Same Old Cougars

It was supposed to be different this year. The offense was returning 7 starters, including Mountain West Offensive MVP, John Beck and 1000 yard rusher Curtis Brown. They had depth at running back, and arguably two of the best tight ends in the country. The defense was adjusting to make use of the talent at linebacker, and to give more help to the weak secondary. All of this was supposed to make this BYU’s year. Now it still may be, and these factors may pan out, but in the first game of the season against University of Arizona, BYU lost the same way it has been losing for the last 4 years. Turnovers and penalties.
BYU started with a good looking pass to tight end Johnny Harline, good for 11 yards before he was stripped of the ball and Arizona recovered the fumble. The defense remarkable held and looked pretty good, and Arizona came away with only a field goal. Simply rust, that was the explanation. BYU’s offense would look better on the next drive. But the game didn’t go the way it was supposed to. BYU couldn’t establish a running game, so the pressure was on John Beck to win the game, something that Beck hasn’t been great at as a starter. He performed well enough passing for nearly 300 yards, but only 1 touchdown. Beck didn’t throw any interceptions, but was forced to fumble the ball late in the game, stopping another BYU drive.
Other drives by BYU were stopped by foolish penalties, such as offensive pass interference, holding calls, and many false starts. The discipline that BYU was supposed to get, wasn’t there. They had 10 penalties for 76 yards, and many of those were costly drive stopping penalties. One took away a touchdown. Another took away an interception, and all hurt their field position.
The defense played much better than expected, holding Arizona to one touchdown and 3 field goals. Cameron Jensen was credited with one interception, because his first was taken away by a defensive holding call.
Maybe they will turn the season around, and maybe they can win the Mountain West, but if the Cougars continue to play like this, with too many penalties and turnovers, this season doesn’t look to much different than any of the last 4.