BYU football: Grading the Cougars’ performance vs Portland State

Special Teams: Overall Grade D+

Field Goal Unit: C-

Yes, I know that Rhett Almond hit his first and third field goal attempts and did not miss an extra point the whole game.

But he also had a kick tipped (an extra point that still went in) and missed a 33-yard field goal. The miss could’ve easily put the Cougars in a tough position if the Vikings were able to score on the following possession.

Maybe I am being a bit tough on Almond, but I just don’t think that he played as well as he should have.

Punt Team: C+

Jonny Linehan actually had some good punts. Statistically his average of about 44 yards per punt seems like a very solid game. The reason why his grade is a C+ is because his punts did not have a lot of hang time and the punts that had a chance to be downed inside the five yard line rolled out of bounds around the 10. Not a terrible performance by Linehan, just not an amazing performance.

Return Game: D-

There were way too many punts that were fair caught when there was plenty of room for a good return.

On one occasion, Tanner Jacobson had a wide open field, but someone missed their block and it ended up being only a one yard return. Overall on the game, the punt returners had -5 yards and the kick returners had 38 yards. Not a good day for them at all.