BYU football: ECU, the final showdown

 BYU football’s worst start in a half century has led them to a last-chance showdown with East Carolina University.

BYU football fans, this is it.

When the Cougars failed to pass the 50-yard line against LSU, it was a rude awakening. When they dropped the game against Utah, it shifted the season for the worse.

And when they were KO’d against Utah State, the floor dropped out, and any chance for the 2017 team to be called “good” was turned over.

Today, against the Pirates of East Carolina University, BYU football will either earn a chance to be known as a mediocre team that rallied, or as one of the worst Cougar squads since the Beatles broke up.

You’ve probably heard that the Pirates are bad on defense. The worst, actually—dead last in scoring defense and yards given up per game in the FBS. You likely know far better than you’d like that the Cougars are dragging around the third worst scoring offense in the 50 states.

Something’s gotta give.

The identical 1-6 records of these teams has turned the game into a final showdown.

The 7 PM ET time kickoff might as well be high noon. The winner will limp on, alive to fight another week, and the loser will get to pick what goes on his tombstone. And it won’t be pepperoni and cheese.

Because a loss here means no chance at a bowl game, and no winning record. The graveyard of college football.

And if the Cougars lose?

Will I still be watching should the Cougars take a nosedive in Greenville?

Well, yeah.

Bottom of the heap or not, the Cougars are my team. After walking the thorny path this long, five or six more stabbing pains aren’t going to make that much difference.

But if BYU football can’t pull it out in a game they should win, against a team any Cougar team in the last decade would chew up and spit out without leaving so much as a hook, peg leg, or eyepatch, expect a double barrel of snark and gallows humor until basketball comes in for the save.

Because at some point, once the third engine has blown and you’re careening toward the earth in a tailspin, there’s no getting off.

You just gotta look down and laugh.