A week ago, the BYU football team was confident. Fresh off a victory over San Diego State on the Aztecs' home turf, the Cougars were certain they finally had things together and could win their remaining two games.
After Saturday's upset loss to Utah, the 5-5 Cougars are back to wondering what's going on. In the postgame locker room, no one offered any explanations. There was some talk of injuries, and bad breaks, and even laxness, but mostly, just discouragement and bewilderment.What was evident in the game, though, was that BYU could have won if it had not self-destructed. Dropped balls, poorly thrown passes and turnovers all combined to take the Cougs out of a game they should have won.
"We shot ourselves in the foot so many times, it was ridiculous," said BYU noseguard Lenny Gomes.
The Cougars' offensive game plan deserves some second-guessing. The BYU staff may have read all those stories about the injury-plagued Ute secondary and determined that they could beat Utah through the air, which would explain why they threw 35 times in the first half and ran just five. And they ran short and medium routes almost exclusively, which had to get even more predictable after awhile.
"I think we could have taken more advantage of their defensive backs than we did," said wide receiver Bryce Doman. "They were not playing us honest. They didn't respect our speed."
Most of BYU's receivers gained well below their usual yards-per-catch Saturday. Doman, for instance, averaged nine yards per catch, four below his average of 13. Micah Matsuzaki, who averages 17.9, averaged 10. Steve Christensen, who averages 20, averaged nine.
Defensively, BYU was beaten by Ute quarterback Mike McCoy, who outplayed John Walsh the way Walsh outplayed SDSU QB Tim Gutierrez the week before. In fairness to Walsh, though, he was under a lot more pressure than McCoy. After playing its best game of the season against the Aztecs, the Cougar pass rush was once again missing in action. Despite frequent blitzes and stunts, it registered just one sack and was given credit for six hurries. On several occasions when they got good penetration, they left an avenue for McCoy to escape and scramble for good yardage.
Several defenders deserve positive mention, however. Safety Cory Cook led the team with 11 tackles, Jack Damuni had two interceptions and seven tackles, and Gomes had nine tackles, caused a fumble and batted down a pass.
Unexplainable letdown aside, the stupefying fact is that BYU is still in a three-way tie for first place in the WAC, the winner of which is going to have two losses for the second year in a row. If BYU can beat UTEP on Saturday in Cougar Stadium - and no game is a lock for this team - it will share the conference title and get a bowl berth, probably to the Holiday or Freedom bowl, depending on the outcome of other games.
"There's all kinds of ifs," said coach LaVell Edwards. "All we have to do is go out and win one."
Lately, though, that's been the biggest if of all.