Analysis: Sloppy BYU slogs its way past outmanned West Virginia in less-than-satisfying Big 12 win

As Big 12 wins go, No. 23 BYU’s 38-24 victory over shorthanded and reeling West Virginia on Friday night in front of a sellout crowd of 63,917 at LaVell Edwards Stadium was less than satisfying.

You could see it on the players’ faces as they exited the field.

Keeping in mind that wins, particularly at the Power Four level, are hard to come by in college football, BYU (5-0) will take the two-touchdown victory in its annual pre-General Conference affair in Provo in a game that was never really in doubt. A win is a win, as they say.

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But that doesn’t mean the Cougars have to be happy about it.

With a bunch of style points there for the taking, and a national television audience tuning in on an otherwise meager night for sports viewing, the Cougars lost an opportunity to impress.

As 20-point favorites, they not only failed to cover, they failed to stamp themselves as a legitimate Big 12 contender.

In other words, the 14-point win was far less impressive than Utah’s was six days ago against these same Mountaineers in Morgantown, causing some to wonder if the rivalry game in two weeks is going to be anything less than a dogfight of epic proportions.

Right now, the next four opponents on BYU’s schedule seem to be playing better football than the Cougars — Arizona, Utah, Iowa State and Texas Tech.

“We gotta be better,” said head coach Kalani Sitake. “… I just want to win more comfortably when we can.”

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Sitake gave credit to WVU for making it reasonably close, as he always does, but he used words such as “frustrating” and “undisciplined” and “thoughtless” to describe how the Cougars played.

“We are way more disciplined than that as a team,” he said, ruing the penalties, three turnovers and shoddy tackling, mostly from reserves.

Not only were the Cougars sloppy, and bitten by some baffling turnovers for the first time this season, they had more boneheaded penalties in Game 5 than they did in the previous four games combined.

That’s not a recipe for a Big 12 contender.

“Every win is a tough win in the Big 12. Every team is good,” said receiver Parker Kingston, who had four catches for 111 yards and a touchdown and also ran for a TD.

“So I think (the lack of celebrating) is just because we know we could have played better. We had some costly penalties in the red zone. We are just upset about those stupid mistakes we had and we are going to clean them up against Arizona.”

Even special teams, a BYU strength last year and in the first third of the games this year, showed some cracks in the armor. Will Ferrin missed a 47-yard field goal, for instance.

“We are spoiled because he made 25 kicks in a row,” Sitake said, then noted how the senior bounced back with a 37-yarder to start a new streak. “… He is back on the ‘make’ train, fortunately.”

On the other hand, holder/punter Sam Vander Haar’s 11-yard run for a first down out of field goal formation was a keeper, but why show that against lowly West Virginia? The Cougars ended up settling for a field goal on the drive anyway.

In short, turnovers kept this one from being the blowout it should have been. The Cougars gave it away three times, including two that led directly to easy West Virginia touchdowns.

There were also some key injuries that could prove to be troubling down the road — perhaps as soon as next Saturday’s game at surprising Arizona — the most worrisome one suffered by All-America candidate linebacker Jack Kelly.

His running mate, Isaiah Glasker, also got dinged up and did not play in the second half.

Kelly “was actually feeling pretty good (in the locker room after the game),” Sitake said. “We will evaluate tomorrow for him and (Isaiah) Glasker.” The coach said Glasker wanted to go back in, but was held out for precautionary reasons.

BYU’s defense actually played well, given the injuries to two of its best players. West Virginia had just 185 total yards with 8:50 remaining in the contest before getting a couple of long drives on a combination of BYU reserves and starters.

The Mountaineers scored their final touchdown with 1:14 remaining to cover the spread and score more points than they did against the Utes in that 48-14 loss.

Sophomore Tre Alexander and senior Tanner Wall came up with timely interceptions — the Cougars’ sixth and seventh picks of the season — and twice BYU’s defense turned the visitors over on downs.

BYU’s defense played well enough to make it a blowout. Its offense did not.

“You grow up dreaming of making plays like that,” said Alexander, who set up BYU’s first touchdown — a 1-yard plunge by Kingston — with a return inside the 5.

