BYU Football: Turnovers and two other keys to beating Cal

BYU Football enters their game against Cal with one notch in the win column. If they want to put another win in that column, there’s three things they’ll have to do exceptionally well.

Contrary to what most expected a week ago, BYU Football sits at 1-0 on the season, and if they can knock off Call in Week 2 they’ll have two strong wins over two PAC-12 schools.

For a team that’s looking to put a disastrous 2017 season in the rear-view mirror, a 2-0 start would go a long way.

Just like Arizona, Cal is a beatable team, but they’re dangerous enough to beat BYU too.

There are a few areas the Cougars will have to excel in if they want to keep that zero in the loss column.

Turnovers

Cal knocked off North Carolina 24-17 in Week 1, and it wasn’t because of Cal’s incredible offensive ball movement. The Golden Bears only had 279 yards of total offense, and their three-quarterback carousel was relatively ineffective.

But they forced four turnovers.

One of those was a pick-six, and another gave Cal a short field that led to a touchdown. Without those turnovers, the Golden Bears wouldn’t have won their opener.

If Cal can win the turnover battle against BYU, they’ll be in position to pull off the road win. The Cougar defense should make it difficult for the Cal offense to consistently sustain long drives, but if they can capitalize on BYU mistakes and have short fields they can put points on the board.

On the flip side, BYU didn’t force any turnovers against Arizona, and Cal didn’t commit any against North Carolina.

If neither team commits a turnover on Saturday, the Cougars should have the edge.

But if BYU can win the turnover battle they’ll have a giant advantage.