bunching on the same side of the field and leaving only their kicker to block on the left side.  Stephenson finally let fly on a couple of punts, one of which hung in the air so long that it gave the returner plenty of time to make a mental mistake.  It was nice to see some positive excitement in that phase of the game.  It's been a while!

Thoughts
I realize that UCF has a pretty darn good defense.  As did Utah.  As did Texas.  But the problem is that BYU's offense is making the same mistakes.  Doman always blames himself, saying he hasn't prepared them to win.  The guys are in position to make plays.  They are prepared to win.  Heaps just hasn't proven to be a gamer.  He has a steady diet of poor defenses to get it righted before TCU.  He should be able to lead BYU in a more balanced attack against Utah State and San Jose State.

The offense has to gain SOME confidence from their performance tonight (well, everybody but Heaps and couple of WRs).  The yardage total was down, but they converted in the red zone without Apo.  That was big.  Young teams have to learn how to win.  Tonight, they learned how to win (part of that is learning how not to turn the ball over 7 times): defense bending but not breaking, offense being able to run the ball, and special teams not giving up plays while making some too.  There is still a ways to go, but there is still a long season to go.

BYU should be able to hold back Utah State's rushing attack somewhat.  That should give the offense plenty of time to figure it out next week.  8 positions on the offense made progress.  Heaps and the WRs seemed to have taken a step back.  Bad throws, bad reads, dropped balls.  The running game is ready to go.  Those running backs were getting after it tonight, especially Kariya and Mendenhall.  The O-Line was merely average, after several straight mediocre performances (hey, that's still improvement).  Heaps was terrible.  I still haven't seen a WR break a tackle or make someone miss yet this entire season.  They really aren't even doing a good job getting open on anything but out routes, which they must practice to death.  It seems like all they do in the game!

BYU can take confidence from tonight's game along with a lot of lessons too.  But hey, an ugly win is much better than an even uglier loss.  If Heaps doesn't figure it out soon, ugly wins will become the norm for the next month.  Resiliency can provide those outcomes.  I'd much rather see some efficiency.  Tonight, I'll take a resilient win.  It'll take more than resiliency, though, to beat an in-state rival next weekend.