Week Three Review: Mountain West Enjoys Best Week in Its History

This week was possibly the best overall performance of the MWC in its 10-year history. The league went 4-0 against Pac-10 schools and 7-1 overall, which included an amazing upset of UNLV over No. 13-ranked Arizona State in Tempe. Then there was BYU, who gave UCLA its worst beatdown in 80 years.

 

31    14

TCU won again and did it convincingly by defeating Stanford with defense and their rushing game. TCU star tailback Aaron Brown did not suit up again because of university issues, but the Horned Frogs did not need him. TCU ended up with 233 yards on the ground and had four touchdowns, all while controlling the clock 39 minutes to 21 minutes.

Stanford did not help their cause by giving up the ball three times and only managing 193 yards of total offense. Stanford did play very well in a first half that featured a score of 14-14, with Stanford blanking TCU 14-0 in the second quarter.

In the second half, the TCU defense stepped it up with key interceptions that stalled any Cardinal drives. Plus they held Stanford to 2-12 on third down attempts.

TCU looks real good right now as they are now 3-0, all without their best offensive player in Aaron Brown.  They are just votes away from being in the top 25, so BYU and Utah better watch out for under the radar TCU.

 

16   13

Wyoming really is that bad: They barely escaped FCS North Dakota State.  The Cowboys were saved by running back Devin Moore, who rushed for 145 and a touchdown, and field goal kicker Jake Scott, who kicked three field goals in the game.

Wyoming’s solid defense did a good job in limiting NDSU to 13 points, but they won the game by creating four turnovers and shutting out the Bison for the last 25 minutes of the game.

Wyoming quarterback Dax Crum did not do too much to help his cause to keep the starting job—he went 11 for 17 with only 90 yards. Wyoming was just unable to execute against offensively when it came to passing situations, as the Cowboys went 4-14 and were unable to score touchdowns in this win.

 

59   0

Sure, Rick—good way to start your first road game and suffer the school's worst loss in 80 years.  UCLA was just embarrassed and exposed as a fraud this past week in Provo.  BYU quarterback Max Hall officially entered the Heisman race with seven touchdown passes before he was pulled with just under eight minutes to go—in the THIRD quarter.

BYU just dominated UCLA offensively, and especially important, defensively forced four turnovers and held UCLA to 2-10 on third downs.  This was a statement game for the BYU defense that has struggled at times in this young season.

 

31    28

This game was moved to the SMU stadium in Dallas because Hurricane Ike caused trouble in the Houston area. Air Force ran its usual run-option offense to a near-perfect game. Air Force ran the ball 71 times for 380 yards, and zero completions, which equals passing yards.

Air Force had the game wrapped up early until the Cougars made a furious run to score 21 straight points when down 31-7 to make the game close.

Houston had the opposite game plan: They threw for 362 yards and four touchdowns.  The key to Air Force's win was the two turnovers they forced and that they controlled the ball for 33 minutes to Houston’s 27 minutes, giving the Falcons that edge in the game.  Air Force is now at a surprising 3-0 in what is to be a rebuilding year.

 

36   28

The way the Lobos had been playing, not many people gave them a chance to win this game at home.  The New Mexico defense stepped up and forced five turnovers to stall many Arizona drives.  Willie Tuitama had 324 yards and three touchdowns, but the two picks really hurt the Wildcats.

New Mexico relied heavily on running back Rodney Ferguson, who had his second consecutive 100-yard rushing game.  Ferguson also had an amazing 6.1 yards per carry, which helped keep the time of possession in the Lobos' favor, 33 minutes to 27 minutes.

Every time Arizona would get close, New Mexico would respond with a touchdown to keep the game out of reach.  This could be the springboard that New Mexico needed after falling behind 0-2 before winning this game.

 

58   10

The 108th meeting of this game was not close at all, and this was the 11th straight win for Utah in this series.  The score was a blowout, but Utah did have its problems, especially in the return game.  Utah return men had four muffed punts or kickoffs. 

Utah State did very little on offense, and this game gave Utah the chance to break in new nose tackles in the rotation because of injuries.  The star on the defense was sophomore Paul Kruger, who had four sacks and a fumble recovery in the game. 

On offense, Utah saw their running attack dominate by averaging 4.9 yards per carry, but the Utes were able to see sophomore Eddie Wide rush for 54 yards on seven carries, and that possibly could have earned Wide a few carries a game later on.  This was Wide’s first action at running back this season.

 

35   10

This was the only loss by a Mountain West this weekend, and again SDSU could not get anything done on offense.  So far this season quarterback Ryan Lindley has been the lone bright spot, but he only managed 140 yards passing.

San Diego State just looked awful as they were outgained four to one and only managed seven first downs.  An amazing stat in the game was that the Aztecs only had the ball for just over 19 minutes, which is not enough time to do anything on offense.

Credit San Jose State for running the ball well with Yonus Davis who ran for 143 yards and 7.9 yards per carry.  Then there was Brandon Rutley, who ran for just under 100 but averaged 9.5 yards per carry.  This game was just a very bad performance by the Aztecs, who could nothing done on offense or defense to stop the run.

 

23    20

This was the most surprising game of the day.  UNLV under Mike Sanford had only won two games in each of his last three seasons, and this win equaled that total this year.  The win over a ranked opponent was the first time in five years since UNLV’s last win over a ranked team, which was a 23-5 win at Wisconsin in 2003.

This game was pretty even overall, but the difference was the fourth quarter that saw Rebel Omar Clayton run off 28 plays in the fourth quarter en route to the game-tying touchdown. 

Arizona State might have been looking past UNLV to Georgia coming to town next week, and they did not execute in this game, which should not have been this close.  The game went to overtime when UNLV scored the last 10 points and the tying touchdown with 18 seconds left.

In overtime UNLV scored first with a field goal and then won when Arizona State attempted the same play but was blocked by Malo Taumua.  This win possibly saved Mike Sanford's job for at least one more year.