BYU football offensive report: Cougs sputter when it matters most against UCF

With the bad game against UCF on Saturday, BYU’s offense ended all the momentum they had from being 6-0 and beating Notre Dame. Losing 39-31 in double overtime to UCF is bad, but it’s made worse by BYU's ineptitude on both sides of the ball. Even the offense that scored 31 kept floundering when things mattered the most. BYU’s running was the lowest of the season with 116 yards. The passing was second most with 257, and their total yards, 373, were well below their 421.2 average. Their scoring was right at their 33.8 points per game average with 31.

This crushes a lot of hopes for BYU. This isn’t a national title-winning team. National championship-winning teams find ways to win games like this, not ways to lose them. The Heisman Trophy for Bear Bachmeier is pretty far out the window now, too. Losing to a 3-3 team means it would take a miracle for either of those pinnacles to be achieved by BYU this season. That leaves finally making the College Football Playoff and winning a Big 12 Championship on the table, but now entwined. One doesn’t happen without the other now. Not with Texas Tech losing, too.

The coaches had their rough moments, too. When BYU had the ball late in the fourth quarter, they were in their own territory and faced a third-and-six. Aaron Roderick and Kalani Sitake made a poor call to just hand it off and play for overtime. The coaches also mysteriously didn’t go the hot hand at running back. Preston Rex had five carries for 42 yards, averaging 8.4 per carry, but BYU insisted on pounding the ball with Sione Moa, who was doing alright in his first game back from injury. But Moa’s 13 carries for 36 yards and a touchdown don’t justify not letting Rex carry it more. Rex hadn’t fumbled or made any mistakes that warranted benching him, and 8.4 yards per carry is much better than 2.8.

What the Offense Needs to Improve On

Going with who’s hot in a game. BYU’s offense contradicted itself here again. They went with the hot hand of Kyler Kasper, and he thrived. However, they targeted their struggling tight ends more than they should have when Kasper and Legend Glasker are having good games. Many of Bear Bachmeier’s 16 incompletions were just dropped, and none by Kasper or Glasker. This offense could have been unstoppable had they kept going to the players who were hot like Kasper, Glasker, and Rex, instead of trying to spread the ball around. In the end, they had too many cooks in the kitchen.

What the Offense Did Right

Throwing to their receivers was the thing this offense did the most correctly in the game, and that was far from perfect. Going to struggling tight ends, or throwing short passes hoping you’d break one for a big gain against the defense (like the UCF offense did successfully to BYU), isn’t the best use of players like Legend Glasker, who had his best moments when catching the ball downfield.

Offensive Play of the Game

The overtime touchdown pass to Glasker was the play of the game. It’s a stark contrast between how good a play it was in the first overtime and how stalled out the offense became in the second overtime. Glasker and Kasper showed UCF was vulnerable in their secondary against these talented receivers, but BYU mistakenly went away from them too many times.

Offensive Player of the Game

Kyler Kasper may be one of the few members of the team who had few or almost no mistakes in this game. Kasper had six catches for 129 yards and a touchdown for BYU.

Offensive Stat of the Game

BYU needs their running game to be more than just Bear Bachmeier making something out of nothing. That’s what it has been without LJ Martin, and not having it be more bit them hard today. 3.8 yards per carry without Bear, and 3.2 overall against a 3-3 team, isn’t acceptable for BYU. A couple of more stats? Kalani Sitake was 15-0 when his teams scored a touchdown on their first possession. Now, it’s 15-1.

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