A week after a gut-wrenching road loss to UCF, BYU struggled to shake off their hangover from the monumental win over Notre Dame as they hosted Kenny Dillingham's Arizona State Sun Devils. Still without LJ Martin, but slowly recovering ground on the injury report, the Cougars managed to stave off ASU's comeback effort and pulled away to a 27-20 victory.
It wasn't pretty, nor was it comfortable, but a win is a win, and BYU football picked one up at a critical moment in the season. They stopped the slide and now carry positive momentum as they stare down a pivotal Holy War contest with the undefeated Utah Utes.
But what can we take away from BYU football's seventh win of the season? The good, the bad, and the irrelevant, what have we learned about the 8th-ranked Cougs?
Game Notes and Key Takeaways: BYU vs Arizona State
The Running Shame
BYU football misses LJ Martin badly. The reigning Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year was the Cougars' workhorse in 2025. He set the tone, drove the football forward, and set up a devastating play-action attack that opened up Bear Bachmeier's receiving corps downfield.
Since Martin left the TCU game, BYU's rushing attack has lived and died by one man. And despite the number displayed on his chest he's listed as the team's starting quarterback.
He has rushed the football 58 times since the Cougars' trip to TCU.
He would have led all rushers with 35 yards in this game against ASU had he not strategically lost 20 yards in the Cougars' final possession. Instead, Sione Moa was the Cougars leading rusher. He ran for 20 yards on just 8 carries. Legend Glasker was just one yard behind -- a wide receiver outrushing his team's backfield.Yeouch.
No one is more aware of the team's struggles running the ball than Kalani Sitake.
Kalani: "Interesting game, glad we got the victory. ... Could not run the ball, for some reason. There are some things we got to improve on, but I am proud of the way the guys played."
— Jay Drew (@drewjay) October 31, 2026
But there is some good news: LJ Martin is likely to play against Utah next Saturday. He's been the offense's engine since last season. He's the first point of attack. The pace-setter. Martin is the antecedent for every effective play-action pass in Aaron Roderick's playbook, and without him, the offense has been far less effective. Except for the Notre Dame game. And the Iowa State game, from a yards-gained standpoint, I guess.
But BYU's depth at running back is still a problem. Martin's health is no guarantee -- can BYU win again when it matters most if he misses any more time? I'm not so sure.
In defense of the second-half
The varying levels of defensive effectiveness against Arizona State perfectly reflects what we've seen from the Cougars through the 2026 regular season.
In the first half on Saturday, BYU held their guests to just 3 points. They forced a fumble on ASU's opening drive, dealt six sacks (a program record for a single half), and smothered and suffocated the Sun Devils' attack to the point of forcing five punts.
In the first half of the 2026 season, BYU football went 6-0 on the back of their excellent defense. One of the best defenses in the nation, Kelly Poppinga's unit reigned over their side of the football with impunity and dominance, holding Noah Fifita and Arizona to just 17 points (which remains a season-low for the Wildcats), TCU and Iowa State to just 10 points a piece, and controlling the high-powered Notre Dame offense for only 24.
But in the second half, BYU's defense has been unidentifiable in all the worst ways.
BYU couldn't get Arizona State's offense off the field -- at all. After forcing five first-half punts, every ASU possession in the final 30 minutes ended with a score.
Long, sustained drives bled plenty of time off the clock, but the Cougars' offense failed to extend their lead in the third quarter, requiring a 45-yard field goal to push the lead to 3 and then two fourth-down conversions -- including one gutsy do-or-die snap from the Cougars' own 14-yard line -- to finally seal the game.
It wasn't a comfortable win for a BYU team favored to win by three scores, and the second-half defense was reminiscent of the Cougars' uncharacteristic performance in Orlando last week.
At least, we thought it was uncharacteristic.
This isn't a doom-and-gloom post; BYU won the game and that's the most critical detail. But they face a monumental road test against a red-hot Utah team next weekend, and this version of Kalani Sitake's team has a very slim chance of securing their fourth consecutive Holy War victory.
So what'll it be? The defense that lifted this team to a 6-0 start? Or the side that scraped by with a 1-1 record after the Notre Dame game?
Big 12 refs are objectively terrible
BYU was the beneficiary of improper game clock enforcement in the final play against Notre Dame, and the Big 12 made a statement confirming as much following the game.
Another statement came in the following week, sending BYU's game with UCF into overtime with a 10-second runoff that should not have taken place due to a player's helmet being removed.
This week, one play gave way to two reviews, which ultimately granted BYU a touchdown on a Sione Moa fumble recovery. By rule, Moa's recovery should have marked the end of the play, as the referees had incorrectly blown the play dead.
If Bear Bachmeier hadn't been marked short of the goal line on the previous play despite clearly crossing the plain, this would have been massively unjust. Instead, it was just another horrific call to toss on the pile.
Big 12 statement on incorrect officials call in BYU-Arizona State game pic.twitter.com/hQeSBdtyzS
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) November 1, 2026
The UCF loss somehow got even worse
You may want to avert your eyes, because UCF -- the team that handed BYU their first loss of the season and thus put their CFP chances in jeopardy -- just got their rear ends handed to them by Baylor to the tune of 9-to-41.
I think I just threw up in my mouth.
In hindsight, I have zero earthly idea how an unbeaten BYU team can go from the program's biggest win in the last 35 years to one of the more head-scratching losses in memory. There's no use in dwelling on the past; what's done is done. All we can hope is that this win against Arizona State shook off enough rust for BYU to take on top-10 Utah at full-strength.
Hopefully this week's win has more impact on the rankings than UCF's ungraceful dismount.
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