Football: Highs, Lows and I Don't Knows - 10/11

Talking any more about that game last Friday is something I don't think I'm alone in dreading. But part of moving forward is getting better on where we were previously lacking, and hopefully keeping up what we've been great at.

So let's just get into it, and please excuse the inordinate amount of Lows this week, but really they're kind of relevant.

THE HIGHS

Linebackers - Kyler Fackrell was the WAC's Defensive Player of the Week, which speaks for itself, as if his 10 tackles and interception weren't enough. Zach Vigil added 10 tackles too. Jake Doughty, Bojay Filimoeatu and Tavaris McMillian all were solid too, reaffirming what we already knew about this unit.

Safeties - McKade Brady finally got a fair crack at BYU this year and finished with a game-high 14 tackles. Brian Suite racked up nine stops of his own, again, reaffirming what we already knew about this unit.

THE LOWS

The defensive line - I doubt I'm alone in hoping that the USU defensive line takes last Friday personal. The only place to go from that game is up. Aside from not really getting any push all game, USU didn't register a single tackle for loss on Friday. And that was against a BYU offensive line that has been pounded by injuries this year.

Dropped passes - Too damn many of them... I hate to single a guy out, but Chuck Jacobs has got to get the routine down of catching THEN running. He's going to cause tons of problems for opposing teams when he has the ball in the open field, but it seems like he's trying to look upfield before he's secured the ball. Rough game for everyone though, not just Jacobs.

Matt Wells - Maybe I was overly ambitious in the whole idea of Wells bringing the best of both worlds of what Dave Baldwin did well, while patching Baldwin's holes. Wells has still been good at keeping most games out of reach from other teams. Every team in the country is going to struggle scoring at Wisconsin or at BYU like the Aggies did, but we shouldn't have struggled THAT bad. Hopefully this is just part of the learning curve for him taking over a whole offense for the first time this year.

Second half turnovers - This shit has got to stop... Another turnover on the first possession of the third quarter, and a really costly interception on the Cam Webb pass. That kind of stuff will take USU right out of almost any tough game. Some serious refocusing needs to be done there.

THE I DON'T KNOWS

Chuckie under pressure - It's sometimes easy to forget that only now does Keeton have a whole season's worth of games under his belt after missing half of last year. Still, like at Wisconsin, Keeton was all over the place with a lot of throws against BYU. Obviously it's not easy out there, especially against such tough defenses who are good at pressuring quarterbacks. Still, the team needs a few more of these passes under pressure to be completions rather than balls that the receivers can barely adjust to, if at all. Still young though, and he should continue to improve.

The running game - I mean... What happened? I expected BYU to hold USU to maybe only 80 yards or so on the ground. Held to 41 though?? Something like that kind of has to fall on the whole offense, and really is maybe the most head-scratching thing about Matt Wells' calling. Was there really no hole in that defense that we could have exploited for a few more yards on the ground?