3 takeaways in the BYU Cougars’ win over the Utah Utes

The BYU Cougars finally beat the Utah Utes on Saturday night 26-17, snapping a nine-game losing streak that started in 2010.

Here are three keys to the Cougars’ victory.

BYU won a whole bunch of statistical categories

We’ll just leave a list here of the key stats BYU won:

• First downs 21-15
• Total yards 380-340
• Passing yards 149-147
• Rushing yards 231-193
• Turnovers 2-0

The Cougars dominated the line of scrimmage

On both offense and defense, BYU outplayed Utah at the line of scrimmage for most of the night. After a bit of a slow start on offense, the Cougars started to roll when holes opened up for running back Tyler Allgeier and quarterback Jaren Hall was able to make plays with his feet.

On the night, BYU outrushed Utah 231 yards to 193. Allgeier tallied 102 of those yards, and Hall was just behind him with 92.

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As much as the Cougars won the line of scrimmage on offense, though, they dominated it on defense. BYU generally plays a “bend but don’t break” style defensively, but on Saturday night, the Cougars regularly brought pressure on first and second down, and the Utes could never really string whole drives together.

Officially, BYU finished with two sacks (four players with a half sack each), one additional tackle for loss and one quarterback hurry, but that doesn’t tell the story of how much the Cougars controlled the trenches.

Jaren Hall was great

For the second straight week, Hall’s final stats won’t wow too much. Yes, he had the 92 rushing yards, but he finished an average 18 of 30 for 149 yards throwing.

But in truth, Hall was outstanding. He managed the game well and didn’t make mistakes, and then he made some huge plays in crucial moments, often with his feet.

There was the 18-yard run on fourth and 11 in the second quarter on a drive that saw BYU score a touchdown five plays later. There were numerous clutch third down conversions, and Hall sealed the deal by leading a great drive in the fourth quarter that milked the clock and iced the game after Utah had cut the deficit to six.