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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — When BYU fans reminisce about season openers in the future, this weird, sloppy game in stormy Charlottesville, Virginia will definitely come up. It won't just be about the two-hour delay that tested the patience of Cougar and Cavs fans across the nation, but also the memory of the debut of Robert Anae 2.0 — Oh, and a bad loss.
The long delay put on hold the fast and hard offense that everyone was hoping would be the answer for the Cougar scoring woes from the last few years. The offense sputtered, big time, and it wasn't enough to get the win.
Initial problems began with an offensive line that was porous and wasn't ready in many cases for the snap count. False start penalties killed. From there, pressure from the Virginia front four made Taysom Hill uncomfortable, even before the big rains came in the second half.
Hill had a hard time finding rhythm and finding open receivers for the first three and a half quarters. Even his signature scrambles lacked flash and never really panned out to anything. When this type of offense has such little production, it makes things very hard on the defense. Three-and-outs came even faster and they were almost as good as a turnover as Virginia held onto the football 10 more minutes than the Cougars.
Then came the 92-yard drive in the latter part of the fourth quarter that breathed some life into the Cougs and gave them a brief lead. But big mistakes were the death of BYU.
One bright spot of that offense was Jamaal Williams who was the workhorse and offensive MVP of the day. His stat line at the end of the day put him at 33 carries for 137 yards.
Two huge turnovers proved to be the game for BYU — don't forget the terrible penalties, also. The late interception and the blocked punt basically handed Virginia the contest.
For as good as the defense is, you can't ask them to make stops on drives that start inside your own 15 yard line. Speaking of the defense, they were pretty solid as many expected. Giving up a very respectable 230 yards, it looks like the same old tune as the last couple of years as the offense has a lot of work to do to catch up to the consistent defense.
