Shanked Punt – Fumble – Interception – Fumble (Montezuma's revenge) – Game Winning TD: That sequence of plays decided the outcome of the game.
Quick Thoughts:
1. Jake Heaps looked incredible at times, and great most of the game. He outplayed both Utah QB’s.
2. The "drops" came back to haunt BYU (i.e. Luke Ashworth).
3. 4th and 1…the decision to go for it instead of going up 9 – 0 haunted BYU the rest of the game. What is the down side of going up 9 – 0? That was a bad decision and it influenced the outcome of the game. Coaches have to take some major blame for that. Also, the call on that play, play action pass, was sketchy. If you are going to be that aggressive then…then why not…
4. Final series…3 minutes left to start the series and BYU runs two straight running plays, what? They finally throw on third down and get that first first down. After that Heaps was rolling, until…1st down at the 25 and BYU decides they no longer trust Heaps to get the ball a bit closer and from that point, BYU actually loses yardage. +40 yard field goals are not easy for anyone. BYU decided that a +40 yard field goal was a better option than trusting Heaps to get them a bit closer or into the endzone.
5. Brandon Bradley's knee is still down.
So this season ends up being just….blah. BYU beat one good team the entire season, but "found" themselves along the way, and in that, they are left with hope for next season. A lot of fans wanted Heaps to start the season and were willing to put up with whatever came their way to see if Heaps had what it took and to lay a foundation for the future. That’s basically what they got and they can live with that.
If there’s any bitter taste left in BYU fan's collective mouth from this past season it’s from the indefensible decision to play two QB’s, the defense not giving the offense a chance to win during the first half of the season and the ugly loss to Utah State. The good news is Bronco recognized his mistakes and turned it around.
Half-way through this season a close game against Utah would have seemed impossible and now we’re left bemoaning a game we easily could have won. We’ve definitely increased our expectations for this team…and that’s what makes this loss so painful. A victory at Utah would have been the soothing balm needed to heal a wounded season.