Colorado
Now that would have been something for the PAC-12 to knock off two Top-5 ranked non-conference opponents the same day. For a while it looked like the Buffaloes, on the road in Denver, had a chance at upending No. 5 Texas A&M’s playoff run and 10 game winning streak and maybe just by coming close they did. Scoring a TD near the end of the first Qtr and holding the Aggies to three-and-outs on eight of their first nine drives and a a field goal through the 3rd, it looked as though lightening was going to strike twice—especially after a long Texas A&M drive in the middle of the 4th Qtr ended up in a fumble, recovered by the Buffaloes. But even after a face mask penalty and automatic first down Colorado couldn’t move the ball and the Aggies got it back with just under eight minutes left in the period. 11 plays, 77 yards, and over five minutes later Sophomore QB Zach Calzada connects with Junior RB Isaiah Spiller who runs it 18 yards into the end zone for a TD.
It was a 10-7 lead that would hold up the rest of the way thanks to a sack by the Aggie’s Junior LB Andre White Jr. leaving Colorado facing a 4th and 13 at their own 22 yard line with only 1:40 left. Buffaloe QB Brendon Lewis completed the 4th down pass to Sophomore WR Dimitri Stanley but was two yards shy of the first down picking up just 11. It was one of those plays where the receiver needs to park himself right at the marker and no less. Even with Texas A&M losing their Freshman starting QB Haynes King with a leg injury right at the beginning, you have to give Colorado a lot of credit in a game in which the Aggies were favored by more than two TD’s. As Texas A&M Head Coach Jimbo Fisher said after the game; “First and foremost, Colorado played a heck of a football game . . . They were a lot of the reason why we had issues today. We can sit here and say we blame it on ourselves, but they did a really, really good job, physically and schematically. We were fortunate to come out of that one.” Colorado heads home to take on Minnesota this coming Saturday.
Utah
After leading 19-7 at the half and 40-17 by the end of their game against Weber State in Week 1, the Utes only managed to put up 7 points on the board through three quarters against BYU, turning the ball over twice on its first two offensive possessions. They did outscore the Cougars 10-3 in the 4th but it was too little too late in a 26-17 loss in front of a sold-out stadium in Provo this past Saturday to witness yet another early season rivalry game. BYU controlled the pace of the game the whole way ending up with 11 more minutes time-of-possession, 21 first downs compared to 15, and a 58% 3rd down completion percentage compared to 22% for Utah.
Total yards—pretty much a wash. But in the air, BYU was superior even though there was but 2 yards total difference between Utah Senior QB Charlie Brewer and Sophomore BYU QB Jaren Hall who connected on 18-of-30 for 149 yards, 3 TD’s, and no picks compared to 15-of-26, 1 TD, and 1 interception for Brewer. On the ground Utah Freshman RB Micah Bernard was pretty unstoppable while rushing 12 times for 146 yards and Utah’s only other score. The Cougars didn’t score with their ground game but rushed 46 times for 231 yards with Sophomore RB Tyler Allgeier and QB Hall picking up 194 yards of that.
As Joe Coles reported in the Deseret News; “Utah’s nine-game win streak is over. The Utes were outplayed by the Cougars on both sides of the ball and never led as BYU claimed its first win in the rivalry game since 2009 . . . Perhaps the worst stat of the night for the Utes was that Utah went 2-for-9 on third down and 0-for-2 on fourth down, killing drives. They did not convert a third down in the first half . . . On Saturday, BYU did what Utah did to the Cougars plenty of times during the streak — bully the defensive line, both in pass protection and in the run game.” Head Coach Kyle Whittingham’s take; “They beat us at the line of scrimmage, which I would have bet my house going in that we would not lose the line of scrimmage.” Not a single sack all night long and as Utah LB Devin Lloyd said; “We’ve got to hit home. We had zero sacks. That’s unacceptable. No turnovers, no havoc plays at all . . . We’ve got to get stops [and] we didn’t . . . Too many third-down conversions. That’s as simple as it gets.”
Let’s hope Utah enjoyed their two weeks in the sun sitting as No. 21 going into their game against BYU as they no doubt will fall before their upcoming game this Saturday on the road at San Diego State. After that they’ll be coming home to start PAC-12 play against Washington State.
Arizona State
The good thing about Arizona State’s game against UNLV is they won 37-10 and are just one of three teams in the PAC-12 that start the season at 2-0. Junior QB Jayden Daniels was a one man wrecking crew for the Sun Devils, passing for 175 yards and 2 TD’s as well as rushing 13 times for another 125 on the ground–responsible for 65% of Arizona State’s 465 total yards while holding UNLV to just 67 yards in the air and 88 yards on the ground. Most of the rest of those yards were obtained by Senior RB Rachaad White and Freshman RB Daniyel Ngata who picked up another 154 yards collectively and 3 more TD’s on 28 attempts.
The Sun Devils defense controlled the line of scrimmage all game long as indicated by the difference in total yards but bore down especially in the the 2nd half in a contest that was close, 14-10, deep into the 3rd Qtr–disrupting both UNLV’s running and passing game with five sacks and seven tackles for loss—forcing seven three-and-outs and eight punts. As reported by the AP for ESPN; “Arizona State’s defense held UNLV to just 19 total yards in the second half and the Sun Devils were dominant with a 23-0 advantage after the break.”
Don’t expect Arizona State to see any bump in the polls after this one as UNLV hasn’t won a game since 2019, but as Head Coach Herm Edwards said after the game; “They’re a college football team, not a high school football team. They give those guys scholarships, too.” The Sun Devils hit the road to take on a BYU team that knocked off their chief competition in the South this past week, Utah. A win there might give them that bump they’re looking for.
Arizona
San Diego State Senior QB Jordon Brookshire only needed to complete 10 passes to throw for roughly the same amount of yards and TD’s as the combined efforts of the two Wildcat QB’s he faced. The big difference is Brookshire connected on over 70% of his 14 passes for 183 yards and 2 TD’s while Arizona Freshman QB’s Will Plummer and Gunner Cruz combined on 18-36 for 179 yards, 2 TD’s and 1 pick that turned into points.
Although the passing game was close, the running game wasn’t as Arizona’s porous run defense had no answer for San Diego State who rushed 55 times for 271 yards and 2 TD’s including one on their first possession of the game with Senior RB Greg Bell taking the ball on 2nd and 5 from their own 45 yard line all the way to the house. On the other side of the ball the Wildcats averaged less than 3 yards per carry on the day rushing 20 times for a mere 51 yards.
This game was never close with San Diego State leading 21-7 after the 1st, and 35-7 at the break. The final score of 38-14 didn’t even indicate how badly Arizona got beat in this game while being held to ten three-and-outs and throwing up an interception for good measure. As Michael Lev wrote for the Arizona Daily Star; “Arizona was thoroughly out-classed in its home opener, falling to San Diego State 38-14 in front of an announced crowd of 39,097 at Arizona Stadium. The defeat extended the Wildcats’ loing streak to fourteen games–the longest active FBS skid in the nation.” The first half was so bad that Lev compared it to the 70-7 Territorial Cup defeat last year that got Kevin Sumlin fired calling it; “a compilation of breakdowns, miscues and ineffectiveness not seen since, well, the last time Arizona played a home game.” If the Wildcats want to break that loosing streak they better get it done this weekend against Northern Arizona because after that they’ve got Oregon and UCLA back-to-back.