Seasonlong offensive and special teams issues catch up to punchless BYU in 35-6 loss to No. 7 Texas
AUSTIN, Texas — Nobody was flat-out saying it in the postgame news conference after the BYU Cougars were thrashed 35-6 by the No. 7 Texas Longhorns late Saturday afternoon, but this loss was clearly on the offense.
Well, special teams played a key role in the debacle as well, in case you’ve forgotten that game-opening 74-yard punt return for a touchdown by UT’s Xavier Worthy, who still hasn’t been touched, apparently.
“It makes execution harder when they are a really good team. Again, at times we executed well, but we gotta finish drives. ... We had to kick field goals in the red zone. Again, that is because we didn’t execute down the stretch to get into some manageable third down situations to be able to go for it on fourth down.” — BYU quarterback Kedon Slovis.
As he always does after losses, BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said the Cougars had letdowns in all three phases and it is on the coaching staff to clean it up. He’s not wrong. But you can’t blame BYU fans for wondering when it is going to happen.
This team does not seem to be learning from its mistakes.
But first, proper credit should be given to Texas, which, as Sitake said, “is a great team.”
He continued: “There is a reason why they are still in the playoff contention talk, and they deserve to be in that.”
He will get no argument here, although former BYU quarterback Steve Sarkisian’s team can’t afford as many misfires in the red zone against really good teams, which the Cougars clearly aren’t.
On one hand, BYU players said the game could have been a lot closer if a handful of plays had been made by the guys in navy blue helmets.
On the other hand, Texas would have won by something closer to the 41-7 beatdown the Cougars laid on them the last time BYU visited Austin if it had fared better in the red zone.
From a BYU perspective, the blame for the drubbing falls at the feet of the offense, feet that have been stuck in molasses for most of the season.
In their first opportunity to become bowl eligible and establish themselves as a solid mid-tier team in the Big 12, with the eyes of the nation upon them on ABC television, the Cougars fell to 5-3 overall, 2-3 in league play, and simply didn’t have enough firepower to stay with one of the country’s best teams.
“I think if you look at it, the thing that stands out to me is the missed opportunities that we had in all three phases, and the inability for us to weather some things and also to take advantage of the opportunities that we had,” Sitake said.
“When you are playing against great teams, you can’t make the amount of mistakes we made and hope to get a victory out of that,” he continued.
On a day when the Jay Hill-coached BYU defense held Texas to 354 yards — about 50 below its average — got two takeaways and stopped the Longhorns on fourth down twice inside its 5-yard line, it just didn’t get any help from the guys on the other side of the ball.
BYU’s offense committed three turnovers, put up just 292 yards, and was an abysmal 2 of 13 on third down.
BYU has been one of the best red zone teams in the country this season, but didn’t have that magic Saturday in front of 101,670 people in central Texas. Twice the Cougars had to kick field goals after deep drives, including a bizarre situation in the first half when the coaching staff apparently wasn’t aware of a new rule that bars teams from taking consecutive timeouts.
BYU quarterback Kedon Slovis threw two interceptions — neither was totally his fault — and fumbled while being sacked for the Cougars’ third turnover. He was just 24 of 39 and did not throw a touchdown pass. His final passer rating was 93.7.
On the other side, redshirt freshman Maalik Murphy, who was far from perfect himself, threw two touchdown passes and had a rating of 139.5.
“It makes execution harder when they are a really good team. Again, at times we executed well, but we gotta finish drives,” Slovis said. “… We had to kick field goals in the red zone. Again, that is because we didn’t execute down the stretch to get into some manageable third down situations to be able to go for it on fourth down.”
Trailing 21-3 at halftime, the Cougars threatened to make a game of it in the third quarter when they outscored the home team 3-0 and found a glimmer of offense.
But it didn’t last, even after a potential momentum-swinging fourth down stop inside the BYU 5 by cornerback Jakob Robinson.
The Cougars promptly posted their fifth three-and-out, giving Texas excellent field position, another theme of the day.
Early in the fourth quarter, defensive tackle Jackson Cravens came up big on another fourth-down stop inside the 5, and the Cougars were seemingly in business again down just 21-6.
Slovis drove them to the 31, but on third-and-6 his throw to Darius Lassiter — who had made a sensational catch earlier in the game — saw the ball skip off his hands and into the mitts of UT’s J’Mond Tapp.
Murphy threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Adonai Mitchell, Mitchell’s second TD grab of the day, and that was that.
“It is tough,” Slovis said of the second interception. “I gotta give him a better chance. It is one of those deals where you want to give our guy a chance. But you gotta miss lower. … Yeah, that’s tough. That’s the game of football.”
The Cougars made three critical mistakes in the first half that kept the opening 30 minutes from being much more competitive.
First, they gave up a 74-yard punt return. Playing without injured gunner Marcus McKenzie, the Cougars tried to cover another one of those booming punts by Ryan Rehkow, but he out-kicked the coverage, basically.
Mory Bamba missed Worthy, and he was off to the races.
Second, BYU looked to be in business at the Texas 10-yard line after Crew Wakley returned an easy pick more than 40 yards. However, Max Tooley was flagged for a block in the back penalty and the play was brought back to the BYU 45.
Three plays later, Slovis was picked off by Terrance Brooks on a ball that was tipped at the line of scrimmage. Texas went 26 yards in six plays after the pick, scoring on a 4-yard TD run by Jonathon Brooks.
Brooks had just 98 yards on 16 carries, below his average, but Murphy was just good enough and the other Horns chipped in. Texas had 184 rushing yards, BYU just 95.
The Cougars played without RB LJ Martin, who warmed up but couldn’t go; Receiver Keanu Hill was also out. Slovis said the Cougars knew they’d be without the two starters most of the week.
The third first-half miscue came when BYU tried to call consecutive timeouts, which isn’t legal, and ended up having to take a delay of game penalty.
Sitake then sent the field goal unit out, and Will Ferrin’s 24-yard field goal with 4:57 left in the half put the Cougars on the board.
“We will evaluate all those things. That’s on coaches. That’s not on players. That’s on me and our staff,” Sitake said.
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BYU had held Texas to fewer than 100 yards prior to the field goal, but the Longhorns’ offense and Murphy found some rhythm and and marched 75 yards in 10 plays to push the lead out to 21-3.
It appeared BYU was going to force a field goal, but on third-and-8 from the 30 Murphy found Mitchell alone in the back of the end zone for an easy touchdown.
Mitchell juked his way past freshman safety Raider Damuni, and Murphy had a long time to throw.
Texas finished 6 of 11 on third down, 0 for 2 on fourth down.
“We will figure it all out,” Sitake said. “All three phases, we have to win at least two of them to have a chance. If we can dominate in all three we will have the outcome like what Texas did to us today.”
