...utter dismantling of K-State while factoring in Oklahoma St's feeble showing at home vs Utah?

Came away from our win at SMU thinking, "OK, they weren't as good as advertised and our D is much improved." They obviously bounced back and used an opportunistic D (forced TCU to be one-dimensional, forced 5 TO's) combined with a dominant rushing attack to get out to a fast start and then cruise to the 66-42 win. Maybe they're better than I thought?

I watched part of the Utah/OK St game and it was dull and methodical, in pretty typical KWhitt fashion. Kind of like watching an anaconda slowly and continually tighten it's grip and suffocate it's prey. Utah controlled the LOS and the game and slowly started to pull away. OK St made the score look closer than the game actually was. OK St wasn't as good or physical on either side of the ball as I thought they'd be. I suppose they did a decent job of bend but don't break by only giving up 22 pts.

Which gets us to our game...one of the local media outlets wrote that we won by "smoke and mirrors". I don't agree necessarily with that assessment. We were great on special teams and after getting a KO return TD last week vs Wyoming we followed that up with a friggin' 93 yd punt return for a TD which was actually closer to 150 yds when you count the reverse yardage going back across the field. When was the last time BYU had a punt return TD and a kick return TD in the same season?? That's not smoke and mirrors, it shows we have speed and athleticism in all facets of the game, including ST.

Our D had a healthy blend of bend-but-don't break and opportunism working. The scoop and score is our 2nd defensive TD this year, which again shows that what we're doing on D isn't smoke and mirrors either. We might not look as suffocating on D as Utah does but our D looks legit and the stats are starting to bear that out (#23 Total D, #23 4th Down Conv D, T13th Def TD's, #32 First Down D, T20th Fumbles recovered, T18th Int, #15 pass yds allowed, T32nd RZ D, T18th scoring D, #3 Team Pass Eff D, #23 TO margin, #15 TO's gained). Even sacks are much improved. Our D is definitely not doing it by smoke and mirrors.

This brings us to the offense. Very credible job and they showed some growth from the start of the season which is encouraging. They seemed composed and it was nice to see JR play more like a game manager and seem to do well in that role. Still things to clean up (some poorly thrown balls, missed seeing wide open guys, WR drops etc) but he seemed much more calm and in control of things and less wigged out and helter-skelter. Not sure if what we saw from Moa at RB was his coming out party or just a guy stepping up in that moment but his ability to make the first guy miss, then fight through contact for additional yards was very reminiscent of Tyler Allgeier (or Harvey Unga). Definitely no smoke and mirrors there. Until LJ gets 100% I think we have our guy in Moa.

So, we are looking like a — dare I say it — legit contender for a top 4 or 5 spot in the Big12 this year. Still a lot of football to play, a lot of our depth and player health to be tested, several big games yet to play...but ...man, what an impressive win this weekend and showing in all 3 phases.