A night that was less than perfect for BYU still netted 3 career performances

Career nights.

The Bear and his wingmen put one in the books.

Three BYU players waited their lifetimes to have the career game they got Friday night in a 38-24 win over West Virginia in LaVell Edwards Stadium.

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Bear Bachmeier and receivers Parker Kingston and Chase Roberts all had career nights.

Before halftime.

That’s nuts.

But this trio and their cohorts will need a far cleaner game next week when they meet Arizona in Tucson. The competition from this point forward will be significantly harder than the nine wins and 17 combined losses of No. 23 BYU’s opponents in their 5-0 start.

Career games in a sloppy win?

They’ll take it, but they’ll need all that and more this coming week in a Big 12 showdown in the desert.

This is exactly what head coach Kalani Sitake needs to get attention out of his squad — they need to be far better and cut down on penalties and bone-headed mistakes, and three turnovers, two that led directly to 14 West Virginia points.

They won and have a chance to learn.

But for now, for a long weekend, it was nice to see BYU’s true freshman QB do something folks wondered if he could do — air it out.

When West Virginia stacked the box to neutralize Bachmeier and LJ Martin in the run game, offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick attacked the man coverage with a barrage of huge chunk plays, good for a season-high 516 yards, 351 of which came through the air to Kingston and Roberts.

Those kinds of plays won’t come so easily at Arizona, but by putting it on film, Arizona defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales has a little more to consider when designing a game plan to stop the Cougars.

Bachmeier completed 72% of his passes, 18 of 25 for 351 yards. All of those figures were career highs for completions, attempts and yards. His pass efficiency was 195.1 for the game. For the first time this season, he showed his productivity when his attempts went up and he wasn’t just dinking and dunking passes down field.

Roberts, a senior, never had a game like this. BYU’s best and most defended receiver, Roberts caught four passes for 161 yards, an average of 40 yards per catch. His slant post catch and run for 85 yards would have ended in a touchdown if not for a shoestring tackle at the 4-yard line by safety Darrian Lewis after Roberts outraced corner Michael Coates Jr. Martin’s 4-yard TD run put BYU up 21-3.

Kingston, a legitimate 10.5 sprinter, scored BYU’s first TD on a 1-yard sweep on the Cougars’ second possession. He then caught a drag route and turned upfield behind blocks by Bruce Mitchell and Weylin Lapuaho for a first-quarter 54-yard touchdown, putting BYU up 14-0.

On the night, Kingston caught four balls for 111 yards and a touchdown. He’d never had a game like that in his career. He averaged 28 yards per catch.

Roberts told reporters afterward these chunk plays with Bachmeier’s arm were the result of some hard work in getting timing and chemistry down.

BYU is going to need those kinds of plays in weeks to come when defenses try to bottle up his running and defend his short passes as they continue to concentrate on Martin.

Utah clipped WVU’s defense for 531 yards a week ago and receiver Ryan Davis had 107 yards receiving. So, there’s a pattern there. WVU’s offense can’t stay on the field and opposing offenses wear them down.

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Bachmeier had the first two turnovers of his career, an ill-advised option pitch to Martin that was tipped out of the air by a blitzing safety inside BYU’s 10-yard line. That mistake led to West Virginia’s first touchdown, an easy, short drive just before half.

Bachmeier threw his first interception in 96 passing attempts when trying to hit tight end Carsen Ryan on a middle screen, failing to see a linebacker as he telegraphed his throw. That mistake didn’t lead to a WVU touchdown, but it took place at midfield as BYU was marching to score in the second quarter.

And those mistakes were the first in his career.

Career night, it was.

The thing that stood out about Bachmeier’s mistakes is that the next time he had the ball in his hands he made huge pass plays and both successive possessions led to touchdowns.

“For him to respond after mistakes like he did speaks to his growth and progression,” said coach Kalani Sitake. “He never gets too high or low.”

BYU had 11 chunk plays (15 yards or longer) in the win. Six of them went for 47, 54, 85, 35, 20 and 21 yards through the air.

Apparently, as Utah found, that’s what WVU gives, and BYU took.

Bachmeier’s 351 passing yards was the most by a BYU freshman since Matt Berry in 2002 against Wyoming (360), and Tanner Mangum versus UConn in 2015 (365). He would have surpassed that if BYU had not shut down its pass game with eight minutes left in the game.

“It’s just letting us do our thing,” said Kingston of the big play bombs.

“A-Rod (offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick) let us open up the offense for Bear and let Bear make the plays.

“It’s good to get it on film so other teams know that they can’t stack the box because we have people on the outside who can make plays.”

Apparently so.

Now, on to the desert.