BYU Football is 5-1 overall, however the analytics suggest that the Cougars have benefited from a bit of luck.
BYU Football has been lucky. That is not something that fans want to hear, but it is the reality. Odds are 9/10 times that Tyler Allegier doesn’t make a success punch out against Arizona State. The angle that ball came out will have it going out of bounds more times than not. Odds are that Utah doesn’t play that terrible on defense if the Cougars played them again. The list goes on and on. By pure analytics, the Cougars “should” be in between 40-50 in the rankings. That would be a 4-2 or 3-3 record.
That doesn’t mean the Cougars can’t be an elite team. There have been flashes where the defense has not allowed first downs. There have been multiple times where the Cougars have been able to get the ball down the field quickly and in bunches.
To this point though, the Cougars haven’t been able to do that for all fourth quarters. In every game, the Cougars have been completely dominated in a certain quarter. Against Boise State it was the second quarter. Against Arizona State it was the third. USF was the entire second half.
So what has to change? Just saying it is easy, but what will actually lead to a complete game for the Cougars? Because if they can’t get that figured out, you can chalk up another few losses.