Asleep At The Wheel

It has been said everything is bigger and better in the state of Texas. Much like the movie "The Fast And The Furious" so were the TCU horned frogs. You can teach fundamentals but you can't teach speed. The Cougars experienced those things first hand in an absolute thrashing 32-7 at the hands of TCU. No matter where the Cougs turned there were purple jerseys to the right and to the left. It was like BYU was asleep at the wheel. TCU pressed hard, they pressed fast and they were furious. The frogs were relentless continually coming from all directions. The purple jerseys scored on their first three drives (twice after turnovers)and never let up on the throttle. There's no way around it. It was just plain ugly. With the loss to TCU is decimates any cougar BCS dreams whatsoever and ends a 16 game win streak. In fact, BYU may not even win the conference now. It was the worst loss since the 2005 Irish smack down at the hands of Notre Dame (49-23) in South Bend.

In the center of all the mayhem for the Cougs performance was Max Hall. Of which he said "The bottom line is they were strong and they forced me into some bad situations.....anytime you lose a game like that its tough and I take a lot of responsibility for this game". It was definately not Hall's "max"-imum performance. BYU had 4 turnovers all of which went through Max's hands at one point or another (2 INTs and 2 sacks resulting in fumbles). On the season it was also Halls worst QB rating (97.6) thus far. One can't completely place the blame on Hall shoulders. In the contest the OL allowed an obscene amount of 6 sacks. It was like the TCU gift that kept on giving. Had heard there were a number of pro scouts present taking notes. That's not exactly a way to make a great impression. Anytime a team has 4 TOs and 6 sacks there's no question it will always be an extreme uphill battle. Credit the frogs for their dominating smothering performance. Former high school QB Jeremy Kerley mentioned "You want to come with a surprise against a team like that. We were more explosive, caught them off guard". That's exactly what was accomplished. Much of the night it seemed the jerseys in blue were like deer in headlights. According to TCU coach Gary Patterson "Nobody has been able to do that to BYU for a couple of years". The purple jerseys were even able to hold the Cougs to 23 rushing yards total.

Of the Cougar big guns Unga had 4 catches out of the backfield for 40 yards with 14 carries for 53 yards (WELL under his average) Collie continued making magic eluding his defenders with his 5th consecutive 100 yard receiving game (116 to be exact). Pitta added 8 more catches for 84 yards. TCU rushed for an insane 240 yards and the purple jerseys even made Andy Dalton look like a efficient stellar QB (2 TDs 0 INTs throwing 12 of 19 for 170 yards) abusing Brandon Howard the entire night.

Before the dust even begins to settle the jerseys in blue must go back to the drawing board, take inventory, learn from the past and start preparing for the future when UNLV when heads into town on the 25th. Even though the BCS hopes might be dashed the season certainly isn't over. With 5 games on the schedule and 1 bowl game there is plenty of football left to be played. The days might seem dark to us now but what lies in the future is still definately bright.