I'm getting tired of the Tanner apologists on the board still claiming that the offensive woes are not Tanner's fault. At this point of the season it's really, really difficult to make any case other than it being Tanner's fault. Could our wr's be better? Absolutely. Could our o-line be better? Absolutely. But when your qb doesn't look down field or even see the receivers that are open, and the opposing defenses have film on him and know his tendencies, smart defensive coordinators are going to roll the dice and make Tanner beat you in the air. He's not going to do it often and playing the numbers game, you'll come out on top against BYU by stopping the run. I saw many plays last week where Utah State stacked the box. They had no fear of Tanner and him beating them with the pass.

Here's just one example, and if you want you can go back to the film and find several more shots of this exact same scenario. It was the second quarter, BYU was already down 21-0 (thanks to Tanner acting like a freaking JV high school quarterback and throwing right at the USU linebacker for a pick 6). You look at this defensive scheme and tell me if you think the jet sweep will work or if we have good odds at getting a running game going. For those that want to point the blame to the RB's and o-line, how are you going to get a running game going against that?

It's 3rd and 6 and they don't fear Tanner at all. For those that don't remember he got flustered and threw a terrible incomplete pass that was no where near anybody and we had to punt. Go ahead and count them. That's 10 defenders within 2 yards of the line of scrimmage in this photo. 

The play before this Tanner had Katoa WIDE open at the sticks just waiting for a pass. Tanner never once looked his way. It was a great play call by the coaches. They brought Katoa in motion out of the backfield into the slot. Then when the ball was snapped he ran right to the sticks and waited. Had his arms open and was just waiting for a pass. No defender was within 5 yards of him but Tanner paniced, rolled out of the pocket and threw the ball out of bounds. Look at the top of the screen shot and you'll see Katoa wide open. I could hit that pass.