If I were to script an inauspicious start for BYU this game, it might go something like this:
Penalty on the opening kickoff.
Sack and fumble on the opening snap.
Tackle for loss (Trying to run the option. Again. Because we had so much success with the option last week).
Riley Nelson scrambles for a useless gain on third and long instead of running a pass play.
Inauspicious.
Memo to Brandon Doman: the reason that it is predictable for offenses to run a long pass play on third and long is that everyone knows it gives you the best chance to stay on the field. Sure, you can try to surprise them by running a quarterback draw. Do you know what would surprise them even more? Taking a knee. Spiking the football. Running the quarterback around like a chicken with its head cut off. Actually, Doman seems to call that last one with a surprising degree of regularity.
Maybe we got the B team for announcers this game. Hoffman didn't miss the catch because the defender disrupted his route and threw of the timing of the play. If that had been the reason, the throw would have been out in front of Hoffman instead of over his head. Surely Nelson didn't think that Hoffman would suddenly be six inches taller. If the defender had managed to disrupt Hoffman's height, that would be something to write home about. Precision timing routes aren't exactly Riley Nelson's forte. Hoffman missed the catch because Nelson threw it over his head, not in front of him.
Nice to see Ross Apo get a touch, even if it goes for naught. Officials might have missed that call.
One of the announcers (I can't quite tell them apart) just called Chris Peterson crazy for faking a punt inside his own 20. First of all, Chris Petersen eats crazy for breakfast. It's why he's managed to create a perennial football powerhouse in Boise, Idaho. Second, given BYU's offense production so far in this game, and their abysmal kicking performance last week, it looks more like a fairly reasonable calculated risk to me.
Fairly reasonably calculated risk pays off for Petersen. INT. "Grotesquely underthrown." Great description. I take back the B team crack. For now.
This is not a political post, but have to get in on this Obama commercial. They tell us straight up: " In 2008, 4.4 million jobs lost. Under Obama, 4.6 million jobs have been created." Leaving aside the underlying policy debates, a net gain of .2 million jobs over four years is not exactly a flashy number. May want to rethink the presentation on that one.
More personal fouls. Keep your eyes on the player you're going to tackle. If the ball is already gone, decide not to kill the receiver.
Boise State burns a time out to avoid a substitution foul. On third and seventeen, maybe just take the foul and conserve the time out. If you can call up a play for seventeen yards, you can call one up for twenty two.
Going for it again on fourth. Either Petersen hates his special teams, or he's been reading a little too much of Gregg Easterbrook.
Or, again, he's just seen BYU pretend to play offense. Another turnover. That's how you bounce back from a gut wrenching loss. Give the ball to the other team as many times as possible so that your eventual comeback is that much more dramatic.
Seriously, what did Petersen's kicker do to merit this exile to the bench? Impiety and Corrupting the Youth of Boise? Selling [Boise] State secrets to the communists? Suggesting a nice natural green for the playing field (Although my understanding is that, in Boise, this actually constitutes heresy and is punished by burning at a giant potato in the shape of a wooden stake. So maybe the kicker is getting off easy).
The Big Question going into halftime: Are the defenses that good, or are the offenses really this inept?
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