Y. offense must learn to finish job

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Sep 6, 2005 | by Dick Harmon Deseret Morning News

The two-deep rolling zone coverage BYU's offense faced from Boston College in the middle of the field last Saturday is a ploy that will be seen again and again this season.

Until the Cougars make adjustments.

It makes sense.

Roll a safety over to help cover speedy Todd Watkins. Force any deep throws his way to go right down the boundary where the sideline becomes a third defender. The corner covering Watkins gets help from a safety, who cheats toward Watkins as the play develops.

This strategy gives the Cougar offense a lot of underneath stuff, the chip and dink passes. And this BYU offense is all about taking what is given. The short stuff may very likely produce scores against MWC teams because of inferior talent and execution and inconsistent tackling and secondary coverage. But it was window dressing against a polished, disciplined Boston College.

The big deal, of course, was BYU's zero TDs and very poor third- down conversions (4-of-16).

"There's something to say about converting third downs. You see the end zone, you should start tasting blood and our guys didn't taste it," quarterback coach Brandon Doman said.

"You look at how many times we got into that area and we didn't get any points. We got holding penalties, we either didn't throw the ball right, didn't throw it to the right guy or didn't catch it. I look at that and it's frustrating," Doman said.

"But the offense is good. We've got guys open, we've got things to do with the football. Now we've got to figure out how to finish."

It's tough to know whom to blame for Saturday's loss, even though the Eagles won as expected. But I'd wager BYU players and coaches are equally culpable. Players didn't make enough plays. Coaches were responsible for the game plan, plays called and accompanying "tweaks" if there were any at all.

Another complaint. For some reason, the plays BYU called against Boston College were pretty static. Perhaps rookie offensive coordinator Robert Anae needs a mulligan. We saw very little of the arsenal used in fall practice, including bootleg action, passes started from under center.

Curtis Brown got plenty of touches but needed more from handoffs rather than swing passes. With a threat of a run attack comes play- action. BYU also needed to attack the middle of the field deep.

In fall drills, BYU's offense scored about every nine passing plays and was more than 75 percent effective in the blue zone. This came against a Cougar defense that gave up just two touchdowns to the Eagles. That kind of defense, in wake of all the hand-wringing over injuries, was good enough for a BYU win last Saturday, if the offense had produced.

On a rolling cover two, like Boston College deployed, the middle of the field is exposed and a defense is vulnerable to backside posts. The defense is designed to force long passes into double or triple coverage. But it yields the short stuff, all that BYU got.

In the second half, there appeared to be little or no adjustments to the Eagle defense. It also hurt that BYU's clutch weapon for attacking the middle of the field, tight end Jonny Harline, had a minor shoulder injury.

Perhaps, because John Beck and Company moved the ball successfully between the 20s, BYU's offensive braintrusts thought they didn't have to show future MWC foe TCU other blocking schemes and routes. Could the chip-and-dink show suffice? Nope. Especially with those holding penalties killing drives to BC's 34, 19, 37, 26 and 5.

BYU's offense has worked all summer on an aggressive, fast-paced mindset. That's why Bronco Mendenhall's "mistake" to punt at the Eagle 34 with nine minutes to play and no touchdowns, was so mind- boggling. It was totally anti-Bronco, a mindset that's had guys run, bike and swim for miles to learn how to "finish."

Playing chicken or a warrior mindset?

"It's been a three-year, four-year battle for these guys to learn how to finish, and it's been an ongoing thing for us," Doman said. "I love them, I think they want it, they're trying hard, they believe and now they have to learn how to make routine plays in critical moments, and we didn't make the routine plays in critical moments."

Norm Chow used to call first games a "crapshoot" because neither side really knows exactly how a script is going to go. Anything can happen.

For the Cougars, the fact they had no turnovers is a building block heading into the Eastern Illinois game.

The holding calls? Simply killers. Those flags alone may have been the most costly part of the Cougar loss.

"That hurt us," Doman said. "If there were five times we held, a few of those were big plays. That last one called back was after a 20-yard completion to Watkins. It's pretty hard to convert on third and long."

Doman has a design wish to work on this week: "I hope this team gets to the point where in third and short, we get it, that it's is automatic and we don't even think about it."

It's all something to think about.

E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com