What We Learned From Week Five in Mountain West Football

The main thing we learned is that the WAC might be catching up to at least the bottom of the MWC.  The WAC had wins of Idaho over Colorado State and Nevada over UNLV.

Air Force

The Navy Midshipman own the Falcons with their seventh straight defeat over Air Force.  QB Tim Jefferson did play despite being questionable and he was not fully healthy.  He was forced to pass more then normal and went 6/14 for 57 yards and a pick.  His running abilities were stifled by Navy.  The third down conversion rate for Air Force was around fifty percent prior to this game, but went 3-16 on those tries.

BYU

Max Hall is turning into a turnover machine and so far on the year he leads the nation in interceptions with ten on the year.  That is a nice round average of two per game.  Offensive Coordinator Robert Anae is trying to take the blame for Hall's picks.  The Utah State safety made a great play on one of the picks, but Max Hall was staring down the receiver the whole way.  The coaching staff needs to make adjustments which is what they had problems with last year, and this year the same things are happening.  The glaring weakness is that BYU feels they must be balanced even though they have the running backs to take over a game.  BYU is just not improving each week.

Colorado State

QB Grant Stucker's accuracy came into question in this game, he had multiple tries with wide receivers wide open for a deep ball and was overthrowing them.  Those few misfires possibly cost the Rams the game against Idaho who is a real surprise this year at 4-1.  The Rams defense was unable to stop the Vandals on offense.  Idaho was not making long plays but they were making key plays. The CSU secondary was getting abused by two players --Max Komar and Eric Greenwood.  Those two combined for 282 of the 333 passing yards.

New Mexico

Besides that they are still terrible. However there was improvement with the defense forcing five turnovers, QB Donovan Porterie threw for over 300 yards, and for the first time all year the Lobos had a 100 yard rusher with AJ Butler.

That is improvement, but the record is at 0-5, and the hope for the Lobos is that they can carry over this improved performance in conference play.

San Diego State

The Aztecs pulled off their first win over an FBS opponent by beating down New Mexico State.  However, the regularly good passing game was held in check with Ryan Lindley only completing seven passes for 123 yards.  The defense did step up by forcing four turnovers, and limiting NMSU to 234 yards.  The Aztecs now need a game where the offense and defense perform at a high level, and then they might be able to compete with more teams.

TCU

The Horned Frog defense is really, really good. The rush defense held SMU to negative rushing yards over all, and only 26 yards when sack yardage is removed.  They also slowed down June Jones passing offense to only 240 yards which was over eighty yards under their season average.  The TCU offense was just ok, but good enough to rack off 39 points in their recent route.

UNLV

The Rebels reverted to their old self and were waxed by a below average Nevada team.  The defense is a complete mess and can not cover or stop the rushing attack. The offense has been nothing special, and even though Mark Clausen subbed in for the injured Omar Clayton the offense still suffered; even though last year he lead them to a few victories.

Utah

The Utes were off this week, and all they were concentrating on was getting players healthy.  Side note on the polls, how is Utah not ranked.  They are not getting credit for a close loss over Oregon while Boise State is getting a ton of credit for a win. Now with conference play Utah may need to get to a record of 5-1 or 6-1 to get back into the polls.

Wyoming

Do not look now but Wyoming has won two and a row and now 3-2 on the year.   The Pokes stayed with Austyn Carta-Samules for the second week for the entire game.  Looks like Dave Christensen is leading the way for the new coaches within the Mountain West.  Half way to bowl eligibility the Pokes have a real shot with games still to be played with New Mexico and San Diego State, and a possible upset over Air Force or Colorado State makes them bowl eligible.