This is my favorite time of year.  The non-conference games are out of the way and we get to witness the fight to the finish for the MWC teams as they battle on another for pride and the coveted championship.  This week answered some more questions as we pitted controversial teams against one another to see where the conference stacks up.

Air Force 10 (4-3, 3-1) – Wyoming 0

Man what a game this was.  For any of you who got on the Mountain early (I don’t know why you would watch more of that station than you need to) you were able to see a great MWC football game.  I was hoping that Wyoming would pull it out so that I would look better with my pick, but how can you root against the guys that defend our country (other than the 4 hours where they play us)?

Jefferson is definitely a dual threat QB and I believe that although he can not BEAT BYU, he will for sure give us all we can handle.  He is their offense and they need him to keep the defense on their toes.

One thing I have noticed about AFA is that they are going back to Falcon Football.  When Calhoun came he put in more of a spread offense and kept the triple option in his hip pocket.  Now, when AFA wants to move the ball they go back to the option and then use the Spread to try and get the big gains.  The experiment with becoming a new team and a new identity was fun while it lasted, but let’s be honest.  The AFA OL is best when cutting, so just run the option.

#16 BYU 38 (6-1, 3-0) – San Diego State 28

OK so Quinn already did a bang up job on this game and I am not going to try and top that so see his article.  All I will say is that 3 reall great things came out of this game:

1) We Won a conference road game.

2) We moved up 2 spots in the polls.

3) We are undefeated in conference and sitting pretty going against the other best team in the conference.

Colorado State 6 (3-4, 0-3) - #6 TCU 44

So all those non-conference wins against high school teams are not adding up to much for the Rams who are no perfectly defeated in conference.  If you want to use a like comparison, TCU did what we should have done to the Rams and limited them to 182 yards of total offense on the night.  The Rams had 55 MORE total yards than BYU when we played (438) and yet two turnovers and a blocked punt helped the Cougs stay on top.

My question to the Rams is where was Leggit, you know the guy that put up 156 yards of receiving on us?  Must be that our secondary is not as good as TCU’s.

New Mexico (0-6, 0-2) Idle

Finally a week without a loss for the Lobos.  Although they may have lost a coach so technically they remain perfectly defeated on the year!  Way to go New Mexico!

San Diego State 28 (2-4, 0-2) – #16 BYU 38

San Diego State was able to showcase their talented players and show that they do deserve respect even if they are not very good.  This was a statement to those who wanted us to focus on TCU this week, rather than prepare for the current opponent.  The players were looking past SDSU and it put them in the middle of a dog fight that never should have happened.

In watching film you knew that SDSU had very athletic and very talented Receivers.  They demanded respect and we did not give it to them.  Luckily they are slightly worse as a team than FSU or it would have been loss #2 for the BYU and Bye Bye Championship.

#8 TCU 44 (6-0, 2-0) – Colorado State 6

This one was all Horned Frogs, All the Time!  Kerley’s the real deal as we witnessed last year and he has even gotten better.  I would expect to see a lot of the Wildcat!

The thing about TCU this year as opposed to last year is that I don’t feel like they are as explosive and big play oriented.  They are just consistent and methodical.  I am not sure which is better to face, but if we play disciplined D then we should get some stops.

UNLV 15 (2-5, 0-3) – #18 Utah 35

UNLV really missed a golden opportunity to take down the Utes and ended up on the wrong side of a three score win.  With 327 yards of Total offense for both teams it was UNLV’s inability to finish drives that left them out of the game.  They kicked 2 FGs from 21 and 27.  That means those drives stalled on the 4 and 10 yards lines respectively.  The last FG in the 3rd quarter came from 37 which means they stalled out on the 20.  Utah on the other hand didn’t have to kick any FG’s as they scored TDs for all 5 scores.

UNLV also gave up two quick and easy scores with Utah having to go only 8 yards on one and returning and INT on the 18 yards line for another.

#18 Utah 35 (5-1, 2-0) - UNLV 15

The Ute wrap up is going to sound pretty familiar, three major points to make of it:

1) They Won a conference road game.

2) They moved up 6 spots in the polls.

3) They are undefeated in conference and sitting pretty going down the stretch, before having to play AT TCU and AT BYU.

Wyoming 0 (4-3, 2-1) – AFA 10

No doubt this was a defensive show-down, and Carta-Samuels was grounded by the fighter jets of AFA.  It really came down to Field Position in the second half and in the 3rd quarter Wyoming went 3 and out from their own 8, 9, and 20 on 3 of 4 possessions in the 3rd quarter.  A missed FG in the 2nd quarter would have helped change some risky play calling in the 4th quarter as well, because it would have only been a 1 score difference.

Week 7 Rankings
1. TCU
2. BYU (barely staying in the #2 spot thanks in part to the BCS Poll)
3. Utah (back at #3 for all you semi-ute fans)
4. Air Force (moves past WYO with a head to head win)
5. Wyoming (the last of the teams with Conference wins)
6. SDSU*
7. CSU*
8. UNLV*
9. New Mexico

*does it really matter what order we put these guys in?  None of them will get a conference win until they beat each other up.

-Markell Staffieri