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BYU football: Story lines aplenty for matchup against UCLA

This one has me on the edge of my seat already.

BYU has got to get serious on defense! Norm Chow knows how to make good quarterbacks much, much better. Yikes!

I think our offense will do well to score another 28 points against this Bruin defense. The question is stopping their quarterback. He is no Jake Locker but could you imagine Jake Locker teamed with Norm Chow and two weeks of prep time?

I think this Craft kid is going to have big numbers on our secondary. He is a pocket passer and could have a career day.

I am hoping that the reason we got so little pressure on Jake Locker is because they were focused on first keeping him in the pocket. If that is the case, and Craft is little threat out of the pocket, maybe we can pressue him and our defense will do fine.

This is gonna be fun!

Please, no obnoxious interception or fumbles at the goal line.

Go BYU! Beat the Bruins!

UCLA will win if the defense plays the way they did against Washington. This game scares me, our defense is pathetic.

Maybe I missed something, but my impression of the BYU-WA game was that WA was lucky to even be close at the end. Here are some interesting stats comparing WA two games:

Team Stat Comparison
WAOR
1st Downs 18 23
Total Yards 242 496
Passing 147 240
Rushing 95 256
Penalties 4-44 8-85
3rd Down Conv. 7-19 6-13
4th Down Conv. 0-1 0-1
Turnovers 1 1
Possession 35:43 24:17
Score1044

Team Stat Comparison
BYUWA
1st Downs 25 22
Total Yards 475 337
Passing 338 204
Rushing 137 133
Penalties 7-60 4-25
3rd Down Conv. 12-14 9-15
4th Down Conv. 0-0 1-1
Turnovers 2 0
Possession 31:04 28:56
Score2827

Other than turnovers (which were mitigated since BYU only punted twice), the stats looked fairly similar. Washington got beat and were lucky to lose by 1. I have no doubt that if it were a home game for BYU the score would have been similar to the OR game since non-pac 10 officials would have called some of those blatant holds or blocks in the back and the crowd is a huge factor. I get tired of all these apologists hurting BYU's ranking. Bring on UCLA!

If our defense plays like it did saturday, we'll have a career day of sacks. Craft doesn't move like locker. Plus Craft is going to have nightmares about his last visit to BYU. Cougars should win big. Then again they never do against BCS opponents.

BYU's offense is awesome. The Secondary will prove to be the only weakness of this team. Washington is not a great team by any stretch but their receivers were open all day. UCLA has a stout defense (the best that we'll see this year) so our defense better step it up if we are to win Saturday!

Only one thing y'all need to know. Each of UCLA offensive and defensive players is faster and bigger than the Zoos fastest man. Check the stats [Drop of 3 spots in AP?] Not a prayer I fear..

I said before the season that BYU's offense would be very good and the defense would be suspect. After two games I haven't seen anything to change that prognosis.

UCLA has a very good defense and BYU's offense must play at maximum efficiency to win this game. Their poor defense gives BYU a very small margin of error. My prediction - BYU 24 UCLA 17

The BYU defense has way to many "deer-in-headlights" moments. It's obviously a work in progress. Look for UCLA to burn the DB's deep until they prove they can stop the bomb. BYU's offense is one of the best ever and may be THE best ever. They'll have to be at peak performance for BYU to beat the Bruins. BYU 34-31.

Locker was incredible! He saved the Huskies time and again on his scrambling. Craft will be facing a totally different kind of pressure, and even though UCLA is obviously better than UW, they will have to move the ball to have a chance to win.

BYU at home, with something more to prove since they dropped in the AP, needs to win by two touchdowns to show the voters they deserve to move up. Yes, Chow is a great play caller, and he will be ready, but Craft was third string at the start of the season. I don't think he will be able to handle the pressure.

It is also obvious that with Collie, Pitta, Unga, Vakapuna, Hall, and on and on, BYU can move the ball. Hall will face a greater blitz package this week, but the O-line did a great job of protecting him and as a result he moved the team.

Unga's fumble was due to a great hit, low, and right on the ball, and perfect timing. Rarely will that occur with Harvey carrying the ball. Go Cougars.

BYU should brag less about the stats and hopefully the defense will show up. Tired of hearing excuses about the defense. BYU will lose because they are undiscipined. They should have dropped in the polls. For two games they have smelled up the place. But I am pulling for BYU. But they need a reality check. Maybe playing at home will help.

IN OUR DREAMS. To UCLA, BYU is the equivalent of a high school team. There is no rivalry here. I hope Collie has been doing what�s right and is �magical,� face it, that's the only way our cougs will win. We've got to pray for another miracle play in the last few seconds of the game. Don't know how much longer we can continue to pull out key games this way but oh well we'll ride the wave as long as we can huh. As long as we get the "W" who cares how�

To Hey you guys, why don't you check the stats. I have a hard time beleiving that Kevin Craft is faster than Austin Collie. And I am pretty sure that UCLA's O-line is bigger, but I doubt they are faster than BYU's linebackers. Think about what you just said. You may want to clarify just a bit.

This is the one that scares me. I didn't see the U Dub- BYU game, but with two great coaches on UCLA, its going to be a dgofight. Kevin Craft, will have to play far better than he did against Rocky Top, to get UCLA a shot at winning this one at home.

Max Hall is going to see some heat from a good UCLA defense, and the receivers will have to see the coverage as they line up, and figure out how to break off routes to get the ball.

Coach Mendenhall needs to tell his players to be very careful with their comments to the press about UCLA. The UCLA coaches will grab any (even slightly) boastful BYU comment, or dismissive comment about UCLA, and will use it as locker room fodder.

UCLA REVENGE MOTIVATION:

1. Revenge for the LV Bowl
2. Coach Chow will be looking to humble BYU
3. Head Coach Rick N. - the 1999 UW loss in Provo.

UCLA will pull out all stops to beat BYU. Coach Chow is a Zen master. BYU will have to play error free football.

DEFENSE: Someone needs to step up big time and show some leadership and become the BIG playmakers. Jan Jorgenson, & Scott Johnson showed signs of both against UW. Linebackers need to stunt more.

OFFENSE: The usual leaders/playmakers stepped up.

PREDICTION: Collie will have a great game Sat.

Key to victory against the Bruins, two words: Harv Unga! Cougs win 35-28.

Reading these comments just make me laugh. What a bunch of geniuses. Undisciplined? Find me a team with better discipline that the Cougars. BYU fans are the worst bunch of whining cry-babys in the entire NCAA Who wants to be W. Virginia this week? The offense is spectacular and defense is Ok. they will get better. Look for lots of blitzes to keep this rookie quarterback in trouble. The cougars will be just fine folks...I saw the UCLA game and they are a very mediocre team. Against anybody but an unprepared Tennessee team at home they would have been buried.

The reality is....is that our defense is not very good. We forgot how to tackle, our linebackers are running over our DB's and as soon as UCLA figures out just how bad Brandon Howard is, it'll be over.

If the offense doesn't score 40 plus points it will be a very long day.

Mark my words...Unless our D-Line carries our Defense, Craft will look like the next coming of Joe Montana.

With all the hype srrounding BYU and with UCLA having nothing to lose, this is not a good recipe for a win on Saturday.

Go Utes !!

I was embarassed to most of our team joking around and having a great time while the entire UW team was on their knees in prayer for their injured player. What a poor example our RM's and married boys showed on FSN. Someone needs to tell these guys when to be serious (besides firesides). Many, many people were watching to see how our boys were responding. Shameful.