BYU football: Grading the Cougars’ performance vs Portland State

Defense: Overall Grade A-

Defensive Line: B

The defensive line did a very good job on first and second down the entire game for BYU football. The flipside of that is the Vikings were able to convert on a number of third and fourth downs. But overall, the defensive line did a good job in the trenches.

Sione Takitaki had seven tackles and two sacks. The big bodies in the middle also did a good job of stuffing the run, forcing PSU to bounce runs outside.

Linebackers: A-

It seemed like Fred Warner was getting every tackle in the game. The senior linebacker flew around the field en route to his 10 tackles. Adam Pulsipher and Matt Hadley – who were filling in for Francis Bernard – played admirably, posting 13 combined tackles.

Considering Butch Pau’u was also not playing, the BYU football linebackers played extremely well. They excelled on the outside of the field, but I’d like to see them improve between the hashes.

Secondary: B-

The secondary played very well, but it was inconsistent.

For most of the game, BYU football looked lost when Portland State was facing third or fourth downs – and the secondary was no exception.

There were at least three passes that the Cougars got a hand on that should’ve been picked off, yet they came away with just one (Zayne Anderson).

Still, the Cougar secondary didn’t get beat often, and played without Micah Hannemann in the first half.