I correctly predicted via twitter that I would have nightmares about blocked kicks. And so it was. I can't get it out of my mind, that one play with time running out, that one play that lately has always gone BYU's way, that one play that would have been the crowing moment in Mitch Payne's BYU career... when the game should never have hinged on a play like that.
But it did.
Pretty much everything that can be said about the game has been said. There are the bright sides, like how Jake Heaps showed incredible poise in that final possession, moving the ball down the field reminding us of all the great BYU quarterbacks and their precision. As a fan, with very little understanding of everything that goes on in the strategizing of the coaches minds, I would have loved to see them keep pushing ahead, using the clock a little sparingly but still running it down, but getting closer to the end zone. I would have loved to have seen Heaps throw a touchdown pass to beat the Utes. That would have been so satisfying. And it would have felt right, the way a BYU game should end. Somehow we don't really equate big BYU last second wins with field goals...
Could the Utes have been more lucky in this game? The shanked punt that went off BYU and Utah recovered? The Brandon Bradley interception that ended in a (controversial) fumble? The flubbed handoff between Heaps and Quezada? And all the other breaks that went their way.
Really, this game meant very little for BYU's program. The season was already decided for the most part. They are going to a bowl game regardless (please not New Mexico, please not New Mexico), and the turn around of the team, both offensively and defensively, defines this season as a whole. That loss in Logan was a turning point for the young players and I think we can all look forward to next season with confidence that this team will compete.
Anyway, I will be haunted for a while by this game, it would have been so satisfying to win it, but ... ah!
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