RECAP: Homecoming Redemption
After last week's debacle at TCU, this BYU football team faced more questions than it had answers on both sides of the ball. The Cougars found some of those answers as they returned to the friendly and raucous confines of LaVell Edwards Stadium for a homecoming bout with the Red Raiders of Texas Tech. This was by no means a perfect performance by BYU, but the Cougars managed to show improvement in every aspect of the game. Admittedly, that's not hard to do when the point of reference is a 33-point loss to a mediocre opponent, but it really was heartening to see the team learn from their mistakes and turn in a significantly better—and victorious—effort. Here are some thoughts from the Cougars' Homecoming victory.
The Good:
After getting torched for 584 total yards and 37 offensive points by a backup QB last week against TCU, the BYU defense desperately needed a turnaround. And oh boy, did they ever turn around. Led by the positively bloodthirsty Tyler Batty, who seemed none too pleased with having two different Tech players spit in his face, the Cougars forced five turnovers and held Tahj Brooks, one of the best running backs in the country, to a miserly 3.4 yards per carry. The Red Raiders were rolling with backup quarterback Jake Strong, but this was not to be a repeat of TCU backup Josh Hoover's monster outing last week. Strong was picked off three times, lost a fumble, and fumbled again on 4th down (which, though not a lost fumble, resulted in a turnover on downs).
The stars of the defense were the aforementioned Tyler Batty, who forced a fumble and was a terror in the backfield all game, Eddie Heckard, who picked off a pass and recovered a fumble for a TD en route to Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week honors, and backup safety duo Crew Wakley and Ethan Slade. Wakley and Slade were especially noteworthy—pressed into starting roles because of a rash of safety injuries, they went out and produced the two highest PFF grades on the entire team against the Red Raiders, a performance which included Slade picking off a pass and Wakley tipping the ball that Heckard intercepted. Jakob Robinson also snagged an interception (his fourth of the season) and Siale Esera was really impressive as well, recording a couple very nice stops in big situations. For a true freshman in just his second appearance at the collegiate level, Esera played way beyond his years. He's a star in the making for the Cougars.
Not lost in the defense's outstanding performance was the fact that the BYU offense put together one of its better games of the season, particularly on the ground. After many of the run game's old bugaboos resurfaced with a vengeance against TCU, the Cougars managed to put together their best rushing performance of the season and came incredibly close to having their first individual hundred-yard rusher—LJ Martin went for 93 yards on the day as the team accumulated 150 in total. That might not seem like a particularly impressive achievement, but when you consider that the Cougars ran for exactly nine yards against Kansas just three games ago, it's a pretty big deal. The BYU offense was still far from perfect—the Cougars once again failed to break the 300-total-yard mark and Kedon Slovis finished a disappointing 15-27 for just 127 yards—but Slovis and his crew played mistake-free for the most part and never really gave Texas Tech any easy openings to get back into the game, even when putting points on the board was a struggle in the second half. One especially notable performance came from Aidan Robbins, who saw his first playing time since the SUU game. Still nursing the rib injury that has kept him out, he got only 16 carries (all in the second half) and ran for just 57 yards. He had a couple really impressive, punishing runs, though, and looked healthier than we've seen him to this point in the season. Opposing defenses had better beware if he can live up to anything like the potential he showed last year at UNLV.
Ryan Rehkow continues to punt brilliantly, and the special teams unit produced a nearly flawless performance which included Tyler Batty (of all people) forcing a fumble on a punt return, which was recovered by none other than Rehkow himself. Incredibly, that fumble marked the third turnover forced by the Cougar special teams unit this season—two of which, hilariously, have been recovered by the punter and the long snapper.
The Bad:
I don't have anything bad to say about the defense or special teams, frankly. The defense was one blown coverage away from playing a basically perfect game, and special teams made no notable mistakes. But the offense...oh, the offense. Despite featuring a veteran QB, a deep and talented receiving corps, and a dynamic young running back in LJ Martin, this BYU offense still has yet to produce a complete game, or really even get close. It seems like each week, the Cougars piece together one or two really great drives, steal a couple short fields thanks to the defense and special teams, and hang on for dear life as the offense sputters and stalls and the defense desperately holds the line. Sometimes, like in the Sam Houston, Arkansas, Cincinnati, and now Texas Tech games, it works—the Cougars are 5-2 largely because that strategy has somehow been weirdly successful. But against TCU and Kansas, we saw the kind of disaster that can ensue when the opposing offense is able to break through the Cougar defense. It can get ugly real quick. This Cougar offense's inability to sustain drives is a very serious concern.
So, too, is a marked lack of playcalling aggression from Aaron Roderick in the second halves of games where the Cougars have the lead. If BYU is ahead at halftime, you can bet the offense will spend the second half mostly running on every down (regardless of how effective it is) and trying to avoid mistakes instead of score points. It's irritating, to say the least. But while some of the Cougars' struggles in the second half against Texas Tech were the result of over-conservative playcalling, more were caused by poor execution on the field. Kedon Slovis attempted eleven passes after halftime and completed just four of them, even as his receiving squad had perhaps their best game of the season in terms of getting separation. That's...not good. I'm not sure what's eating Slovis—perhaps a half-season of playing behind an underwhelming line without any semblance of run support has finally worn on him—but he had better turn things around quickly. The Cougars' schedule only gets harder from here, and they need their veteran QB to step up and play to his potential.
If you like great defense, this game was a joy to watch. If you like high-flying offense...well, this BYU team may not be your speed. Still, though, the Cougars are 5-2 and a win away from bowl eligibility—a position no prognosticator expected them to be in at this point in the season. Next up for the Cougars is their toughest test yet, a road matchup with #7 Texas. The Longhorns are good—really good. Led by former BYU legend Steve Sarkisian, they've got a talent-heavy roster on both sides of the football. There are two pieces of good news for the Cougars. First, the Longhorns' star QB, Quinn Ewers, is injured and will not play against BYU. This will give the Cougars' newly-revamped defense a chance to once again exploit an inexperienced signal-caller. Second, BYU seems to have some kind of weird, mystical sway over Texas. In their last two games against the Longhorns, one in Provo and one in Austin, the Cougars were heavy underdogs each time and ended up winning by a combined score of 81-28. Texas does not play well against BYU historically. While mystical forces may not be enough to get a win for the Cougars against this very talented Texas team, the fortuitous absence of Ewers might just do the trick. If the defense can clamp down on Texas's backup QB and the offense can string a few drives together, the Cougars might just leave Austin with a program-defining win.