What a weird game

I figure anyone who cares about the Holy War 2008 watched the game, so I won't be rehashing every aspect of the game. Here are three points I'd like to make:

1. I've never seen a more egregious instance of one player losing a game entirely on their own in a team sport. Max Hall was beyond atrocious... I think I could have played better and I have the arm of a 10-year old. Five of the six interceptions were just terrible decisions or bad throws (or both), and he just dropped the ball on his lost fumble. My wife has the theory that Hall somehow developed colorblindness and can no longer distinguish red from green. It wouldn't surprise me, because how many times did Max rear up and throw while a Ute defender was right in his grill? He had at least five or six balls tipped at the line. How else do you explain his interception right before halftime, where he threw the ball directly to a Ute linebacker who was all by his lonesome in the middle of the field? 

2. Robert Anae deserves some of the blame here. With BYU trailing 27-24 in the third, and Hall having already coughed up the ball three times, he should have called more running plays. Fui averaged 9 ypc and Unga over 7 for the game; the Cougar running game completely outmatched the Ute defensive front, and to not take advantage of that when your quarterback is obviously rattled is just dumb. 

3. I'm giving props to Brian Johnson for a nearly perfect line, but to put this in perspective, BYU's secondary and linebackers are horrific this season. Slow, unathletic, and not football-smart. We can welcome BJ to the Hall of Quarterbacks Who Torched the BYU Secondary in 2008. He'll have plenty of company. 

Matty Gibb won the prediction contest with a guessed score of Utah 38, BYU 24. He also predicted Collie would rack up 94 receiving yards, very close to Collie's actual number of 104. His Amazon.com gift certificate is on its way. 

Way too many participants believed BYU's defense could hold Utah to under 30 points, and that hurt them. The funny thing is, without Max giving the Utes short fields for the entire second half, it's possible Utah is held to under 30. Unfortunately, the turnovers practically gave points to the Pirates/Utes/Birds, and with how bad the defense is, the offense can't afford to sabotage them like that.