The Cougars Light Up the Lobos

The Cougars do it again. After winning a tough game (in the final 3 quarters) against the Utah State Aggies, BYU comes back to beat the New Mexico Lobos in what was a tough defensive battle. Max Hall had his 3 touchdowns (which has now become the weekly norm for him) and a total of 265 yards passing. The Cougar running game got into the mix as well with 117 total yards rushing led by Harvey Unga with 95 yards. The Cougars displayed a balanced attack with a strong running game and an always potent passing game led by Hall at QB and his favorite target- Austin Collie. BYU also showed that their defense can rise to the occasion as well in the games that become a defensive battle. The defense held the Lobos offense to 155 yards passing and 130 yards rushing (which was good considering the Lobos have a powerful running team). They also had 3 sacks and 1 interception. The Lobos were able to only manage 7 points against the stingy defense of BYU.

In the past 4 games (including a game against Pac-10 UCLA) the Cougars have held opponents to 17 points while their high flying offense has put 158 points on the board. That is what I call total domination on both sides of the ball. I think it would be difficult to find a team that has scored more points and held the opposition to such low point totals for any 4-game stretch this year. With the offense and defense firing on all cylinders, the sky is the limit for the Cougars. They are ranked 8th place in the National Polls and if they can pull off another win against TCU, they should move up even further. The game against TCU will be at TCU and will be a great test for BYU to see how they fare against another tough Mountain West football team who is currently ranked 24th in the National Coaches Poll. My prediction is that BYU will pull out a close game with a strong running game and average passing game. TCU puts up a tough fight but the Cougars win this one 24-21.

On to the Packers. Green Bay finally awakens from their 3-game slumber to take down the Seahawks. The game against Seattle wasn’t the best game the Packers have played this year, but is one that they sorely needed to win. After losing 3 straight games, they knew going into Seattle that they had to take control and put this game away early. The Seahawks came into the game minus their top 2 receivers and their QB Matt Hasselbeck was out with an injured knee. With the injury situation, the Seahawks “were ripe for picking”.
The Packers came out a little flat and were tied at 10 with the Seahawks at halftime, but Coach McCarthy must have really lit a fire under the team during the half because the Pack came out and scored 17 points in the second half and showed off their passing duo of Aaron Rodgers and Greg Jennings. The Packers went on to win the game by a score of 27-17. The win was not much to be excited about, other than it gave the Packers a little extra lift as they play against the Indianapolis Colts next week in Green Bay. Any other year, I would think that the Colts would be victorious in this matchup but with the way the Colts have been playing this year, I have to give the edge to the Packers. With the Pack at home and the combination of a good defense and the hot arm of Aaron Rodgers, the Packers win this one in a shootout; 36-30.

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