Monday, October 26, 2009

Why did Saturday hurt so bad?

At 9pm on Saturday I started feeling a little nauseous but it wasn't just because my beloved Cougars lost. It was because they lost and they looked terrible doing it. You see I understand that you will lose a couple games every year because it is extremely hard to go undefeated. But you don't have to lose them like that. Watching the offense try and move the ball on Saturday made me want to take out my Music 201 text book and start writing a thesis paper on Famous Composers from the 15th Century. Yes it was that bad. The only position group that looked worse than the offense were the Officials. No really they were awful. Take away some crucial bad calls by the officials and BYU only loses 14-7 or 17-7 at worst. I can't really blame the loss on the 7 blind mice but I can blame them for robbing me of the chance to see a close game. Who knows, maybe Max could've put together a last minute drive to tie the game? It wouldn't be the first time for Hall, who has lead his team for come from behind wins 7 times in his career. It wouldn't even have been the first time against a top 10 team. It seams that the MWC was intent on assuring a TCU win and a MWC BCS bid from the get go. So let me tell which calls were missed and why they cost us big time.

1. The touchdown "catch". Yeah he caught the ball and it was a very good catch at that. It's just that the NCAA has this dang rule that says you have to be in bounds when you catch the ball. A lot of people will say that it was too close to call and that it could have gone either way. Well I was sitting about 15 ft from the play on the front row and that call was obvious. Yes it was close but it was still obvious that he was out of bounds when he caught the ball. Then the players tried to show the officials the proof and they pointed to the turf that was torn up where the receiver tried to drag his foot. The whole divot was out of bounds! Either this game was called before it started or someone forgot to tell the officials that white means out of bounds. Cost: 4 pts. (We'll assume they woud've gotten the field goal) and a lot of momentum. Score TCU 21 BYU 7 Actual: TCU 17 BYU 7

2. The Phantom Roughing the passer. Another 3rd down play that was given a first down and another shot at a touchdown. We ended up holding them to a feild goal so we only lost 3 points and maybe they would've kicked the 40 yarder anyway. TCU 24 BYU 7 Actual: TCU 20 BYU 7

3. The Phantom P.I. on 3rd and long. I've watched this replay talked to several people about the replay and Logan was a good 3 ft away from the receiver on this play. I'm not sure what the ref was watching here. Cost: 7 pts. TCU scored on a long touchdown I think 2 plays later. Score TCU 31 BYU 7 Actual: TCU 20 BYU 7

Honerable Menti0n: Offensive P.I. on Oneil Chambers when he is 15 yards down field from the play. No P.I. late in the game when the linebacker tackles Unga while he's trying to catch the pass from Riley Stephenson. The first Touchdown TCU got was questionable when the guy lost the ball as he was trying to dive to the pilon. Probably would've gotten the TD anyway though.

OK my point with the officiating isn't that they cost BYU the game (Our terrible offensive game play did that for us) but that it felt like they robbed the fans of a chance to see a good game. The defense didn't look as bad as the score showed but a 17-14 TCU win wasn't going to get TCU many votes in the polls either. I really think the MWC had this one in the books before it started. They wanted to make sure the MWC got a bid into the BCS and BYU win likely wasn't going to do that. Just like last year when TCU got the short end of the stick against Utah last year.
So why did Saturday hurt so bad? Well because for the second big home game in a row our troops got blown out of the water and the stands were left half empty midway through the 4th quarter.

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