That said, Alexander lamented the fact that the Cougars couldn’t stop WVU from scoring after a deflected pitch by Bear Bachmeier ended up at the BYU 3 and was recovered by WVU’s Fred Petty, or after Jovesa Damuni coughed up the ball after a reception at the BYU 22.

“First things first, we got the win,” Alexander said. “… But sudden change, we gotta be better. We gotta finish games. If we finish like we should have, the score wouldn’t have been like it was tonight.”

On a more positive front, BYU learned, once again, that freshman quarterback Bachmeier is the real deal.

Bachmeier completed 18 of 25 passes for a career-high 351 yards and a touchdown, for a passer rating of 195.1. The teenager also rushed for 43 yards and a score, part of BYU’s 135 rushing yards.

“Man, we made him look like the Heisman winner in the first half,” said West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez. “Hand him the Heisman.”

BYU receiver Chase Roberts had another sensational game, catching four passes for a career-high 161 yards. After he was kept out of the end zone on an 85-yard catch and run, Roberts told Kingston that he wished he had Kingston’s speed.

“I know, you gotta unhook the trailer,” was Kingston’s reply.

Roberts also acknowledged that the Cougars left some style points out there, which is the reason the celebration was far more muted than it was a week ago when BYU beat Colorado 24-21 in Boulder.

“I think we need to celebrate better. I think we won a great game. We made stupid mistakes and we can learn from them, and that’s great,” Roberts said.

“I think hitting adversity is great for our team and especially early in the season. We are only going to hit more adversity later. We play these teams coming up, Arizona and Utah, Texas Tech. There is going to be a lot of adversity, so these are great moments for us and we need to be more grateful for a win, being at home, and for the crowd.”

Another bummer for a team that prides itself on discipline and decision-making: nine penalties for 63 yards. In that regard, BYU’s offensive line protected Bachmeier well (no sacks) and punched some decent holes for LJ Martin (21 carries, 90 yards, two TDs), but joined the sloppy parade of miscues with a holding penalty and a bunch of false starts.

“We just gotta limit those dumb mistakes we made, and we are a great offense,” Roberts said. “… We are a dangerous team.”

Aside from getting burned by a bunch of quarterback runs, BYU’s defense was solid in the first half; West Virginia scored its touchdown after being set up by a turnover on the BYU 3-yard line.

Drawing from Colorado’s playbook, WVU quarterback Kahlil Wilkins ran 13 times in the first half, for 60 yards. When he was briefly knocked out of the game, Scotty Fox Jr. came in and ran twice for 22 yards.

Quarterback runs enabled the Mountaineers to move into range for their first points, a 45-yard field goal by Kade Hensley.

Wilkins finished with 89 yards on 23 carries.

West Virginia rushed for 112 yards and passed for just 20 in the first half, then finished with 156 rushing yards and 135 passing yards — many of those coming late.

Of course, the injury to Kelly put a damper on BYU’s defensive play, as the All-America candidate linebacker collided with BYU’s Sione Po’uha and left the game a play before WVU’s field goal.

He watched the remainder of the game with his left arm in a sling.

Bachmeier’s first interception of his college career came in the second quarter of his fifth game, a remarkable stretch of 98 straight throws without a pick.

But that wasn’t Bachmeier’s biggest mistake. The worst came with BYU at its own 15 with 2:08 remaining in the first half. Bachmeier’s pitch into a safety blitz was knocked down by Perry, then recovered at the BYU 3.

Diore Hubbard’s 3-yard TD run on the next play cut BYU’s lead to 21-10.

Credit Bachmeier for bouncing back spectacularly. On the very next offensive play, he threw a beautiful pass over the middle to Kingston, between two defenders, that went for 35 yards.

Bachmeier completed the drive with a 2-yard touchdown run to put the Cougars up 28-10 at the half.

“We are going to get together on Monday, and that is what we are going to talk about, is being more grateful and stepping it up in the joy we have playing the game,” Roberts said.

“I think that is going to be Kalani’s message, too. We learned a lot this game. It was a great game for us coming into these tougher games coming up.”