10-2 Part III

I went to the Holy War yesterday thanks to an awesome friend who bailed me out on a night I was getting kicked out of the house anyways. Courtney was going to kick me out for the night so she could throw a bridal shower for Hilary, and Andrew came over to take me away to Salt Lake where we would brave freezing temperatures and BCS-thirsty Ute students waiting outside for ticket sales to open the next morning. It was a great night at the front of a very, very, long line, full of hijincks and hackey sacks and obnoxious drunk guys yelling at people and breaking the tent Andrew's brother rented. In the end we all came away with tickets to the Holy War, and my anticipation was fulfilled this weekend.
Andrew and Hilary got hitched down in Manti Friday morning, and I saw them again Saturday afternoon when I got to Rice-Eccles stadium. Andrew, his brother Patrick and I painted B-Y-U on our chests, and in the midst of the student section cheered loudly all night long. In the third quarter, Max Hall did something useful and ran into the endzone to cut the Utes' lead to three, 27-24. We were excited, but some Utah fans felt threatened. Some of these plastered students came over to us to give us a hard time, and ended up starting a little scuffle with other Ute fans in the row below us. Security showed up to take the troublemakers away, and all was well, except while they were there Max threw another interception and Utah scored a short time afterwards. The fourth quarter only got worse, and we shivered our chins to our chests in shame, finally leaving when the clock hit 00:00.

We lost; but what an experience! A Holy War in the Utah student section, half naked with paint on my chest and good friends with me--what a night! A lot of people were disappointed with the game, I was, too. But let's face it, Max got rattled and blew the game, it's as simple as that. He's still a good player. We actually outgained Utah in the game and converted both 4th down situations. Before his five interceptions against Utah he had just 7 the entire year. But last night he couldn't handle the heat, and that's that. He had two big wins at the end of last season, but let's look at his performance.

Against Utah in last year's Holy War, Max was 17-40 with an interception and a fumble. This year he was 21-41 with 5 INTs and a fumble. He pulled off one HUGE play on 4th and 18 to make it all count and gain the glory in a game Harvey Unga gained 141 yards rushing on 23 carries. That's a big game for a freshman back. This year? He gets just 15 carries...and amasses 116 yards! That's nearly 8 yards a carry! To take a line from the great Keyshawn Johnson, give him the d*** ball! Our other brother in our Tongan backfield, Fui Vakapuna, gained 36 yards on four touches- 8 yards a carry! Max ran for a career high 42 yards on 7 scrambles. Hey Bronco, RUN THE FREAKIN' BALL!!!!!!! Sure Max fell apart and practically giftwrapped the ball for Utah defenders at times, but more blame needs to be aimed at the Offensive Coordinator, Robert Anae, bless his heart, for calling disproportionately more pass than run plays against a Utah team we've ran well on in the past. Don't get me wrong, Max DID flounder the game with his poor performance, but running on first down would have helped out a few times, too.

The TCU game was a straight up disaster, but Max put up similar stats, 22-42, but only 2 INTs and 6 times sacked. I'm not going to dwell on that game, but the situation was bad there, too. In 2006 we beat a ranked TCU team in their house on our way to the MWC title, destroying their season. And this year they did it to us. Same thing with Utah. In 2006 we came into their house and came back with a drive in the last minute of the game to win on a miracle play while time expired. John Beck’s greatness left some bitter tastes in the mouths of away teams that year, and it came back to get us now.

So Max Hall was exposed as the not-so big game quarterback he actually already was. The defense actually came out to play after the half, too, holding Utah on consecutive drives, but in the fourth quarter, Max just couldn't keep the offense on the field long enough to keep us in the game.

Our third straight 10-2 isn't quite as good as it sounds. Our 9 wins against Div. 1-A teams came against teams with a combined 34-70 record. We lost to teams with a combined 22-2 record. Only one team we beat ended with a record over .500 (Air Force). We played close games against Washington (0-11), UNLV (4-8), and Colorado State (6-6). What's up with that? We got what we deserved. Sure our offense is pretty incredible, but the defense let our opponents in the game nearly every time. We now prepare for an invitation to the Armed Forces Bowl against Houston, Rice or Tulsa of Conference USA. BYU fans will whine and complain about things, but let's face it: we're getting what we played for.