BYU Football: How the Cougars can beat every team on the schedule

In order to have a chance in each game in 2018, BYU Football will need the right combination of luck, skill, and finding the opponent’s biggest weakness.

BYU is not projected to go to a bowl game this season. Even with blue goggles on, most fans don’t see 2018 as a year the Cougars will find themselves in a BCS bowl game. But it’s also wrong to completely write off the Cougars in any games.

Often times, to pull off upsets, teams need to expose the other team’s biggest weakness and then take advantage of it. For example, Air Force and Navy are both known for taking down ranked teams because they expose a defense’s struggle against the option.

Here is what BYU will have to do in every game to have their best chance in winning.

Arizona

The Cougars are currently projected to lose this game by about two touchdowns, which is really high for an opening-week game. Most predictions have the Wildcats scoring in the 30’s and leaving the Cougars in the low 20’s.

So the key will be the defense, because the Cougars likely won’t be winning in a shootout. Arizona is too explosive and at home.

The best chance the Cougars have is to make quarterback Kahlil Tate stay in the pocket. Last season when Tate was held under six yards per rush the Wildcats were 0-5. When he was over six they went 6-0.

California

BYU Football is also projected to lose this game, but many view this as the Cougars best chance to get a Power Five win. California’s quarterback Ross Bowers threw for over 3,000 yards last season but didn’t have the best touchdown-to-interception ratio. He threw 18 TD’s and 12 INT’s. This isn’t a terrible ratio, but it is a possible opportunity for BYU.

In games where Bowers threw at least one interception, California went 2-4 in 2017. In games where he didn’t throw an interception, the Bears went 3-3.

The big opportunity here  will be momentum and home field advantage for the Cougars if they’re able to make Bowers uncomfortable. For that reason, the Cougars should drop the linebackers into a zone and keep the corners in man defense. This will raise the chances to force some turnovers.

Wisconsin

Last year, Wisconsin beat the Cougars through the air and on the ground. Hornibrook had his highest completion percentage ever against BYU (18 out of 19), and freshman Jonathan Taylor ran for 128 yards on just 18 carries. If the Cougars want ANY chance of beating the Badgers this year, they’ll have to expose a weakness that isn’t really a weakness.

Tempo.

BYU is going to have to have long drives to give the defense a chance to rest. It will also give the Badgers less possessions to score on. If BYU can put together three or four six-minute drives, then there’s a chance that the Cougars can win. This will require BYU to score on these drives and the defense to come up with some stops, something they couldn’t do last season.