The No. 11-ranked BYU Cougars didn’t exactly nail the ending Saturday night in a 41-23 romp past former Mountain West rival Colorado State.
Given the chance to impress pollsters and perhaps the College Football Playoff selection committee down the road a bit, the Cougars blew an opportunity that might not come around again now that the remaining opponents are all Big 12 foes and Notre Dame.
Suffice it to say that BYU’s second- and third-teamers have some work to do, and head coach Kalani Sitake can never be accused of chasing style points. Not even close.
“They don’t have any holes. They are a really good football team.”
— Colorado State coach Jim Mora
But through nearly three quarters at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins in front of a supposed sell-out crowd of 38,759 and a dwindling national television audience preoccupied naturally by the LSU-Ole Miss game on another channel, the 3-0 Cougars looked every bit the part of a College Football Playoff contender against the Rams.
BYU’s first teamers did, at least.
“Obviously, there’s some really good things that we did in the game and some things that we could have done better, but I thought the reps (for the backups) were valuable for all our players and I liked the way that we started the game,” Sitake said.
The Cougars led 38-7 toward the end of the third quarter before Bear Bachmeier forced a throw to Kyler Kasper near the goal line and saw it picked off by CSU’s CJ Blocker, BYU’s first turnover of the season.
“I think we were getting a little greedy on that,” Sitake said of that turnover and one by CSU’s D’Angelo Hagans on Treyson Bourguet’s tipped pass on the Cougars’ very next play after Blocker’s interception.
After Hagans’ pick, the Rams took the ball near midfield and drove 48 yards for a touchdown, a drive that was aided by a roughing the passer penalty.
“We can get mad at the defense for not getting stops, but we had a holding call on defense, we had a roughing he passer. We had lot of mistakes (on offense), too,” Sitake said. “So, we just have to be better as a team. There are some guys that are backups that are one play away from getting in the game, so they need to be ready for it.
“I think if they just play more assignment-sound, we will be in a better position,” he continued. “We just made a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes that shouldn’t happen from our guys, but this is a good moment for us to learn from. But to win comfortably … was a good time to do it. It just got a little sloppy, but we’ll be we’ll be fine. This is stuff that we can easily fix.”
Most of the fourth quarter was a disaster for BYU, which was outscored 16-3 in that frame — giving up two touchdowns and two two-point conversions.
Sure, the Cougars covered the 17.5-point spread, but call this a bit of an opportunity lost when the polls come out Sunday and they don’t move off their No. 11 slot.
“You know, we got enough of a lead and still made mistakes, but I still felt like the game was under control the entire time,” Sitake said. “So this is something we can build on, but I’d like to see some improvement mostly from the backups when they got in there.”
Another caveat: Colorado State quarterback Hauss Hejny, after carving up the BYU defense on CSU’s opening drive for a touchdown, apparently pulled a hamstring on the Rams’ next possession and was replaced by backup QB K’saan Farrar, who looked like a backup until facing BYU’s backups.
Colorado State (2-1) billed BYU’s first return to Fort Collins in 16 years as an opportunity to get a statement win in its first year in the reimagined Pac-12, calling the Cougars the highest-ranked team to play in 10-year-old Canvas Stadium.
But BYU made the Rams look mostly like an FCS team, until Sitake prematurely called off the dogs.
“They don’t have any holes. They are a really good football team,” said CSU coach Jim Mora.
Most notably, senior running back LJ Martin was unstoppable in the first half and playing like a Doak Walker Award finalist, then stopped only by Sitake’s graciousness in the second half.
Martin rushed 14 times for 173 yards and three touchdowns in the first half alone. His 56-yard TD jaunt on BYU’s second play of the game set the tone.
With a healthy Hejny at the controls, Colorado State answered BYU’s opening salvo with one of its own, driving 75 yards on seven plays to even the score.
A costly personal foul for a late hit on Hunter Clegg prolonged the drive, but the Cougar defensive lineman atoned for that with an interception late in the first half.
It took BYU and Martin just three plays to regain the lead. After Bachmeier threw a 70-yard bomb to Legend Glasker that the freshman caught one-handed, Martin’s 2-yard TD run made it 14-7 and the rout was on.
“It was cool, to be honest. I haven’t seen it yet. I didn’t even know I caught it with one hand,” Glasker said. “The (defensive back) was trying to grab my arm, so I was trying to get separation and the ball literally just fell right in my arm. So, yeah, it was a good ball.”
Bachmeier was sailing along nicely until the ill-advised third-and-11 throw that was picked, a throw that cost his team a field goal, at least. He finished 12 of 16 for 227 yards, with no touchdowns, and a 181.7 passer rating.
After Bachmeier was almost picked off on his first throw of BYU’s fourth possession — credit Kasper for the pass breakup — Glasker and tight end Walker Lyons caught long passes and then Martin took it in from the 8 to put BYU ahead by 14.
Would Martin have liked to stay in the game longer? Not really.
“No, we won the game, so yeah, it was fun to see the other guys eat,” he said.
One of those other guys was Journee Tonga, who finished with 91 yards on 10 carries and had a touchdown run negated by a holding call on Andrew Gentry, who has struggled the past few weeks with penalties, mistakes that need to be cleaned up.
The Cougars played without starting tight end Roger Saleapaga and starting right guard Kyle Sfarcioc. Sitake said both were game-time decisions, and both should be available against TCU in two weeks.
Still, BYU rushed for 332 yards, with Bachmeier getting minus-3 yards on two carries.
After CSU’s fourth punt of the first half, BYU went 78 yards in five plays to complete the first-half scoring. Glasker, who had three catches for 113 yards in the first half, ran for a 5-yard touchdown to make it 31-7 and send hordes of CSU fans to the exits in the game that was delayed 45 minutes by inclement weather.
It kicked off at 6:15 p.m. instead of the scheduled 5:30 p.m. after a deluge hit the region some 75 minutes before the scheduled kickoff.
The Cougars rolled up 377 yards in the first half to take a 31-7 lead at the break. The finished with 559 yards, while CSU had 302 and ran seven more plays than BYU, 65 to 58.
Thanks to Glasker’s big catches and Martin’s big runs, BYU averaged 9.6 yards per play and 18.9 yards per completion.
The outcome completes a somewhat successful gamble for the Cougars, who played an upset-minded Group of Six opponent on the road in each of the past three seasons, and came away with three wins — beating Wyoming, East Carolina and now Colorado State in convincing fashion.
“We are 3-0,” Sitake said. “This is where we thought we’d be. We faced some adversity last week (against Arizona), and I don’t think it was as bad this week, but I think Colorado State’s going to have a really good team, and what coach Mora has been able to establish in such a short amount of time (is impressive). I think he’ll get this place rolling.”
Whether he does or doesn’t, BYU might look back on Sept. 19 and wonder if it did enough, because opportunities like this one don’t come around often in the Big 12.
