Bronco's Prophecy

All week long, Bronco said the difference the last few years against TCU was turnovers and special teams. Turnovers I understood, for sure, with Mad Max and Jake Heaps finding wide open TCU cornerbacks with ease the last three years. However, I hadn't thought about special teams...until last night. The special teams absolutely lost us the game (as well as Riley's two awful interceptions. But, we all knew that's how he plays; he'll make some great plays and he'll make some decisions where you wonder how Utah State even wanted him). Riley Stephenson single-handedly decided he did not want to beat TCU. Those snaps weren't great but they should have been caught. The one that was partially blocked was awful protection. The kick returns defense was bad, as well. The only reason I haven't gotten to the point where I say just go for it every fourth down and get rid of our special teams unit all together is both Hoffman and Falslev played well in the return game.

Geoff thinks this is Bronco's fault (he always does). I don't think it's Bronco's fault that our punter doesn't catch snaps, all of a sudden. I'm sure Stephenson gets to punt over and over again in his own practice segments. Gap protection on kick returns might need some tweaks (especially with how fast TCU's returners are). It's also not Bronco's fault that Nelson thinks a pick is better than a two yard loss...or that the number one high school QB recruit is a bust. However, the fake FG early in the first half was weird, mostly because there was no covering of what we were trying to do (we didn't leave the special teams in there or just have the offense stay in) and the clock management by both Bronco and Nelson at the end of the second quarter for that awful FG attempt was bad. We should've just taken the five yard penalty and ran a route that took us down the sideline. Or anything quicker would've been a good decision.

All in all, I thought we looked pretty good other than Special Teams. There always seems to be something against TCU. With exception of last year, they are not this much better than us. They just have our number. But, hey, they had been in the top 10 the last three years and I still think they'll be a Top 20 team by year's end. Could have a worse team to have your number (so, let's not let that be Hawaii).