There are other games going on besides BYU and Utah...
Utah State at Wisconsin
Sure, Utah State can beat a rival, and I think that they proved last year at Auburn that they are capable of running with the big boys. If the Aggies win, don't expect anyone from a big conference to ever schedule the Aggies again. While I think USU makes the game close, winning at Camp Randall Stadium is tough for anyone no matter how good they are. This is similar to the environment at Auburn last year, but the Badgers will be ready for Utah State, where Auburn may have been taken by surprise last year. USU played a tough defense last week and put up 30 points on them. The offense will be going against an equally tough defense this week, the question is how well the USU defense does when the crowd is against them.
Wisconsin 36 USU 30
New Mexico Highlands at Southern Utah
SUU played Cal close for 3 quarters and USU...we not so close. Plenty of frustration to take out on a lower-division team.
SUU 45 NMHU 10
McNeese State at Weber State
Weber opened with two losses to FBS opponents. McNeese opened the season with wins at Middle Tennessee and a DII opponent. Weber will need to play like they did early against Fresno State in order to get the first win of the season. McNeese state appears to be a quality team for an FCS school, and should make a lot of noise in the Southland Conference this year. Most importantly, the Cowboys are well-rested as it appears that most of their starters were resting by halftime last week. Where Weber's starters were struggling against BYU's backups. But WSU did have one good, mostly running drive late in the 3rd quarter. Usually, all this would translate to a McNeese victory. I don't believe that this is the week that WSU gets into the win column. I feel like I am being generous to WSU by giving McNeese only a 14-point advantage.
McNeese State 35 Weber State 21
BYU at Utah
Fans on both sides have a lot to be concerned about this week. Mostly on the offensive line. Last week, USU's scoring happened when Kerwin Williams was able to break through to the secondary. Weber was able to score on BYU by getting the defense frustrated and luring them into penalties. BYU will have to learn to control their behavior on defense and their turnovers on offense to win. Utah will have to learn to contain BYU's short game and not allow a lot of yards after catch or a lot of long runs to win. I expect to see a little of both. I expect the Utah offense to get caught at least once trying to lure the BYU defense into giving up a personal foul penalty. The difference in the game should be the quarterback position, which gives a slight edge to BYU.
BYU 24 Utah 17
No comments:
Post a Comment