A commonly cited truism in sports is that winning cures just about everything. When a team is winning, it's easy to forgive or even overlook troubling flaws because the result on the scoreboard is favorable. Unfortunately, that can't go on indefinitely. For the BYU football team, things finally fell well and truly apart on a rainy afternoon in Lawrence, Kansas. Here are some notes from the Cougars' first loss of the 2023 season:
The Good:
For the first time in program history, the BYU Cougars played a Power 5 conference game. It's a distinction this program has deserved since the 1980's and thought it might receive in 2016. Now, in 2023, it's finally a reality. And frankly, regardless of the result on the field, that was always going to be a win for the Cougars. BYU finally has a seat at the big kid table. One distinct benefit of that status is that one loss doesn't define a season. Because the Cougars have a conference title to play for, this loss—while certainly disappointing—isn't the end of their relevance. The college football playoff is probably off the table (if it was ever on it), but a conference title and a NY6 berth are still very much in play. To be clear, that's not how I expect this season to go—I'll be satisfied with bowl eligibility and over-the-moon thrilled by eight wins. But the mere fact that such things are possible on paper for the Cougars after a game 4 loss is a tremendous positive change compared to the irrelevance caused by a single loss during the independence years.
We'll get to the Cougars' three turnovers—two of which resulted in defensive touchdowns for Kansas—a little later. But it's worth pointing out that despite spotting the Jayhawks those fourteen points, the Cougars only lost by eleven. That's pretty remarkable, and it speaks to this team's resilience. Take away those two plays, and BYU rolls out of Lawrence with a win.
Kedon Slovis played well for the most part in this game. We'll talk about a couple of issues later, but he was generally very solid considering how much of the Cougars' gameplan rested squarely on his shoulders. He's cool under fire and has no problem dealing with tough environments. He made some genuinely incredible throws in this game, and it always felt like the Cougars were in it when he was on the field.
The defense once again showed how huge a leap it's taken under Jay Hill's leadership. In the first half, the Cougars held the vaunted Kansas offense to just 139 total yards and seven points. Things got tougher in the second because the defense was on the field a lot more and wore out by the end, but Jalon Daniels was still held to a total of just 130 passing yards in yet another excellent secondary performance. It's been particularly incredible to watch the defensive line transform from the team's greatest liability last year to one of its greatest strengths this year. Hill, Kelly Poppinga, and Sione Po'uha have pulled off a loaves-and-fishes-scale miracle with that group.
The Bad:
It's time to talk about the BYU offensive line. If you'll recall, I went on the record predicting that this 2023 O-line might be the best in BYU history. Yes, that sounds insane in retrospect, but cut me some slack—the group's top-end talent looked absolutely loaded with figures like Kingsley Suamataia, Connor Pay, Paul Maile, and Weylin Lapuaho, and its depth was such that I expected the Cougars to essentially have two starting-caliber units. Clearly, I was wrong. I still think the line's on-paper talent is impressive and it has plenty of potential, but so far, it hasn't lived up to that potential at all. Pass blocking has been OK most of the time, but oh, the run game. If you take out LJ Martin's 45-yard run in the first quarter of the Arkansas game, the Cougars are now averaging less than a yard per carry over the last two games. That's appallingly bad. This team has gotten off to one of the worst rushing starts in program history through four games, on par with disasters like 2017. The Cougars are still 3-1 with a road win over an SEC team, but their record is going to get progressively less impressive with every poor rushing performance that goes by. I hate to go after coaches so early in a season, but as I said earlier, the line is talented on paper. Is Darrell Funk the problem? I hope not, but it's entirely possible.
In every phase of this game except turnovers, the Cougars played well enough to win. But the turnovers were brutal. Kedon Slovis threw two picks, one of which was returned for a touchdown, and Parker Kingston also had a fumble returned for a score on a brutal first quarter hit that knocked him out of the game. Frankly, all three of these turnovers were the result of bad run blocking. Kingston's fumble was the result of a missed block on a jet sweep, and Slovis's interceptions, both of which came after halftime, were the result of the Kansas defense realizing that with the Cougars posing exactly zero run threat, the Jayhawk secondary could aggressively jump passing lanes and flood players into coverage. Slovis spent the second half throwing on nearly every down, usually into heavy coverage. The fact that he was able to lead multiple touchdown drives under such circumstances was really impressive, but clearly, he can't keep going like this and neither can the rest of the offense. Aaron Roderick's scheme requires a strong run game and struggles to produce without one.
The injury bug has reared its ugly head, really for the first time this season. I'll defer to CougConnect's insider report to provide the details; since most of these injuries haven't been reported by other outlets, I'll hold off on publicizing them here. But don't be surprised to see some key contributors sit for the Cincinnati game this week, particularly since that will be a Friday game, which leaves a short week for injured players trying to recover.
I titled this recap 'The Murphy's Law Game' because it felt at times that everything that could possibly go wrong in this game did. The Cougars came out of halftime with a 17-14 lead and all the momentum...and Kedon Slovis immediately threw a pick-six. BYU never led again. Turnovers came at brutally inopportune times. The defense got tired and gave up gashing runs. The run game never got going at all, which hurt the pass attack in turn.
And yet, for all of that, the Cougars were in a position to win in regulation if not for two defensive touchdowns allowed. That bodes well for the futures. This is a BYU team that understands how to win games. If the Cougars can avoid beating themselves, they'll compete at a high level. But if they're serious about making a splash in the Big 12 this season, the run game must improve, and fast. This week's opponent, Cincinnati, features one of the better defenses in the conference. Their offense, though, leaves a lot to be desired. In many ways, BYU and Cincy actually have similar teams. I expect this week's game to be a low-scoring slugfest, but I ultimately think Kedon Slovis's poised passing and the raucous home environment of LaVell Edwards Stadium will make the difference. 21-16, BYU.