Wow, what an intense game! Brit, the kids and I watched the ending in the lobby at the District Theater while waiting to see Tangled (great family movie by the way) and caught ourselves jumping up and down after Burton's block of Payne's potential game winning field goal. What a great play! This was another instant classic.
Unfortunately BYU fans are crying "foul" for the fumble after the Wynn interception, and are using that as their excuse for BYU losing this game. Facebook, the SL Trib and the D-News comment boards are loaded with comments about the Utes "buying off" referees, or winning only because of the officials, or that the Utes are a bunch of cheaters and are "classless" (haven't we heard that before) in comparison to the BYU players. Seriously? Come on... The Utah players & coaching staff had no control over that call, that is completely on the shoulders of the officials. So layoff with labelling Utah because of a blown call by an official. If the roles had been reversed you wouldn't hear a single complaint from any BYU fans...
You know what this reminds me of: Lavell's last game. BYU came back to beat Utah in 2001 after the officials clearly blew a fumble call against BYU running back Luke Staley. Even Lavell Edwards publicly admits that it was a fumble. If that had been called correctly, Utah would have won, and Lavell's last season would have ended with a 5-7 record, the first losing season of his career. Instead, the officials blew a call, BYU scored a last second TD and sent Lavell off the field as a winner with a 6-6 record. I'm sure a lot of Utah fans complained that night as well, just like the BYU fans are complaining now, but it's part of football.
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| Burton Saves the Day for the Utes! |
The fumble/non-fumble today was a blown call. His knee was down, BYU should have gotten the ball back. I don't disagree with that at all. My question is how did the officials miss that on the review, in slow motion? It's mind boggling, but part of the game. You will win some calls and you'll lose some calls. It's just how it is.
Also, if BYU had converted more on third down (they were 6-15), if they hadn't kicked 3 field goals instead of scoring touchdowns when the opportunities were there, and if they had blocked out Brandon Burton on the most important play of their season, they would have won. They played the better game, but they left opportunities on the field and gave the Utes a chance, which was all they needed to win.
Utah won the game. 17-16 (Despite the fact that Jordan Wynn played terrible, again!), blown call and all... get over it Cougs. You will be burned again by a ref sometime, as will the Utes. If you don't want to see that again, quit watching football. At the end of the day, it is just a game.
Now I feel better... GO UTES! 10 WINS 2 LOSSES... nice season!
*I'm curious to see if they can keep their Bowl winning streak alive with Wynn playing as inconsistently as he is. He did everything possible to lose this game for Utah today, it definitely wasn't a confidence boosting performance on his part.
