Instanalysis – Game 2

FINAL SCORE: BYU 41 – Texas 7

 

Tale of two halves…

 

First half: BYU 6 – Texas 0

 

Second half: BYU 35 – Texas 7

 

 

 

1st Half:

 

From opening kickoff, Texas was error-prone and sloppy. The game started with Jason Hall’s personal foul that negated Marcus Johnson’s return. Throw in another another penalty (chop block) and then the 43 yard miss from Justin Rose and the first quarter was dominated by mental mistakes and missed opportunities.

 

 

 

It didn’t improve in the 2nd quarter where the Texas offense had a dropped pass, a false start, and a fumble on consecutive plays.

 

 

 

Fumbles by both Harris & Gray continue sloppiness but the defense bailed Gray out.

 

 

 

Speaking of bailouts, BYU drove the whole field and Quandre Diggs saved the team with a fantastic interception.

 

 

 

Marcus Hutchins struggled throughout the half. In particular, a holding call that was followed by a 3rd down sack, killed any prospect of the offense finding a rhythm.

 

 

 

Time of Possession was a key indicator of where this game was headed. In the 2nd quarter, BYU had the football for 11:09 of 15:00 minutes.

 

 

 

Despite all those challenges, the Longhorn defense kept the team in the game in the half with 6 TFL’s, 4 sacks & 1 INT.

 

 

 

If fans wanted to pin the offense’s limitations in the first half, the offensive line was a much bigger culprit than Tyrone Swoopes.

 

 

 

In searching for something effective, the playcalling in the first half was erratic. Swoopes had 15 pass attempts, while Brown and Gray combined for only 13 carries.

 

 

 

2nd Half

 

Paul Lasike (33) at RB for BYU did an outstanding job of lead blocking when Taysom Hill and the Cougar offense ran outside.

 

 

 

Taysom Hill’s hurdle for a touchdown to open the 2nd half capped a 9 play, 75 yard drive that was reminiscent of the 2013 game. It wouldn’t be the only time fans were reminded of that game.

 

 

 

With pressure mounting, Swoopes avoided a sack but failed to throw it away (instead, he ran out of bounds) – it was moments like that one that showed his lack of game experience.

 

 

 

Marcus Johnson’s drop of an easy catch served as final notice that the Horns were completely out of synch in first 5 minutes of the third quarter.

 

 

 

BYU gained 120 yards with ease on their first two drives of 2nd half, matching 2/3 of their total for the entire first half. Those 2 drives established a 20-0 lead for the Cougars and snuffed out any remaining fire or passion from Horns. At that point, the game became 2013 all over again.

 

 

 

BYU physically manhandled Texas in the 3rd quarter. That was the biggest surprise of the night.

 

 

 

Continuing their pattern of not maintaining possession of the ball, the Texas offense went three & out on their 2nd drive of the 3rd quarter. The Horns attempted a deep throw on 3rd down and it wasn’t even close.

 

 

 

Another quick BYU TD followed by a fumbled KR by Marcus Johnson and the boatrace was on.

 

 

 

With the game decided, the Texas offense finally found some rhythm, capped by a nice catch and run by John Harris for a TD.

 

 

 

Two takeaways

 

Lost in the mess…Tyrone Swoopes was plenty good enough to win the game.

 

 

 

Without watching tape, the Texas OL did not block the 2nd level of BYU’s defense at all. There were always Cougar LB’s free to flow to ball.

 

 

 

Notable Stat’s

 

Time of possession: BYU 34:13, Texas 25:47

 

 

 

BYU converted 50% (7/14) on third down and was 6/6 on red zone trips

 

 

 

Points off turnovers: BYU – 17, Texas – 0

 

 

 

Texas was held to 82 yards rushing on 35 attemps (2.3 ypc)

 

 

 

BYU gained 5.0 yards per play

 

 

 

The Longhorn defense had 6 sacks

 

 

 

Choice Quotes

 

Charlie Strong, “It’s an embarrassment. It’s an embarrassment to this program. It’s an embarrassment to this university….and I knew it, and I didn’t do anything about it. And I take responsibility and all the blame for the loss. I knew during warmups we weren’t ready to play.”

 

 

 

Malcom Brown, “We were after them the whole game, but the second half they started finding those gaps and they were hitting them hard.”

 

 

 

John Harris, “It hurts a lot. It almost feels like we went back to Utah and lost that game again.”

 

 

 

Desmond Jackson, “We have Pat Moorer as a strength and conditioning coach. I don’t think fatigue was a big issue.”

 

 

 

Tyrone Swoopes, “No question it makes it difficult when you can’t run the ball.”

 

 

 

Bronco Mendenhall, “There were three adjustments once it became clear what Texas’ plan was – once it became clear what that was going to be, we had been working all offseason on some of those adjustments and we put those in place and they worked really well.”

 

 

 

Taysom Hill, “Honestly in my mind, and I felt the vibes from the team that it was just a matter of time. A lot of that was our defense was playing so well that had great field position and it allowed us offensively, we had momentum and their defense was on their heels.”