First let me say I'm loving this season and this loss has not effected that feeling at all. I took my 6-year old son to his first BYU game today in the rain, cold, and with a loss and guess what... it was magical. He loved it (cougar-tails, hot dog, Cosmo, flags, atmosphere, Dad-time, fight song, yelling, dancing, pompoms on and on) and we have a rich memory to share. Because of that I am on cloud 9 and in the midst of this loss I believe I can give some realistic views on this game and season without this being a "rant" or blue eyed.

Here are some thoughts numbered by when they come to my mind, divided for ease of reading and with no other significance given to their order.

1. You can't lose the turnover battle 4-0 and expect to have any real chance to win.

2. What happened to our run game and run defense? I'm thinking the offense was thrown by fumbling all day but it was a surprisingly poor showing.

3. I love Hall and feel blessed to have him but he clearly is not healthy and he or the coaches or both know it. His legs were not used at all and they should have been incredibly valuable in this game. If I can give Boise St some serious credit on defense it is that they seemed to have gambled that that would be the case an it paid off. IMO without his legs Hall is not better than Romney though he is still good. I trust the coaches to decide here and don't have a strong opinion but I think its worth acknowledging that dual threat QBs are prone to injury, injury throws the Offense out of whack and that should also be a point of consideration when determining a starter. Regardless I'm grateful for our depth at that position.

4. I am vehemently opposed to returning kickoffs since the touchback rules have changed. Maybe if we had a 4.2 running, small, wirey 80% dedicated as a return specialist player who knew how to run 98% vertical with one quick upfield cut I would feel different. I don't know the stats but I rarely see any team get more than the touch back but I see lots of injuries, turnovers, holdings, block in the backs etc. My mind will not be changed on this matter.

5. Far too many CBers discounted Boise St. which is frankly ridiculous and prideful. Even a great team can be beat and unless our opponent is a perennial bottom third team they should be considered dangerous especially if we have a top 10 ranking. Beating a team with a top 10 ranking is the holy grail of turning any program around and every coach is trying to hype up his damaged team to take that plunge. Yeah we made mistakes but they capitalized on every one and they in turn made virtually no major mistakes.

6. Pauu's endzone drop was a heart breaker.

7. Worst coaching call of the night IMO: going for it on 4th and 5 down 13 pts with 11:22 left. If we needed two touchdowns then sure. If it 4th and 1 then maybe. As is it made no sense at all. Total greedy desperation play. We needed momentum and to put points on the board since we had done nothing since the first quarter. We have a great kicker who can hit that short field goal plus something later to the tune of 50+ yards. Field goal means we needs a touch down and a field goal to tie and any more puts us ahead. There is no way that that scenario is not statistically more likely then scoring on 4th and 5. Instead we take a huge risk, psych up their defense and hand them all kinds of momentum with nothing to show for it. Fans are funny because my Dad and I were the only ones around us yelling "no take the field goal" over and over again and I saw two people look at me like we were crazy and didn't understand the situation we were in.

8. I thought the game was a great atmosphere. Even with a loss I suspect many visiting recruits felt the same way.

9. I would have taken 5-1 before the season started no question. Undefeated is unbelievably unlikely and I don't think it pessimistic to say so. This team is good and tons of fun. I could see us losing a couple more and this season will still be a resounding success.

10. Getting into the Big 12 is already having a healthy outcome on my psyche. Losing a game no longer bears the implications that we may have missed a small window to prove ourselves to the world.

11. Shakir is really good. Incredible catch with 5 minutes left.

12. Love how Puka fights for the ball

13. There are really strong feelings on either side of the Tuiaki's defense debate. Can the truth not lie somewhere in the middle? The defense wasn't the reason we lost the game. I guess I feel like when we are playing down we need to be more defensively disruptive because we need the ball back so we can score. It felt like there was a lack of that. Did we blitz at all tonight? Personally I don't like Tuiaki's defense but I confess sometimes I wonder if Tuiaki is genius and I'm and idiot. I actually think playing against Grimes will be eye opening. Grimes should be intimately familiar with our defense and if their offense so I'm intrigued to see what Tuiaki counters that with or if our defense gets completely exposed.

14. I'm continually surprised by how little RPO we use given how successful it was last year. This is true even before Hall's injury.

15. Why did we burn over 7 minutes on a possession when we were several scores down and timing was running out fast. It seemed like a head scratcher. For the 3rd and beginning of the 4th it felt like we were playing with no urgency in play calling.

16. Driving home from a loss at 5:30 pm is millions of miles better than driving home from a loss at 12 am. More afternoon home games would be great.

Bonus thought: My son telling me how fun the game was in the middle of the 4th and saying we should come again warmed my little blue heart. I love BYU!