Shapes Up Nicely: BYU 38, AFA 24

Just what the doctor ordered.  On the heels of a beating of conference doormat SDSU last week to shake the rust off, the Cougars went up against an efficient, talented and hard-nosed group of cadets at the Air Force Academy and battled start to finish with several clear momentum swings and overcoming some mistakes to get a solid win against a close-to-top-25 team on the road.  

The advantage is in the mental preparation and mindset going up to Salt Lake this Saturday to take on the Utes.  At halftime of the BYU-Air Force game, a late turnover had led to Air Force taking a 14-10 lead.  Austin Collie asked for a chance to give a few words to his teammates, and basically called them to task and asked them to step up to the level they are capable of.  They did so in the second half and got the win.  

Which brings is to an epic battle shaping up in Salt Lake this week.  The combined records of the two teams at 21-1 has never been better in the entire history of the rivalry, nor have the teams faced each other as top-fifteen ranked teams.  Oh, yeah, and a conference championship is on the line, and a BCS bowl.  

Utah's strength is its defense, and it is a very good one.  At the same time, when BYU plays without mistakes on offense, they are nearly impossible to stop.  The question mark is that BYU needs/wants its biggest guns all on the field, but Dennis Pitta got a pretty major MCL strain in the second half against Air Force.  If he can be out there Saturday and effective, I expect the Cougar offense to be very strong.  Even without Pitta, Andrew George is pretty much Pitta's equal and will be outstanding I think.  You could argue that a "fresh" George could be a better target for Max Hall in this game than an injured Dennis Pitta.  

And I can't fail to comment on the unbelievable talent that we have in our other major weapons: Max Hall, Austin Collie, Harvey Unga, and Fui Vakapuna and Michael Reed.  Max Hall is putting up eye-popping numbers this season, including completing over 70% of his passes and, during the Air Force game, becoming the top single-season-TD-passer in Mountain West history.  He is on track to pass even John Beck by the time he's through, though Ty Detmer may remain out of reach in terms of passing yards for a career.

Austin Collie is in the process of blowing away the entire BYU record book for receiving, and if he keeps it up may blow away conference records and even national ones.  I still need to confirm this, but I think he only needs a couple dozen yards to become BYU's all-time leading receiver.  He continues to be the top receiver in all the land so far this year.  He is breaking receiving TD records as well.  And he simply impresses pretty much every time he runs a route and gets a catch.  He was even impressive in BLOCKING on a couple of key plays in the Air Force game.  What a stud.  

It's going to be quite a week and quite a battle shaping up...GO COUGARS! 

My estimation is that the game will hinge on the BYU defense.  If that unit takes the responsibility and load on its shoulders to win this thing, I think we do so.