BYU football: Cougar offense tough to remain positive on

BYU football has now played four games in the 2017 season. The Cougar offense is inept in every sense of the word. Just how bad is it? Buckle up.

BYU football clashed with Wisconsin last week, scoring just six points against a stingy Badgers defense. It was the second time in four games that BYU football was held without a touchdown.

In fact, the Cougars have scored just four touchdowns through four games. Two came against Utah, the other two against Portland State.

So just how putrid is BYU football’s offense?

Buckle up, because it gets real ugly, real quick.

Only UTEP and Georgia Southern have averaged fewer yards per game than BYU football. The Cougars rank 126th nationally in points per game, with a lowly 9.8 per contest.

The Cougars also rank 119th in passing yards per game and 123rd in rushing yards per game.

Hold on, it gets worse.

BYU football is 127th in time of possession and last in first downs per game.

Those last two are particularly bad, because it has a direct influence on the defense.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that BYU’s defense is good enough to keep the Cougars in most games. But when the defense has to stay on the field for 40+ minutes (something that happened against LSU and Wisconsin), they understandably get tired.

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Once they get gassed, they give up massive drives that kill the clock and end in points.

After the loss to the Badgers, Kalani Sitake was extremely frustrated. You could tell by the nature of his comments that he was growing more displeased with the lack of effort and lack of talent.

One of the lone offensive players who showed up against Wisconsin was wide receiver Micah Simon. Here’s what the wide out told the Salt Lake Tribune’s Jay Drew after the game.

“I think we are still just trying to work things out. We’ll learn from it and we’ll be fine.”

I know what Simon is getting at. Sure, it’s coach speak, but what else is he supposed to say? After all, he’s probably not wrong. The Cougars will be fine, but that might have less to do with them “working things out” and more to do with the back end of the schedule being weak.

It’s easy to have all the kinks out against Fresno State. Or San Jose State.

The tough thing is that the Cougars didn’t look great against Portland State, either. So it’s tough to tell if BYU is just bad offensively or if that was just week zero jitters. It’s easier to forgive what happened against LSU, Utah and Wisconsin because those are three of the best defenses in the nation.

Plus, had things just look a little different on the scoreboard, we might not be quite as upset. If BYU football fell to LSU 27-10, that feels like a much more positive outcome.

Hopefully the Cougars can get back on track during the bye week.