Choke Artists: Gaggies of USU @ BYU Game Thread

[smokymountainrain]

I am pretty laid back, so I am really never on the "fire this coach!!!" bandwagon. And I am still not. But I do know that I generally hate watching us play defense.

agree 100%. i'm not going to get into whether tuiaki is good, bad or should be fired. i do think there is a serious talent issue on defense and the bucks stops with Kalani there. but what i do know with every fiber of my being is i hate watching the defense play football. i had to record the game last night as it was my daughter's birthday - i wasn't able to start watching until the game would have been in the third quarter. it got to the point where i just started fast forwarding all the defensive possessions because it made me sick to watch them.

[USUC]

I guess Fesi was chirping at a journalist on twitter for questioning some of the offensive scheme. That's some thin skin.

[smokymountainrain]

I guess Fesi was chirping at a journalist on twitter for questioning some of the offensive scheme. That's some thin skin.

i'm a fan of fesi, the coach - imo, he is the brightest coach on the team. but fesi the person does have thin skin and would do well to avoid social media at times.

[originalsocal]

I might be wrong, but it feels like there is something wrong with this team as a cohesive unit. We believed, then we got a big head, lose badly to Oregon, Holker quits, players start spouting about coaches, and coaches get thin skinned. The issue could be that the coaches have lost the players. Can happen on good teams.

Kalani has a challenge on his hands imho.

[HBCoug]

Agree with the "cute" comments on offense. The play calling reminded me of HOF manager and CUF baseball legend, Tony LaRussa and his knack for being unconventional for the sake of not being conventional. 2nd and 1 after a USU score? ... let's go deep instead of moving the chains so that the defense can rest up a bit. 3rd and 9? Let's run Chris Brooks off a draw. 3rd and long again? Drag route to Gunner! The first half was textbook overthinking and the concern is that we saw similar things up in Autzen.

We are lucky to have Jaren Hall and a stable of very capable WRs who should continue to produce for years to come. The fact that Epps and Hill may be our #4 and #5 receivers behind Puka, Gunner, and Roberts is extremely "unconventional" at BYU. My one beef with Jaren remains decision making once the pocket collapses at times. I know that's really grasping at straws considering how nearly flawless he has been, but he seems to trust that he can get out of almost any situation with his feet, and he just doesn't seem as quick as he was pre injury. You can't take a coverage sack on 2nd and 1 and you can't be so quick to check down on 3rd and longs. But the kid rarely ever makes bad reads and has a cannon for an arm. Watching him and the Zach Attack, back-to-back! has been a real treat for Cougarinos.

Last and definitely least, the defense. Maybe I need to call out the D-line more often before big games because I don't know how else to explain the Baylor anomaly. The lack of talent here is well documented. As one with pioneer stock in my family, it's not that I'm unthankful for the missionary efforts of the early Saints in Sweden and Norway and bringing all the "sens" and "sons" to the land of promise, but I'm good if those guys want to focus more on ministering and less on getting shoved around by a team that got shoved around by Weber St. Our linebackers not named "Tooley" need to be much better as well if we're going to simply occupy blocks on the D-line and allow them (LBs) to make plays. Throw in the fact that our starting "strong" safety prefers to Tango dance with the QB on our 5 yard line in place of making a solo tackle, and you have a recipe for an awful run defense. It's both a talent and a scheme issue. I can't imagine what that opening USU drive would have looked like if the QB had been CSU's Sunshine instead of Cooper Legas. They might still be trying to unearth Hannemann from the turf.

[Bo Diddley]

Agree with the "cute" comments on offense. The play calling reminded me of HOF manager and CUF baseball legend, Tony LaRussa and his knack for being unconventional for the sake of not being conventional. 2nd and 1 after a USU score? ... let's go deep instead of moving the chains so that the defense can rest up a bit. 3rd and 9? Let's run Chris Brooks off a draw. 3rd and long again? Drag route to Gunner! The first half was textbook overthinking and the concern is that we saw similar things up in Autzen.

