BYU’s 38-24 loss at Baylor – Cougar Nation venturing into Big 12 Country for the first time since the announcement they were joining the conference in two years – revealed that there are no magic fixes in college football from week to week.

The same problems exposed by Boise State in last week’s loss were apparent again on Saturday, not the least of which was the lack of physicality and precision on both lines.

Boise State ran for twice as many yards as it averaged. On Saturday, Baylor ran for 303 yards and averaged six yards per carry, its big backs often getting four of five yards down field before meeting a BYU defender.

The Cougars couldn’t run against Boise State (3.1 yards per carry) and had a terrible day running the ball vs. the Bears, failing to open any holes for talented running back Tyler Allgeier. BYU finished with 67 yards on 24 carries, with 54 of those yards coming on one run by quarterback Jaren Hall.

The Cougars became very one-dimensional offensively and even though Hall (22 of 31, 342 yards) and Puka Nacua (five catches, 168 yards) produced big numbers, Hall was sacked five times and BYU trailed 38-17 midway though the fourth quarter.

What become very apparent on Saturday is that the Cougars strength and conditioning coaches have their work cut out for them in the next two years. Despite three wins over Pac-12 teams (Arizona, Utah and Arizona State), BYU faced a very different level of physicality against Baylor. Big 12 line play is much more physical than Pac-12 line play and the Bears pushed the Cougars off the line of scrimmage all day.

In the post-game, BYU coach Kalani Sitake said, “If we want to play against Baylor and in the Big 12, we’ve got to be more physical up front. We’ve got to find out why we’ve lost the line of scrimmage two weeks in a row.”

To be fair, BYU is short-handed with a couple of starters out on both the offensive and defensive lines. The depth the Cougars need to overcome those injuries is still being developed on a very young team.

One aspect of the game that draws both sarcasm and awe is that Baylor didn’t get flagged a single time. In a game with 130 total plays, that seems pretty incredible. The Bears averaged seven penalties for 65 yards in the previous six games. I would venture to guess Baylor won’t go penalty less in any game the rest of the season.

The Bears played a pretty amazing game offensively (534 total yards), to the point where I was wondering if former BYU offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes – BYU’s OC last year – sat in on the Cougars defensive meetings this week. Of course, when you can just line up and run over the opposing defense, the game becomes pretty simple.

So where does this leave BYU right now?

The Cougars are 5-2 and will likely fall out of the Top 25 this week. BYU has games remaining against Washington State, Virginia, Idaho State, Georgia Southern and USC. Eight or nine wins is likely whereas ten wins is possible with Virginia and USC providing the most resistance. The end of the season – the Independence Bowl against a G5 opponent – is pretty much set. At this point, the goal is to build some momentum heading into 2022.

This is a roster with only two seniors, remember.

It would be fair to say that through the first five games, BYU exceeded who we thought they were. Now they’ve reverted to who we thought they were.

It’s up to Sitake and the coaching staff to find a way to get the Cougars moving on an upward trajectory, and soon.

Evan Cobb, Daily Herald

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