BYU football: Grading the Cougars’ performance vs Portland State
By Adam Gibby
Offense: Overall Grade C+
Quarterback: B-
Tanner Mangum played alright. He completed 16 of 27 passes for 194 yards on the day, which is a decent performance. However, this won’t be good enough for some of the upcoming opponents on BYU football’s schedule.
Mangum did not have any interceptions, however he did consistently seem to throw a little bit off target. The deep ball was open a few times, and Mangum was able to hit his receivers about 50 percent of the time going deep.
So Mangum didn’t do anything bad, he just did not do anything that great.
Running backs: B+
The running backs had a really good game. Kavika Fonua actually had the best game, however, his stats won’t show that because he was denied a 35+ yard run and an eight yard touchdown because of penalties.
Squally Canada was hit and miss with a mixture of good and bad runs. Canada had some runs of seven to 10 yards, and also a lot of runs that were stuffed.
KJ Hall did not really get a chance to show off his ability as a runner, however he was the best pass blocker. He also had a nice first down catch at a crucial time in the game when Portland State appeared to be taking away the momentum.
Receivers/Tight Ends: C+
Overall, the receivers did pretty well at holding onto the ball during this game. Matt Bushman had the best game with three catches for 56 yards.
It appeared in this game that Mangum did not have a favorite receiver – which could be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it.
The routes seemed sloppy and there were a few times when it seemed like the receivers did not seem to know where they were going. Mangum wasn’t able to find open receivers for much of the game.
Offensive Line: C+
The good news, Tanner Mangum only got sacked one time.
The bad news, Mangum was forced to throw a lot of balls away and not be able to step up in the pocket to deliver accurate passes to the receivers.
Also, the running backs had multiple running attempts when there was no hole to run through. There needs to be improvements if the Cougars expect any offensive success against the LSU Tigers, the offensive line will need to do better. Perhaps the most concerning play was when the Cougars were at the one yard line and were unable to get enough of a push to allow Mangum in on a quarterback sneak.