LJ Martin morphed into an old-fashioned Sherman tank, a bludgeoning hammer Cincinnati could not stop Saturday night.
Martin rushed for a career-high 222 yards on a career-high 32 carries to lift BYU to what could be a historic season in a 26-14 win over the Bearcats. The win lifted BYU to 10-1 on the season and 7-1 in league play as they head into next week’s game against UCF at home. A BYU win would punch a ticket to the Big 12 championship game in Arlington, Texas.
Martin was simply sensational in a big-time game with moments that required his Cummins diesel engine to mow over, through and past Bearcat defenders.
Martin’s yards gained after first contact were off the charts.
It was an act of running back artistry, one of the best performances by a BYU running back ever, certainly in a game with so much on the line.
Back in August, BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick confidently and accurately predicted his offense would run the ball this season. In this game, Martin displayed that skill and acumen very clearly on the road.
In BYU’s final two drives of the game, Martin, the Big 12’s leading rusher, simply took over the game. Pounding a tired Cincinnati defense up the middle, off tackle, with cuts, darts, foot-plants and sprints, he merely willed Roderick’s offense down the field for nine crucial points on two successful drives.
With Cincinnati battling on Senior Night, desperately needing a win, Martin gained 37 yards with carries of 3,7,4,4,16, 3 and 1 yard to set up a 34-yard Will Ferrin field goal to put BYU up 20-7 a few minutes into the fourth quarter.
After Cincinnati drove down the field and scored on a 19-yard TD catch from Jeff Caldwell, narrowing BYU’s lead to 20-14 with more than four minutes left in the game, Martin had his number called again to seal the game and kill the clock.
Mission accomplished.
Despite looking fatigued and a little worn down, Martin and his mates had the ball on BYU’s own 25-yard line with 4:30 to play in the game.
Martin gained 77 yards on this drive. He had runs of 4,7,3,6,7,2,7,5,5 yards and then a 33-yard standup-while-going-in touchdown jaunt to put BYU up 26-14, the final margin.
On a crucial third-and-3, Martin was stopped dead in his tracks with a powerful hit by a Cincinnati linebacker as he got to the line of scrimmage. He bounced back, shot forward, gained his balance, and sprinted up field for 7 yards and a first down to keep the drive alive.
Martin averaged 6.9 yards per carry against Cincinnati, a team that played in the CFP before joining the Big 12.
With BYU’s leading receiver, Chase Roberts, leaving the game in the second quarter with an injury, Martin ended up leading the Cougars in receiving with three catches for 44 yards. He had a long catch of 26 yards.
With this performance, Martin surpassed 1,000 yards on the season and increased his perch as the league’s best rusher.
Martin joined his quarterback, Bear Bachmeier, in manufacturing a potent BYU run attack when the opposing defense was dropping into zone coverage and daring the Cougars to run the ball on them.
Bachmeier gained 46 yards on 13 carries with a long of 11. He averaged 3.5 yards per carry and his touchdown run in the first half set a school record for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback, surpassing Steve Young, Taysom Hill and Zach Wilson.
This win was part of one of the toughest stretches of games in BYU history, including a 5-1 record against No. 12 Utah, 8-3 Arizona, 7-4 Iowa State, 7-4 TCU, 7-4 Cincinnati and 7-4 East Carolina.
All those games in that 5-1 stretch, except TCU and Utah, were on the road, three of them two time zones away and against six bowl-bound teams.
Certainly, Martin is going to be sore come Sunday when he wakes up and gets out of bed. He took shots. He was rocked. But he gave as he took and, at the end of the game, he was the one who was standing up, ripping off the longest run of the night.
BYU needed this.
It needed Martin in Beast Mode, creating a highlight video on a night his team really, really needed him to, well, be himself.
