3 takeaways from BYU’s win over Stanford

Another week, another convincing victory for BYU.

The Cougars defeated Stanford 27-3 Saturday night in Provo, moving to 2-0 on the young season and in the Bear Bachmeier era.

The Cougars have now begun 2-0 in each of the past six seasons.

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3 takeaways

BYU’s defense dominated once again. Stanford didn’t find the scoreboard until the fourth quarter, failing to score a single touchdown and struggling mightily for much of the night against Jay Hill’s vaunted unit.

When the Cougars did give up a field goal to the Cardinal, it was the first points they had allowed all season — after more than seven quarters and 109 minutes of play.

Stanford managed just 161 total yards against BYU — 91 coming in the fourth quarter — as the Cougars racked up three sacks, two forced fumbles, two interceptions and a safety while only allowing 19 rushing yards and two third down conversions.

Keanu Tanuvasa, Isaiah Glasker and Jack Kelly all had sacks, with Kelly forcing a fumble as well. Raider Damuni and Faletau Satuala snatched the interceptions, and Satuala recorded the safety.

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Bear Bachmeier is still very much a work in progress. Following last week’s exceptional five-touchdown effort, Bachmeier faced his first taste of Power Four competition Saturday against Stanford, which should bring expectations for the true freshman a bit back down to earth.

While Bachmeier completed 17 of 27 passes for 175 yards with a rushing touchdown, he started slow, struggled against Cardinal blitzes and was largely as unspectacular as he is inexperienced.

With that being said, Bachmeier settled in for a 6 of 9 passing stretch in the second half, including an impressive 41-yard shot downfield to Chase Roberts and another solid throw to Carsen Ryan.

Additionally, he got better at handling pressure as the game continued and displayed a commendable amount of toughness for a true freshman in his second career start.

Bachmeier is far from a finished product and still learning how to succeed at the college level. As long as he improves as the season goes on and avoids disaster — he still hasn’t committed a turnover yet — his first year at BYU will be fine.

The Cougars were too sloppy. Dropped passes. Inconsistent offensive line play. A muffed punt. Four penalties. Stalling in the red zone and leaving three touchdowns on the board.

Yes, BYU beat another Power Four opponent by more than 20 points, but the Cougars still offered plenty to be frustrated about.

Such mistakes wouldn’t change the outcome against a team like Stanford, but BYU can’t afford a similar performance in Big 12 play or on the road across the country against East Carolina.

Luckily, head coach Kalani Sitake and his staff will have a bye this week to clean up the clutter and prepare for a clash with the Pirates, which should be the most telling outing of the year thus far in determining exactly what this BYU team is.