BYU-Utah: A Little More Regarding the Cougars' Defensive Performance

Photo by Pizac

I understand everyone wants to crucify Max, but it’s not like our defense was consistently stopping the Utes from marching up and down the field.

Yeah, they were put in some bad situations with turnovers and sudden changes, but that’s still no excuse for giving up an average of eight yards a pass play. True, the final score doesn’t completely explain BYU’s performance.

Yet I am left questioning if the Cougar defense could've held up against the Utes offense with the game on the line. We had success against UNLV, Colorado St., Washington, and New Mexico, but would we have been able to stop the Running Utes with everything on the line?

I will give the defense this: They made just enough stops early to give our offense the opportunity to tie the game or take the lead. The bad news is that Utah wasn’t doing anything earth-shaking on the offensive side of the ball. Their game plan was very simple, even easy to execute in order to be successful.

Ludwig made the game simple for Brian Johnson. Johnson threw the ball downfield a couple of times with no success. BJ had six incompletions, and of those six, three were downfield throws, while the others were either dropped or the defender knocked down the ball.

All of the Utes' completions came on underneath throws that exploited our linebackers' inability to recognize the crossing patterns and adjust their zones accordingly, and throws to the flats that used our coverage scheme against us.

The simple fact that Utah was gaining eight yards a pop made it near impossible to call a defense on second down. Second and short is a defensive coordinator's nightmare. Second and short means a D-coordinator has to call a defense that accounts for every play in an offense's playbook. Guess what? That’s impossible.

Does anyone remember what hurt us against UNLV? Don’t hurt yourself...it was underneath routes and the flats. Ludwig must have been on the phone with Sanford drawing up scenarios to save his job. Who knows? It might have worked.

What did BYU’s defense do well?

They stopped the run. Utah only ran for 108 yards on 35 attempts for a 3.1-yard average, and Mack and Asiata didn’t play a huge role in the Utes' offensive strategy. We also didn’t lose a DB to a KO until late in the fourth quarter. By the way, I hope Andrew Rich is all right. He has a lot of talent, and we’ll need his toughness and smarts next year.

They didn’t stop playing. Even late in the game—after Kruger’s amazing interception—the BYU defense continued to play and almost came up with a huge stop on the goal line.

What did BYU’s defense do...well, not so good?

Zone coverage: Our coverages have lost the matchup zone principles that they are based upon. Defensive players are becoming stagnant in their drops, and they aren’t relating to receivers and RBs within their zones. It’s a simple concept, but it only works if players can recognize routes and anticipate where guys may end up.  

I don’t mean defenders need to chase routes, but they do need to communicate, relate, and cover offensive players within their zones. Most of the problem lies with recognition.

Once the receiver moves, our linebackers need to be able to recognize where they are going and then move to their next threat, fluidly. BYU’s defenders are still hesitating or floating in open space, which leaves receivers wide open for easy completions.  

Also, as a side note—Fowler...your dad didn’t want to say it, but your man coverage technique needs to improve before the bowl game.

It’s a simple fix. Move your feet laterally, while getting your hands on the receiver, with your eyes on the waist of the receiver. Using the correct hand in jamming the receiver will force you into the right position, and hopefully you can knock the ball down when it ’s thrown.

Fowler had a tough matchup against Casteel, but his sluggish feet and hands caused too much separation and resulted in easy completions.

I normally don’t try and single out individuals, but it's easy when I used to find myself in similar situations on the field. I didn’t get it right all the time either, but slowing receivers up with contact will sometimes compensate for slow hands and feet.  

Our defense will need to return to the basics during their time off before the bowl game. Whoever we face in the bowl game is going to use a lot of different pass plays and will also try and exploit the underneath routes. Our defenders can’t be robots—they have to be able to move fluidly and athletically through their progressions so they end up in the right place to make the play.

Hooray...we might get picked to go to the Las Vegas Bowl game, again. I guess it could be worse. We could be going to the Albuquerque or Humanitarian Bowl.