We are lucky to have Jaren Hall and a stable of very capable WRs who should continue to produce for years to come. The fact that Epps and Hill may be our #4 and #5 receivers behind Puka, Gunner, and Roberts is extremely "unconventional" at BYU. My one beef with Jaren remains decision making once the pocket collapses at times. I know that's really grasping at straws considering how nearly flawless he has been, but he seems to trust that he can get out of almost any situation with his feet, and he just doesn't seem as quick as he was pre injury. You can't take a coverage sack on 2nd and 1 and you can't be so quick to check down on 3rd and longs. But the kid rarely ever makes bad reads and has a cannon for an arm. Watching him and the Zach Attack, back-to-back! has been a real treat for Cougarinos.

Last and definitely least, the defense. Maybe I need to call out the D-line more often before big games because I don't know how else to explain the Baylor anomaly. The lack of talent here is well documented. As one with pioneer stock in my family, it's not that I'm unthankful for the missionary efforts of the early Saints in Sweden and Norway and bringing all the "sens" and "sons" to the land of promise, but I'm good if those guys want to focus more on ministering and less on getting shoved around by a team that got shoved around by Weber St. Our linebackers not named "Tooley" need to be much better as well if we're going to simply occupy blocks on the D-line and allow them (LBs) to make plays. Throw in the fact that our starting "strong" safety prefers to Tango dance with the QB on our 5 yard line in place of making a solo tackle, and you have a recipe for an awful run defense. It's both a talent and a scheme issue. I can't imagine what that opening USU drive would have looked like if the QB had been CSU's Sunshine instead of Cooper Legas. They might still be trying to unearth Hannemann from the turf.

Agreed. And that can be a vicious cycle as they both feed into each other.

[Uncle Ted]

So that ref at the game last night... Y'all think he is on the juice?

Embedded Tweet

[BigPiney]

My thoughts from last night.

Glad I recorded it so I didn't have to suffer in real time.

Epps was awesome. Great game. All the receivers are doing great.

That pick play behind the line of scrimmage is nasty.

Hall is really good, but when the pocket collapses he seems to panic. Still I think he is a better all round qb than zach was. I know that seems crazy.

The targeting penalties were dumb. Hate those.

the run defense is still really shitty

It was awesome to force some turnovers.

the offsides by the d-lineman 3 feet from the ball. Those are so frustrating.

Hanneman is terrible. So bad

No more Oldroyd. I called for him to be benched and I wasn't wrong 3 weeks ago.

I still haven't forgiven Katoa for losing the Boise game last year and he tried to give it away again last night. Terrible with ball security.

Special teams are well, "special". Did have one good return on a kick-off. So C- for the day.

I think the o-line is seriously overrated. Their run blocking is suspect.

Happy with the win. Hope the coaches have a good game plan for notre dame that is not the same as the last 3 games.

[All-American]

I’m looking forward to not playing these guys any more. We either skunk them or we are pissed for not blowing them away.

[myboynoah]

My thoughts from last night.

Glad I recorded it so I didn't have to suffer in real time.

Epps was awesome. Great game. All the receivers are doing great.

That pick play behind the line of scrimmage is nasty.

Hall is really good, but when the pocket collapses he seems to panic. Still I think he is a better all round qb than zach was. I know that seems crazy.

The targeting penalties were dumb. Hate those.

the run defense is still really shitty

It was awesome to force some turnovers.

the offsides by the d-lineman 3 feet from the ball. Those are so frustrating.

Hanneman is terrible. So bad

No more Oldroyd. I called for him to be benched and I wasn't wrong 3 weeks ago.

I still haven't forgiven Katoa for losing the Boise game last year and he tried to give it away again last night. Terrible with ball security.

Special teams are well, "special". Did have one good return on a kick-off. So C- for the day.

I think the o-line is seriously overrated. Their run blocking is suspect.

Happy with the win. Hope the coaches have a good game plan for notre dame that is not the same as the last 3 games.

Yep.

My frustration is ebbing. Very happy with the win.

[grapevine]

Unless Logan Bonner gets a medical redshirt his Aggie career is over. I had front row seats behind usu bench last year. Was going to be BYU but they traded sidelines.

Kicking for points is rare in eight man football. We were throttling our next door neighbor so kid tried a kick for Ted. I made comment D pa announcer wonder if the BYU special teams coach will look at him.

[Green Monstah]

Run blocking was not as good as advertised last year, but Allgeier’s penchant for breaking tackles covered many sins.