Prospective is a theme for me this year and as a BYU fan mine is skewed in that direction but I still want to review the Utah St. game. The newspapers (mainly the tribune in Salt Lake) are saying that Utah St. COMPLETELY dominated this game and collapsed at the end. Really? Come on Utah reporters, sure Utah St. built an 11 point lead in the forth quarter but aside from a 80 yard run on the first play Utah St. hardly dominated. The game seemed back and forth to me. BYU had more yards, more first downs, and held the ball longer. Utah St. had a couple of big plays, big plays do not win games, but being able to consistently move the ball which Utah St. did not do for most of the night (BYU did not either until Riley came in).
For me this game is a perfect example of how close BYU is to putting it all together. If BYU finishes drives for touchdowns instead of field goals it is likely the game is not close. Second, how did Utah St. collapse? It is not like they had stopped a Riley led drive, only we did that on a fumble and missed field goal. They did not turn the ball over, they got out played by BYU, BYU went out and won this game. Finally, I heard that Utah St. would have won had their player not been ejected. Really? Um, do those that are saying that realize that the man that caused the fumble was his replacement? Maybe that does not happen and BYU does not have to win in the last seconds. Lets be honest, BYU played a great game defensively, for the most part and made big plays when it had to like on Utah St. drive after the fumble, and as soon as Riley came in Utah St. had no answer. Can I just say it is wonderful to see a guy who likely wanted to play in this game more than anyone, come through and play well. Riley did something Heaps may never do, rise to the occasion, in a tough spot and succeed. Wow another Provo temple (sorry watching conference).
I've learned through the years that some people are bound and determined to find a negative spin on something they don't like. A few years back it was that we hurt Bradford (who had done nothing until that point and who got hurt on a clean tackle. What a concept!) In '84 and '96, it's because we didn't play anybody (as if every team we played was like, no you go ahead and win). Especially the SL Trib is determined to find a way to make BYU look bad and dumb, even if we do exactly what they say we should do.
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