because it was Utah football. I think it struggled because they were completely out of synch as a new team playing after two cancellations against a team that had already played two games.

Much the same way LSU fans complained about UCLA having a one game advantage.

The second game was not a mess. Utah dominated UW for 3 quarters before going into ultra conservative mode. Very similar to several of the Utah wins the last several years.

If both BYU and Utah are playing each other in the first game of the year without COVID impacting practices...I don't think you can assume Utah would be as sloppy as they were in their first game. I think the UW game might be a better indication.

I think BYU fans have this tendency of framing Utah in their worst moments and constantly drawing conclusions from there. For example, I watched the Coastal Carolina game rooting heavily for BYU. I felt BYU was out of synch. It wasn't fair because the Cougars traveled so far and on such short notice.

I wouldn't dare hold that against BYU and presume Utah would've beaten them that week too — and assume a hypothetical victory.

I thought BYU played exceptional last week. Major props. But I don't think BYU handled Micah Bernard at all. In fact, I think if Ty was there, the entire game plan on both sides would've shifted dramatically — and Ty would've have the same success Micah had, but throughout the game.

Hypotheticals are never fair to the winner...so I shy away from those. But I don't buy any assumptions that BYU would've automatically beaten Utah just because.