Say what you want about us being favored, BYU being a "mid-major", or whatever, their defense was huge, mean and #90 is an animal. They stacked the box big time and it is obvious the plan was to take away the run at all costs. People worried we abandoned the run for a "west coast offense" have to think about Langsdorf was taking what they gave us. Our linemen were outnumbered in the trenches and I think the staff did a decent job of calling around it.
Whoever said Kondolo had a bad game was wrong in my opinion. There was a sweep where he looked inside and a LB or safety blew by his outside and made the play on Wilbon from the back side. Kondolo was standing there lost with no one to block and was like "oh oh". But that was the only gaff I saw on him. The right side seemed to do a good job. The left side had issues. Utter got owned a few times on pass pro. Besides the usual false start and holding, Lewis' man blew by him untouched on the play Armstrong threw the sidearm intentional grounding late in the half. On a designed sweep by TA Lewis didn't get on the DT's outside to turn him in and blocked him right into the hole to blow up the play. Reeves had a lot of off snaps. The fumble was caused (in my opinion) by a low snap to the left, which was where Wilbon was coming from. TA was having trouble securing the ball, then Wilbon was right there. Hard to put the fumble on TA. The single most disturbing thing about this staff is not rotating the OL. Lewis should have sat a series after the false start and Thurston should have gotten a shot. Not to mention them playing all the snaps in the heat.
TA did not appear to "go back to bad habits" in the second quarter. He missed wide open receivers because he had people in his face. It appears an adjustment was made to keep the back in to block, which helped later in the game. He was throwing off his back foot again, but got the ball there most of the time.
Wilbon should start next week. I saw a time or two where a hole was there for a short time and Newby's hesitation caused the hole to collapse before he got through. Wilbon seemed to hit what was there faster.
Receivers did a good job and caught some balls that we dropped last year.
Not only should the hit on Sutton have been flagged, but it should have been reviewed and the corner ejected. It was an attempt to injure and he went in head first. I have seen players get ejected for a lot less. There was an illegal formation with 5 in the backfield. I chalked that up to growing pains and Riley was jawing Langsdorf about it on the sideline. I think the hands to face was a blunder on the official. Maurice didn't touch the OL's face. The OL was shoving 55's head back the whole play. The ref called hands to face on the offense #55, then changed it to defense. I really think he screwed up. The late hit on Williams was a shove and a rookie mistake. Williams was jawing a lot and needs to ramp that down and play the game. Other than the hit on Sutton, I considered BYU to be tough, but not dirty as some have suggested.
I thought the LBs played pretty well. Young is a stud and Gifford held up his end. I disagree that Gifford didn't do well. It would be hard to ask more from 2/3 guys playing their first games.
Hard to get a read on the DL since BYU's OL was old, experienced and big. While there was no pass rush, Hill was mostly stopped from running ala Texas, so kudos to lane control. Gangwish could have had a couple sacks, but had bad angles. That happens with a QB like Hill. I guess I would give them a C or B-, noting great, nothing too bad.
We all saw what we saw with the secondary. I wonder if Kalu was not feeling well or nicked. He just seemed to be a step slow, or hesitant for some reason. Cockrell seemed a step slow too. BYU confused us some by their schemes of overloading an area and sending the receivers out by crossing each other and stuff like that. Hopefully we will get better with those kind of patterns when the secondary gets more comfortable playing together.
Brown's PATs looked OK, I think one hooked. If NU can't make crunch FGs, the staff needs to rethink who is kicking. Both attempts were from the hash, so Langsdorf could have done Brown a favor there, but still. I consider the second missed FG (due to failure to make the first down) to be the key to the game, not the Hail Mary.
I'm not ready to throw Banker under the bus yet. A senior QB and huge receivers with years in their system passed us silly, but the defense held BYU enough to win.
Looking at it a couple days later with less emotion there were some good intangibles. It was mind-blowing nearing the half and end of game with timeouts left (which may not have been a good thing at the end of the game). It was nice seeing the D get set and go. The huddle seemed to work well. The general "feel" seemed to be that of organized football without panic when we were down. I think Langsdorf needs to go back to the box. Riley looked shell-shocked after the game. Welcome to Nebraska, the highs are higher, but the lows are lower.
All in all, after watching the tape with my slo-mo clicker, I feel better. Taking care of business handily next week and a decent win at Miami will get us back on track.
