What We Learned: Week 8

Well, that happened. We lost to That School Down South, and at least for one offseason they get to hang that one over us. As the Lizzo song says, “Truth Hurts”.

Our own Russ Wood put together a good retrospective on the loss. It’s worth a read and some consideration. After taking a beat this weekend to breathe and let it simmer a bit, let’s talk about what we learned this week.

Cord Starts, Then Restarts

Chase Cord did an admirable job filling in, minus two bad passes and some drops from our usually sure-handed receiving corps. While the result doesn’t speak to the performance, Chase could have folded up after that abysmal 3rd. Instead, he hung in there and tried his damnedest to bring it back.

That’s the Bronco Spirit. We’re never too far out of it. Myself and many others kept doing the mental math on how fast we’d have to score and when we’d go for 2. Bronco fans have seen too many miracles to quit believing, even when it hurts to watch.

Sachse Hits the Angles

BYU goalposts are beginning to rival Reno’s for gimmicky bullcrap. Luckily, Eric Sachse nailed this one. Asking him to do it again into the wind at almost 40 yards was a bit much the second go-round, sadly.

Whole Lotta Holani

First off, T’s & P’s to our boy Robert Mahone. Bob hurt something early in the 1st, and suddenly our power running game plan was up in the air. Good news: Holani is a beast, and nearly broke 100 on the ground. Bad news: Mahone was in street clothes at the end of the game.

Holani certainly looks ready to go from change-up back to workhorse, and as much as it sucks to have it happen this way, I for one am ready for four years of Hank & Holani ruling the offense.

We Miss Hank

The deep shots Hank Bachmeier often takes the hit to complete definitely weren’t a factor in this one. Cord may add an elusiveness dimension and a more mature running option at QB, but either BYU shut down the most dynamic downfield attack in the MWC or Cord wasn’t taking the shots. Whatever the case may be, I am not alone in wanting Hank back behind center for the bulk of the snaps come SJSU.

Get Trickeration’d

As most of us noted with disgust, BYU opened up our own playbook against us, and the tricky stuff went off PERFECTLY. Our defense was down a couple key starters early, and the thin depth at safety and linebacker definitely hurt on the tricky stuff.

We’ve got a whole week to work on it, though. Other than the hell that was the 3rd Quarter, the defense managed a stout showing against a fully capable BYU team. One observation: the tricky stuff usually comes out when you can’t beat em at the straight-up. We’ve done plenty of our own, to be sure, and sometimes it’s just for giggles. But by and large, forcing BYU to burn three tricks is a compliment to the line and usual scheme.

So what did we miss? Hit us up in the comments with what you learned.