Riley Nelson (aka Tiny Tim) is the hero of the Armed Forces Bowl, but if not for an outstanding effort by the defense, he never would have had a shot to make such a gutsy, successful call with time winding down. Just looking at the statistics, BYU held Tulsa below its season average in every single category. They gave up one 50-yard play, which they were going to do eventually, that eventually led to a score. They gave up a long TD drive on the initial possession of the game. They allowed three consecutive third and long conversions early in the fourth quarter which led to another Tulsa TD. But beyond that, they were amazingly stout this game.
Field Position
BYU's D forced 5 three-and-outs in the first half. They gave up only 54 yards on 10 of Tulsa's 14 possessions. They continued to win give the offense good field position, including giving the offense the ball on the Tulsa side of the field twice. When Tulsa got the ball in BYU territory, they forced a long field goal attempt after three straight tackles for loss, which Tulsa missed. They stopped Tulsa three-and-out TWICE (on the same possession thanks to a special teams penalty) in the last 8 minutes of the game. What they did to an explosive offense was pretty incredible. BYU's Offense started, on average, at their 32-yard line.
Grounded
Tulsa just simply couldn't get anything going on the ground. They ended up with 37 yards on 27 carries (8 of those yards came on backwards passes in the flat, BYU recorded 5 sacks for -25 yards, so really, it was 54 yards on 20 rushing attempts, which is still phenomenal). Tulsa only had one rushing play over 10 yards. They held Tulsa's leading rusher to half his usual rushing yardage and two yards/carry under his season average. After GJ Kinne made the front seven whiff multiple times on the opening drive, he was not able to get out of their grasp for any significant yardage, he couldn't extend any plays with his feet, and he was running for his life as the pocket continually collapsed around him.
Secondary Not Horrible
Corby Eason got picked on. On three long pass plays with him in coverage, he was 0 for 3, with two long passes completed and one penalty. There were a couple of short throws given up, and would have been several more if Kinne had been more accurate with the ball, but there weren't people running free all over the field as has happened in the past against sophisticated passing attacks. Junior Preston Hadley had two big plays, once tackling Trey Watts in the open field on third down and once coming on a blitz and sacking GJ Kinne to force a third and long. Uale didn't blow any coverages, which showed a lot of improvement. Sorensen had 9 tackles and a pass break-up, and his ability to down two kicks inside the 10-yard line were crucial to the field position battle. With Eason and Uale the only two seniors in the back four, there is a bright future for this group, as bright as there ever is for a BYU secondary.
Defense Wins Championships, Or Bowl Games At Least
The defense could have quit. BYU was down 14-3 and the Cougar offense went three and out. The defense stepped up and forced a Tulsa punt. BYU took the field again and threw an interception, giving Tulsa the ball at midfield. The defense forced a Tulsa punt. In the second half, trailing 14-10, Nelson threw a pick and a big return brought the ball to the BYU 35. Tulsa immediately moved into the red zone. Three straight tackles for loss, including two by Kyle Van Noy, one a sack, BYU's D forced a long field goal attempt, that Tulsa missed (which was the difference in the game). Then again, as I highlighted earlier, trailing 21-17, they forced a three and punt. After a penalty on the punt gave Tulsa a first down, they forced ANOTHER three and punt. Another first down would have doomed the Cougars, who only had one timeout remaining. The D stepped up. Again, Tiny Tim and Cody Hoffman made the game-winning play, but the BYU D won this game for the Cougars.
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