I'm not going to go through the game play-by-play, but I am going to go over my highlights and what I thought about certain players and situations. I am NOT a sports expert, so if you want technical terms and deep analysis of the plays, this might not be the place for you to read a recap. But if you want to read the thoughts of a BYU fan or you care what I think, this is the place to be! I wish the first post was happier, but that's the life of a hardcore sports fan. We aren't always happy.
(Normally I will have a highlights video in the post, but the only one that I could find for this game only has Notre Dame highlights. If I find one, I will update this post.)
BYU traveled to South Bend, Indiana to play Notre Dame, the 5th ranked team in the nation, on Saturday. Going into this game, I was pretty nervous. Even if Notre Dame wasn't ranked so high, their football history is so impressive that I still would have been anxious. Also, their stadium that fits 80, 795 was sold out for the 229th straight time. That is insane! If that doesn't tell you how powerful Notre Dame is, I don't know what else can. Besides how well they play, of course.
As I sat down to watch the game in my apartment, which I was happy to finally be able to do because it was on NBC, I wasn't as nervous anymore. The announcers seemed to expect an upset. I always believe in my Cougars, but I am also realistic. So when they said that we had a chance because of their fall break just ending and their starting quarterback was out, I had more hope for us. I thought that maybe we could pull off the biggest victory in a while for BYU.
But of course, Riley Nelson let me down.
Again.
I might as well get my frustration out about Riley now. Very few BYU fans root for Riley like I do. I really, REALLY want him to do well. Obviously I want him to lead us to victory, but aside from that he is a senior, he is a fierce competitor, and he has been through so much to finally be the starting quarterback. I respect him a lot. But by the amount of interceptions he throws, I think he enjoys making us lose (no, I don't really think that). In his last 3 starts, he has had 8 interceptions. I wish I was making that up. He is not good enough. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about the team's quarterback situation because the only other quarterback that can play is worse than Riley.
Even though all of us BYU fans are beyond frustrated, we need to support Riley. Are we frustrated with him? Absolutely. However, he is the leader of our beloved football team. If he doesn't have our support, how can we expect him to improve? If I were him and everyone hated me, it would be really hard to play well knowing that my own school was not behind me. At least he loves high-fives like me.
Moving on.....
Jamaal Williams is a beast! I can't believe that he is only 17! The announcers were talking about how he turned down a bunch of other schools to come to BYU, including Oregon! The strangest part is that he isn't LDS. Obviously non-LDS athletes come here a lot, but to chose BYU over Oregon when you're not a member? That's so cool for us! He chose BYU because of the good values here, and he wanted to keep out of trouble. He is such a smart kid. I'm really impressed with him, besides his playing abilities. I'm loving J-Money (that's my nickname for him).
What was up with the tipped interceptions? First it happened to us, then it happened to Notre Dame. What are the chances? I kind of had bad deja vu when it happened to us because I remembered when Oregon State scored a touchdown last week after a tipped pass. Just our luck, I guess.
I don't even want to talk about when Cody Hoffman was wide open. But if you really want to read about what went wrong with the play that could've won the game for us, the Daily Herald wrote a great review about it.
By the millionth interception (exaggeration) in the 4th quarter, I was getting so sad. Towards the end of the game, I drew a picture of us getting an interception and running it all the way for a touchdown to win. That kind of stuff never happens to our team, but I thought that if I drew it, maybe it would work! It didn't.
My amazing artwork.
For the most part, our defense was impressive, as always. Ziggy is a beast! It is so amazing that this is only his 3rd season playing football. EVER. If you don't know his story, read this. I'm so amazed by his natural ability!
Overall, it was a good game. We fought with those Fighting Irish with all that we had. We just fell short in the 2nd half. I was amazed when we were up at halftime 14-10! We were so close! I guess it makes more sense for them to continue their magical season than for us to win. We have nothing left to gain out of this season. We've already blown it. Maybe next year when they come to our turf and Taysom Hill is better, things will be different.
Best Tweets about the game:
- @emostler: "It might be time to let our defense play both sides. This is ridiculous. #byufootball"
- @gregwrubell: "First touchdown allowed by Notre Dame defense since the Purdue game on September 8th."
- @HarkTheFranchuck: "In warm-ups, Riley is throwing more balls in the dirt than a pitcher with the advantage of an 0-2 count."
- @gregwrubell: "Riley just told us that throwing behind Hoffman 'will haunt me for the rest of my life.'"
And that's the end of my first BYU football game personal recap! Keep in mind this is not a recap for a newspaper. This is my blog, so it's a casual recap. Personally, I enjoy reading things like this to see how other people felt about a game. It's interesting to read what was going on through their minds. If you have any comments about my recap or maybe you have something you would like to see me add to them, feel free to comment below. Also, if you have thoughts about the game that you would like to share, please post in the comment section! I would love to hear what you thought of this game and any game in the future!
Also, I was thinking that for basketball games, I might just do one post a week about the 2 or so games they have in that week.
Be on the lookout for BYU men's basketball coming up!! I seriously can't wait! I live for BYU basketball! Cougar Tipoff is this Wednesday at 7:00 pm in the Marriott Center!
Great insite on the Notre Dame game!
ReplyDeleteUGH, Riley. That has to be the worst arm in college football, right? And I don't just mean quarterbacks. Linemen are probably out throwing him. Note to BYU recruiting, look for quarterbacks that learned how to throw from there father, not mother.
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