Sunday, September 6


Wow. It's been 12 hours, and it's still sinking in. BYU beat #3 Oklahoma on a not-quite-neutral field. Wow.
  • BYUs defense was the best unit on the field througout pretty much the entire game. Better than either offense, and better than OUs defense.
  • Replacing 4 offensive linemen, having a top offensive player out with an injury and losing another important player to injury in the first half might might be a decent excuse for losing a game. But it's real hard to make that arguement when it applies to both teams. There simply isn't any ground to say that any one play was the game breaker. OU lost their starting QB. BYU turned the ball over 4 times. (The muffed punt was particularly eggregious.) Both teams got called for pass interference in the endzone. (The call against BYU was pretty iffy in my opinion.) Both teams picked up lots of penalties and did it in bad spots on occasion. (OU kept putting themselves in 3rd and long situations from their O-line, and BYU essentially put OUs final drive together for them with a kick out of bounds, a face mask and a late hit (if I remember that correctly)). In short, it looked like the first game of the season.
  • I found it particularly interesting that in the second half both teams moved the ball down to about the 5 yard line, ran a few plays, got a PI call in the end zone, started fresh at the 2 yard line, and then was called for a false start. BYU got a touchdown, OU didn't.
  • The final BYU drive of 16 plays, 78 yards and 8:44 was really impressive. I was most worried for our chances at the opening kickoff, and then again near the end of the 3rd quarter. In the 3rd quarter the OU O-line and D-line seemed to be wearing down BYU, which happens so often in big games. I feared BYU would run out of gas and a bigger, faster and more talented OU team would finally push by them and win pulling away. Instead, BYU ate up most of the 4th quarter on a great drive.
  • Speaking of drives, OUs 3 longest drives were 52, 43 and 35 yards. BYU put together drives of 78, 63 and 59 yards.

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