BYU head coach Kalani Sitake watches the top of the sport at Autzen Stadium in Eugene on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Information
EUGENE, Oregon — Chants of “overrated, overrated” are among the many dumbest in sports activities, as followers are literally undermining the efforts of their very own group when they're getting the perfect of a higher-rated opponent.
However within the case of Saturday afternoon’s debacle for the No. 12 BYU Cougars, the Oregon college students had been fully acceptable after they broke out the jeers after leaping out to a 31-point lead within the third quarter.
The No. 25 Geese, themselves maybe overrated after they started the season with a No. 11 rating earlier than getting trounced at Georgia, totally embarrassed BYU to the tune of 41-20 in entrance of a sellout crowd of 54,463 at Autzen Stadium and a nationwide tv viewers desperate to see if these Western groups are frauds or reliable.
“Clearly not the consequence that we had been working for, however you gotta give lots of credit score to Oregon. They confirmed as much as play extra prepared than we did, particularly at the start. And I didn’t have this group prepared, so that's on me. We gotta determine a method to begin higher, begin quicker.” — BYU soccer coach Kalani Sitake.
The Cougars (2-1) turned out to be the frauds, wilting on a partly cloudy, considerably chilly day when their likelihood to validate final week’s win over No. 9 Baylor got here within the type of a showdown with a Pac-12 energy.
BYU was mighty happy with its 5-0 file in opposition to the Pac-12 final yr, and it needs to be as equally embarrassed by Saturday’s efficiency.
It was like final yr’s 38-24 loss at Baylor another time. The Cougars had been overwhelmed within the trenches on each side of the ball. Throw in Oregon’s superiority on the perimeters by way of expertise, velocity and quickness, and that’s what we witnessed in Week 3.
Head coach Kalani Sitake likes to speak about fundamentals — blocking, tackling, taking part in with self-discipline and poise, and doing the little issues that win ball video games. BYU did none of these nicely at Wealthy Brooks Discipline, blowing a chance that gained’t come round once more for fairly some time.
“Clearly not the consequence that we had been working for, however you gotta give lots of credit score to Oregon,” Sitake stated. “They confirmed as much as play extra prepared than we did, particularly at the start, and I didn’t have this group prepared, so that's on me. We gotta determine a method to begin higher, begin quicker.”
The ultimate numbers aren’t that ugly; Oregon completed with 439 yards and BYU had 366. However that’s doesn’t inform the entire story — not even shut.
The Geese took their foot off the fuel after scoring on their first six possessions — 5 touchdowns and a subject objective — and Sitake performed his starters, together with quarterback Jaren Corridor, to the bitter finish.
Sitake rightfully credited Oregon, as nicely he ought to. The Bo Nix-led Geese had been clearly the higher group, in all three phases, and BYU has lots of work to do, starting subsequent Saturday when 3-1 Wyoming rolls into LaVell Edwards Stadium.
“It was uncharacteristic of our group. We made lots of errors, however I don’t need to take something away from Oregon. I assumed they performed an ideal sport, they usually performed precisely like we thought they may,” Sitake stated.
“They've tons of athleticism and velocity on their group. They're an ideal group. They're ranked for a motive, they usually undoubtedly ought to climb up the rankings.”
BYU will certainly fall from the rankings — maybe all the best way out.
With the stakes so excessive, why did the Cougars come out flat?
Sitake couldn’t put his finger on it, besides to say that some early missed tackles and miscues allowed Oregon to grab the momentum, garner some confidence and get the Oregon followers who outnumbered BYU followers by about 3-1 squarely behind their group.
Corridor knew.
“Yeah, lots of pleasure, nice stadium, good house subject benefit to play at if you're Oregon,” Corridor stated. “However yeah, we simply didn’t play nearly as good as we must always have, beginning off.
“We had a superb first play, had some momentum, simply didn’t end the drive and issues acquired out of hand offensively the subsequent couple of drives.”
Bought out of hand is placing it mildly.
