My thoughts on the game today
 

Some of the things I took away from today's game

1. We didn't have any turnovers. That is always a positive.

2. We beat a decent team and held them to 3 points. Considering the amount of time New Mexico had the ball only giving up 3 points is pretty good.

3. Max Hall made good decisions today. Didn't try to force things and made a few big plays. He continued to play well.

4. It was good to see Micheal Reed and T. Hooks out there again today. IMO Reed is one of the most important players for BYU if they want to win out.

5. Nixon and Clawson made huge plays from the outside backer positions. Those two had a great game today.

Now for the negatives.

1. Not giving Harvey one carry in the 1st quarter is not good. That falls on Anae. I don't think Anae called his best game today.

2. Our longest run was 9 yards by Fui. Our O Line and backs are better than that. As good as they are we should break some bigger runs.

3. Our Middle Backers were horrible today.

4. Missed tackles by the middle backers as well as Howard and Fowler. If our D does want to keep everything in front of them then they need to tackle better. Howard and Fowler were horrible tacklers today.

As the opposing coach in your game once said, "A win is a win and they all count."

My thoughts are pretty simple: If we play like that on Thurs night the winning streak and BCS hopes come to a screeching halt.

When I heard Bronco say on the radio afterwards that the conservative play calling through the 1st one and a half quarters was by design because they didn't want to turn the ball over I wanted punch my car stereo.

Conceding that position to UNM's defense before the ball is even kicked off infuriates me. They are playing the #1 ranked defense in the nation in TCU on Thursday and if we come out with another conservative plan to start the game as opposed to what we'd been doing, we're going too be in big trouble.

All season long we've jumped on opponents early and been aggressive and making a conscicous decision to not be aggressive and just kind of hoping we don't turn the ball over by throwing 3 yard underneath dink and dunks was disconcerting to say the least.

On Thurs the #1 thing I want to see is a return to aggressive play calling and aggression by a pissed off offense and a TD score on the 1st drive. Send an early message.

This isn't the first time we've seen this kind of gameplan from Anae. It'll be interesting to see what he does Thursday. I tend to agree that if BYU plays not to lose or make mistakes, they may just end up making a few critical errors.

Having said that, TCU's offense is going to have to play better than they've played all season to score enough points to beat the Cougars.

Agree on these points. It is nice to see the OLBs getting into the action, but a lot of their sacks and pressures are due to the defensive line requiring double teams and letting those guys run free.

Some thoughts on these points. I was pretty furious that Harvey didn't get a carry at all in the first quarter as well. Of course, when you have the ball for only 4 minutes, it's a bit skewed, but still unacceptable. (touching on a point Rocky made) Bronco mentioned after the game that they felt it was easier trying to throw the ball against New Mexico's defense than run it because it allowed them to spread the field a bit more and see where players were lining up. I'm not sure I agree with that logic, especially since BYU's line is much bigger than New Mexico's; line it up and smash mouth football it. Unga is a big enough guy that he rarely gets brought down by one defender, or at least not by the first hit. Let him grind it out, and it'll open things up down field for Pitta, Collie and Reed.

I think New Mexico had the right game plan to beat the Cougars. I just don't think they had the right talent (see: QB) to execute it well enough.

Hmmm, no mention of the defensive backs.

Howard and Fowler are defensive backs. I only mentioned the way they tackled but if you are pointing out the fact that they were bad yesterday then I am going to agree with you 100%.

Hmmm, no mention of the defensive backs and their pass coverage.

Nothing happened yesterday to disprove the fact that we already knew: our DBs are not that great.

While we did force 2 turnovers, we converted zero points from those turnovers. Not muy bien. And since we were bailed out of a NM by a holding call, the game was much closer than the score indicates.

TCU game will be tough. Really tough.