3 plays that helped keep Cougars on track to Arlington

Saving their best for last — that is the hope of BYU football coach Kalani Sitake — and if Saturday’s bounce-back performance is any indicator, he’s gonna love this last phase of the season.

The Cougars (9-1, 6-1) admittedly played their first “complete” game on Saturday, pounding TCU 44-13. The effort and mirrored results were a radical contrast to the week before in the loss at No. 6 Texas Tech — and that’s just fine.

A hard and timely lesson that doesn’t derail the train allows for recovery while remaining on the tracks that lead them to Arlington and the Big 12 championship game. Here are the three key plays against the Horned Frogs that kept BYU moving in that direction.

Hounding Hoover

Trailing 3-0 midway through the first quarter, TCU’s offense faced its first third down at the BYU 41. Coming into the game, the Horned Frogs ranked No. 14 in the country and on top of the Big 12 with an impressive 50% third-down conversion rate.

Third-year starter Josh Hoover took the shotgun snap and looked for an open man among his stable of big receivers. No one was open. Under pressure, the quarterback rolled to his right and decided to make a run for it.

BYU’s Tausili Akana and John Taumoepeau chased Hoover down and escorted him out of bounds for a 2-yard sack — the first as a Cougar for Akana, who transferred to BYU from Texas after last season.

The defensive stop fired up the crowd and set the tone for a night that saw the Cougars hold TCU to a demoralizing 1-for-10 on third down.

“Props to them. They’re a great team on defense,” said Hoover, whose offense struggled to produce a season-low 13 points. “They had a great plan. They tried to take away the things we do best, and they did that.”

Angry Bear

No one was more ticked about the Texas Tech performance than BYU freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier and on Saturday, he played like an angry Bear.

“He looked different this week in practice. He wasn’t happy with the result and how he played last week,” said BYU coach Kalani Sitake. “I like it when guys show it in the week of prep.”

The Red Raiders held Bachmeier to a season-low 12 yards rushing on 11 carries. During the second quarter against TCU, the young locomotive steamed past those numbers in one play.

Facing third-and-13 at the Horned Frogs’ 17, Bachmeier ran to his right and gave the slightest flinch that he was going to pitch the ball to LJ Martin. TCU bit on the fake. As the defenders leaned left, Bachmeier cut up field for 17 yards and a touchdown to extend BYU’s lead to 17-3.

“He’s a baller,” said Cougars receiver Parker Kingston. “He’s always balling. It was good to get him back from last week. He played outstanding.”

Hitting pay dirt put the new kid in town in some pretty good company. Bachmeier is tied with Steve Young, Taysom Hill and Zach Wilson for the most touchdown runs (10) by a quarterback in a season — and he’s the only one to do it as a true freshman in a Power Four conference.

Wall of fame

Tanner Wall had to wonder if a pick-six was in the cards for his Cougar career. The senior safety had come close before, including last year when he was stopped just short of the goal line after an interception against Oklahoma State.

On Saturday, it finally happened.

With TCU driving to the BYU 42 late in the fourth quarter, Hoover threw a pass over the middle that was tipped up into the air and Wall brought it down at the 32 for his sixth career interception — but he was just getting started.

“It was great!” Wall said “In my head I was like, ‘Don’t get tackled! Get to the end zone!’”

Running like the receiver he always thought he would be when he joined the team as a walk-on in 2021, Wall meandered 68 yards for his first career touchdown.

“I love it!” said defensive coordinator Jay Hill as he crashed Wall’s post-game interview on BYUtv. When asked if he doubted whether Wall was going to make it to the end zone, Hill said, “Not at all! He looked like a running back. They told me, ‘Call the interception play’ and intercept it.’ So, we did.”

Honorable mentions

Carsen Ryan: Midway through the second quarter, the Utah/UCLA transfer tight end took a short pass over the middle and turned it into his longest reception of the season — a 43-yard touchdown to give BYU a 24-3 lead.

“Our mentality was to get back to what we’ve been doing all year,” said Ryan, who caught four passes for 79 yards. “Everyone contributed in the pass game and the run game and we were firing on all cylinders. It was a good bounce-back for us.”

Jonny Harline: The Hall of Fame tight end became the first BYU All-American to play the national anthem on his electric guitar at LaVell Edwards Stadium — and he rocked it!

“Even if you are nervous in a football game you can go out and you can run as fast as you can, but if you start shaking playing the guitar, that could be a little tougher,” Harline told “BYU Sports Nation GameDay” prior to his performance on whether he would be nervous. “It will be good. I’m excited. People are going to want to hear it done well. Hopefully I can make that happen and I think I will.”

He did.

President Dallin H. Oaks attended his first BYU football game as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During his time as president of BYU (1971-1980), he hired LaVell Edwards as head coach and he approved the expansion of then-Cougar Stadium from 45,000 to what it is today — the largest venue in the Big 12.

On Saturday, a sold-out crowd joined President Oaks at LaVell Edwards Stadium (64,447) to watch the Cougars hammer the Horned Frogs to improve to 9-1 and remain in control of their own destiny for the Big 12 championship game and beyond.

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Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com.