Oregon went 64 yards for a landing on its opening drive, acquired a brief subject objective on its second drive after taking on close to midfield, then answered a Corridor-to-Isaac Rex landing move that momentarily gave the Cougars a perception that they may grasp for about three minutes.
With Nix, the switch from Auburn, throwing a 50-yard bomb to Troy Franklin on the subsequent possession, the Geese rapidly went 75 yards in eight performs to revive order to Autzen.
The Cougars marched down the sector, and a shootout gave the impression to be so as, however after overcoming two holding penalties flagged by a Pac-12 officiating crew, the Cougars’ drive stalled on the 23 and Jake Oldroyd was referred to as in, all of Cougar Nation holding its collective breath with the data of what occurred final week in Provo.
Certain sufficient, Oldroyd missed once more, this time from 38 yards out. The air went out of the Cougars.
For as quick as they had been within the opening, this one appeared worse. Oregon drove 79 yards in 13 performs, took greater than 5 minutes off the clock, broke deal with after deal with and scored on a 15-yard dime from Nix to Terrance Ferguson.
Sitake stated “every little thing must be evaluated for us,” when requested about Oldroyd’s kicking woes. “I imply, we have now to seek out out what the problems and deficiencies had been in each facet of our sport. Whether or not it's teaching, or gamers, or personnel, no matter it's.”
Effectively, it was every little thing — besides the quarterbacking.
With no operating sport to talk of and his two high receivers — Puka Nacua and Gunner Romney — out once more, Corridor performed moderately nicely regardless of these unfavorable circumstances.
His safety was good, however younger receivers corresponding to Chase Roberts, Kody Epps and Keanu Hill struggled to get open many of the day.
Corridor completed 29 of 41 for 305 yards and two touchdowns and a passer ranking of 149.3.
All in all, it was a chance misplaced for the Cougars, and Corridor knew it.
“We had lots of momentum going (from the Baylor win) … and we had been capable of get a gritty win final week,” he stated.
“It might have meant loads for us to return in and get a win on this setting,” Corridor stated, “but it surely doesn’t change something to do with our confidence. We're nonetheless the identical group that we had been a pair weeks in the past. We gotta study from at the moment and get higher.”
So particular groups was a letdown once more, and the offense couldn’t run the ball behind what is meant to be the perfect offensive line within the Sitake period.
The Cougars picked up solely 64 yards on the bottom, on 24 makes an attempt. Cal switch Chris Brooks was bottled up for the second-straight sport, netting solely 28 yards on 10 carries.
He did discover the top zone as soon as, however solely after Corridor stumbled in getting him the handoff from the 2-yard-line.
“Effectively, that may be a concern for me. I don’t know what the difficulty is. We must hold watching the movie,” Sitake stated relating to the operating sport.
“I assumed that the defensive entrance of Baylor did a superb job (final week). We thought we may discover some spots in opposition to Oregon. Clearly they did a superb job shutting down the run.”
That made the Cougars one-dimensional — not optimum with Nacua watching from the sidelines in a strolling boot and Romney watching from house, nonetheless ready clearance from docs to play.
Sitake stated they introduced Nacua as a result of they had been “hopeful” he may go. It didn’t occur, with the coaching employees erring on the aspect of not placing him at larger danger.
“Hopefully subsequent week shall be time for (Nacua) to return, and time for Gunner (to return),” Sitake stated. “We want some guys again.”
In addition they performed with out beginning defensive ends Tyler Batty and Earl Tuioti-Mariner, and cornerback Kaleb Hayes left within the first half with concussion signs and didn't return.
Sitake stated the hassle by no means waned, which is why he referred to as a timeout late — a lot to the annoyance of the Oregon followers — in an try and get a fourth landing on the board.
“On the finish of the sport, we had been making an attempt to get the practice again on the tracks, making an attempt to do no matter we are able to to get some positivity from this to point out that we're able to doing issues otherwise,” Sitake stated.
“However we must take a look at this whole sport and we have now to get higher from it. There is no such thing as a operating from it.”
Getting a operating sport going, and stopping the opponent’s operating, shall be a superb place to begin.