Mountain West Football Week One Review

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The first half of this game shows the potential of how good this Utah team can be this year.  In the first half alone Utah out gained Michigan by three to one yardage, and the Utah defense shut down any type of offense for MIchigan.   Michigan did come out to an early 10-0 lead, but that was not because of Michigan but because of mistakes made by Utah.  The first was when Michigan punt early on and Jereme Brooks fumbled the punt return and Michigan scored.   Then there was an early pick by Utah’s Brian Johnson that lead to a 50 yard field goal by Michigan.

After those 10 points, Utah went on a 19-0 run through the third quarter.  MIchigan really had only 4 offensive plays of note.  Their two touchdown passes and two long passes that set up scores, but reason Michigan was so close was because of Utah’s mistakes.  Louis Sakoda made four field goals and Utah’s offense gave Michigan short fields with a blocked punt and a fumble.

Penalties were the other reason Utah did not win by at least 20 points, for the game Utah had 15 penalties total 137 yards.  To still win this game while having so many penalties and so little offense in the second half.

Stars for Utah was quarterback Brian Johnson who had 305 yards passing and one touchdown.  The other is obviously Louis Sakoda who kicke four field goals, one which was a 53 yard, and his punting that saved Utah in some situations.  Lastly is running back Matt Asiata who had over 100 yards in total yards and he lined up at quarterback for a handful of plays, Asiata should have been given the ball more in the second half instead of Utah offensive coordinator trying to pass over the Wolverines.  This was not an upset, but for Utah to play so bad especially in the second half and still win is a good thing for this Utah team.

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This was the most exciting game of the day in all eight games, with this one coming down to the end and Wyoming winning on a field goal with six minutes left.   Wyoming’s offense led by new starting quarterback Dax Crum, while he did not have the biggest numbers he did control the game well by going 14-22 and 111 yards two touchdowns, but then Crum also had two picks whih hurt Wyoming at times.

Delvin Moore for Wyoming lead them in the running game who had 82 rushing yards and a touchdown along with a reception.  The rushing game was used by Wyoming to have a 3 and a half minute edge in time possession which was key in this back and forth game.

The Ohio Bobcats did not help themselves by having 115 penalty yards that stalled many drives and put the Bobcats in long third down positions where Ohio went 3-13 on third down situations.   Wyoming also had its stouch rushing defense return from last year and only gave up thirty nine rushing yards.

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This was just a beat down by an FBS team to a FCS team.  The game gave Air Force and its many new offensive starters to get playing time against someone different then their own team.  While the opponent was weak in Southern Utah the results were favorable with an Air Force dominant win.  New quarterback Shea Smith ran the offense well, by throwing for a respectable 75 yards, but he engineereed the option to 433 yards rushing and Smith had 91 one of those.

The overall offensive rushing effort included thirteen different players for 76 rushing plays.   This was a good win for Air Force to ease them in against a lower opponent to see who could play.

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The game was closer then the final score indicated, but BYU still won convincingly.  The Cougar offense showed how powerful they were with Max Hall throwing 486 yards, mainly because they could just throw at will.  The rushing game for BYU was not needed only a little and was lead by Harvey Unga at 68 yards.   The reason this game was close because BYU did nothing offensively in the third quarter and allowed Northern Iowa to make the game interesting by closing the score to 27-17.  Then in the fourth quarter BYU stepped it back up and scored 14 straight points to end the game.  The four fumbles from BYU is what allowed Northern Iowa stay close, but beside the four turnovers BYU controlled the game.

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A lot of people thought New Mexico would be good a team and thought this was to be a good game, but from the start TCU was in control of this game and almost certainly eliminated New Mexico from the conference race.   TCU’s offense was decent, but the main reason TCU dominated on defense with long interception returns to set up short fields.

TCU had a quick 16-0 lead in the first four minutes which set the tone for the entire game.  The real hurt for New Mexico was when starting quarterback Donovan Porterie suffered a neck injury and did not return.  His back up, Brad Gruner did not do much to move the offense with the exception of one long pass.  New Mexico just struggled on offensne and even running back Rodney Ferguson only had 64 yards, and the team was only 4-14 on third downs and only nine total first downs.

If Porterie is out for any significant time then New Mexico will struggle, and TCU might be better then everyone thinks.

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This is the second time in three years, and back to back losses San Diego State suffered to FCS team Cal Poly.  The only bright spot for San Diego State was their new quarterback Ryan Lindley passed for 352 yards and three touchdowns, but he did have two interceptions.

San Diego State will have a tough time all year to stop the run, because Cal Poly ran for 263 yards and with two players had rushing totals of over 80 yards.  The Aztec offense had five total turnovers which did not help or that they rushed 27 total yards.  Also, the Aztecs could not convert on third down by only going 2-

The safety to start the game and then a touchdown to get to a 9-0 lead and then the 16-7 lead which hurt San Diego State’s confidence, and also that San Diego State could not stop Cal Poly on the last drive who ended up kicking a 21 yard field goal

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UNLV has their first win on the year and equaled half of their win total from last year.  UNLV did put up huge numbers but they were efficient, starting with  quarterback Omay Clayton who had 193 yards and three touchdowns, and over half of those receiving yards were by Randy Wolfe who had two scores and 103 yards.

Then Frank Summers ran for 83 yards to balance out the running game with  the passing game.  The game was going bck and forth but Utah State gave up the ball two times which lead to help UNLV win that game.

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Colorado won the game because of a few long interception returns and their defense stopped any prospective Colorado State drives.  The Rams kept the game close, but the end of the second half they could not get anything done.   New Rams quarterback Billy Farris had a ton of completions and a great percentage but the Rams could not go downfield as he ended up with 157 total yards on 27 completions.  The supposed potent rushing attack with Gattrell Johnson and Kyle Bell who combined for 115 yards with 95 attributed to Johnson.

2-12 on third downs for the Rams is what ultimately killed the Rams chances when they tried to make a move, and the two turnovers Colorado State was another reason Colorado State could not score.   Colorado’s big play to put the game away was a 93 yard kick return, by Josh Smith which put the game out of reach 21-7.