Whelp, BYU Football, that was embarrassing

BYU Football’s 45-20 home loss to Utah State was nothing short of embarrassing, and there’s plenty of blame to go around.

To preface this, Utah State is a really good football team.

With that said, even a really good Aggie team shouldn’t be able to walk into LaVell Edwards Stadium and make BYU Football look like a high school JV team.

The Cougars got beat in every facet of the game for the second straight week. Last week they were beaten soundly by a much more talented team. This week they were beaten just as soundly by Utah State.

Embarrassing.

A lot of things have to be figured out and corrected, and it’ll have to happen fast if BYU wants to reach bowl eligibility.

Let’s not beat a dead horse, though, and let’s look at some specific takeaways from the loss:

Turnovers

When you get beat 3-0 in turnovers you’re not going to win ballgames. Especially when all three turnovers turned into Utah State touchdowns. One directly.

The idea on that 4th and 1 play wasn’t half bad. The Aggies sold out on the run, so a well-executed pass play would have been the perfect response. But it was far from well-executed.

No Run Game

For a second straight game the run game was completely nonexistent. In our keys to the game we called this perfectly. We wrote that if BYU couldn’t rush for 125 yards or more they wouldn’t win the game.

16 rushing yards is just a liiittle bit less than 125.

Disappearing Offensive Line

Where has the offensive line gone? The same offensive line that pushed Arizona and Wisconsin around has been ineffective since then.

They’re not opening holes in the run game at all. 53 total rushing yards in two games can attest to that.

They were slightly better in pass protection, but Tanner Mangum still had to pull out a quite a few moves that would make Houdini impressed to avoid getting sacked.

No Pressure

Once again, BYU’s defense got very little pressure in the backfield. Zero sacks, only three tackles for loss, and Aggie quarterback Bryce Love had all the time in the world on most plays.

It’s safe to say that the Cougars’ defensive line isn’t going to get enough pressure on their own. It’s time for Ilaisa Tuiaki to come up with a different defensive game plan, or BYU can expect to see the same results they’ve been seeing over the past few weeks.

Kicking Woes

Not that it really mattered in this game, but BYU kicker Skyler Southam needs to find a way to right the ship. He’s now missed two straight field goal attempts and a PAT. He’s got the talent to be a huge weapon for the Cougars, but he’s got to get his mojo back.

No Fire

Early in the season, BYU looked like a team that wanted to play football. They played with swagger and confidence, and the results followed. They out “Jump Around”-ed Wisconsin in their own stadium.

That swagger is gone, especially on the defensive side of the ball. The Cougars have to get that fire back. That may have to come from the coaches, or it may have to come from the players themselves, but they’ve got to find it somewhere.

Hello Passing Game

It’s amazing how the paradigm has shifted.

Early in the season, everyone wanted to know when the passing game would catch up to the running game.

Now the run game has pulled a disappearing act right as the passing game has started to come together.

Tanner Mangum was decent out there. Once Jeff Grimes took the shackles off and let him throw the ball around, he showed that he still knows how to throw the football for more than five yards. However, he also made some huge mistakes and errant throws that stalled drives.

Zach Wilson looked pretty impressive in his one drive, and he now has his first career touchdown to show for it. It came against Utah State’s scrubs, though.

Looks like it’s time for the quarterback debate to begin in earnest…

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