Although it wasn't perfect, BYU's play against their FCS opponent McNeese this year was much improved from their play against terrible Portland State last year. These are some of my thoughts from the game,  

1. Tanner Mangum is okay. He's not amazing but he's also not horrible. He also is the best quarterback we have at the moment. I don't think he'll ever have crazy good stats, but the recievers haven't really helped him out either. Through the first 4 games of the season the recievers have dropped far too many catchable balls. I can remember 3 perfectly placed long balls (Collie vs. Cal, Holker vs. Wisc, Romney yesterday) so far this season that have all been dropped and are the reason why Tanner doesn't have a really big completion yet this year. I'm tempted to go rewatch this season's games and adjust Tanner's stats for if balls haven't been dropped, because he would have at least 2 more TD throws and his overall stats would look much less pedestrian. That being said, he is not very consistent. I know Tanner feels most comfortable rolling out of the pocket to throw, but he's just not very successful when doing that. Everytime he rolls out to throw, you can almost bank it will be an incomplete pass. Yesterday when he rolled out to throw, the ball was innacurate. When he stayed in the pocket with feet set, he delivered some nice quick strikes. I could be wrong, but I think 3rd quarter Tanner vs. Arizona didn't really roll out of the pocket either. We haven't seen 3rd quarter vs. Arizona Tanner Mangum make a return, and to beat Washington that Tanner has to show up.

2. Skylar Southam is legit. It's so nice to finally have a field goal weapon. I can't remember the last time BYU had a kicker they felt confident in from 35+ yards. As someone said earlier, all we need to see now is if he's clutch with no time on the clock in the 4th quarter, but he's already had a game-winning field goal at Wisconsin and I think he will have many more to come.

3. Hifo is by far our best reciever. Each time he catches the ball there's always YAC. He's super shifty and it's fun to watch him play. He's the one reciever you can count on to catch the ball every time when it's thrown in his direction. I'm a little dissapointed in Micah Simon. It seems like the past two seasons there's always been a lot of hype surrounding him coming out of fall camp, but it just hasn't really made it's way onto the field. He is our most consistent pass (and pitch :)) dropper, and he hasn't really made too big of an impact so far. I'm hoping he'll be able to get it together soon, because I do think he is a talented athlete.

4. The most overlooked part of yesterday's game is the fact that the defense didn't allow a single 3rd down conversion, I think McNeese went 0-10 or 0-11. FCS or not, that's still pretty impressive, especially considering a good chunk of those 3rd downs were 3rd & short. Tuiaki deserved some heat last year, but so far this season the defense has played very stout. Anytime you only allow a team score a field goal on you is great.

5. The hurry up offense needs to be adjusted in practice this week. We were unsuccessful everytime we went to the hurry-up, because the line wasn't assignment sound and easily let defenders slip through. I don't think we ran for more than 2 yards on a single hurry-up play. 

6. My offensive player of the game is Lopini Kotoa. He had a solid game running the football and it was nice to see him get some of his first significant action since Arizona. Right after Squally fumbled, Lopini came into the game and got things moving quickly. It seems like he's always keeping his legs moving after initial contact, and I like the way he runs. My defensive player of the game is Chris Wilcox. He made some great tackles in the open field, and had good coverage all game. He's going to have a big task going up against the speed of Washington's recievers next Saturday, but I think he'll show up for it. I actually think our secondary is a lot better than they get credit for. 

7. Lastly, football is so much better when the Cougs are winning. Last night I watched Oregon vs. Stanford, Wisconsin vs. Iowa, and Washington vs. Arizona St. all in the interest of how their results would effect BYU's ranking/SOS. This year is so much better than last year and I'm loving it. Who knew we'd be 3-1 to open the season? The fight in this team and coaching staff is a night and day difference from last year, and I'm excited to see how we fare against Washington.

Go Cougs!