Courtesy BYU Photo

Perfectly Rational Overreactions

Each week I give calm and measured takes on BYU football.

My first PRO: This is the worst BYU offensive line ever.

Too soon to come to that conclusion, but 244 yards in four games (61 yards per game) and a 2.2 average per carry is pretty lousy. Projected to 12 games, the Cougars would rush for less than 1,000 yards (804) for the SEASON. Last year, BYU rushed for 2,308 yards, for comparison sake.

The Cougars definitely have an offensive line problem. Everything they want to do on that side of the ball is keyed by that group of five players, and they are failing miserably in the run game so far this season. When Kalani Sitake was asked in the post-game about what was wrong, he said if he knew he would tell the media. And that he might ask them what they thought was wrong.

How would we know? We’re just a bunch of writers who have seen hundreds of college football games. The poor numbers are pretty hard to miss.

Sitake has pretty much repeated every game that the opponent is committing to stop the run. Of course, they are. They look at the video from previous games and it’s pretty apparent they can dominate the line of scrimmage.

Is that an indictment of the players’ execution or exposure of a scheme that isn’t working?

Is it fixable? Man, I just don’t know. There are no holes to run through. There are consistently defenders running free on BYU’s side of the ball and hitting running backs before they can get started. Tough to make any headway. On Saturday, both Kingsley Suamataia and Weylin Lapuah0 were sidelined because of injury.

Nevada ran for 158 yards last week against Kansas. You don’t think the Jayhawks committed to stopping the Wolfpack’s running game?

If you want to be competitive in the Big 12, the one place you can’t get overwhelmed is on the line of scrimmage, and right now the BYU offensive line looks completely overwhelmed in the run game. A number for you: Removing sacks, 13 of BYU’s rushing attempts went for two yards or less against Kansas. That doesn’t work.

PRO No. 2: Big 12 officials are horrible and cost BYU the game.

Those two gift touchdowns on turnovers from the Cougars, well you can dispute them. Cobee Bryant got a free run at Parker Kingston on the fly sweep because of a missed block and unloaded on him, leading with his shoulder but launching himself and snapping Kingston’s head back. The curious thing was the vicious hit wasn’t even reviewed for targeting. Kingston suffered a probable concussion and missed the rest of the game.

If the targeting rule is truly there to protect the player, it failed, and so did the referees.

The second turnover, the pick-six at the beginning of the second half, should have been pass interference since the Kansas defender clearly made contact and grabbed Issac Rex around the waist with both hands before the ball arrived.

The Cougars had the benefit of the calls last week at Arkansas, but the home team at David Booth Kansas Memoria Stadium definitely got the calls on Saturday.

That’s how football goes, and you can’t control those things. BYU didn’t handle its side of the business and lost the game.

PRO No. 3: Just four games into the season the Cougars are losing too many starters to injury and don’t have the depth to overcome this adversity.

BYU is playing 10 straight games against Power 5 opponents for the first time. We’ve been talking about this all summer. After just two games in that run, the injuries are piling up. Not just Suamataia and Lapuaho, but Kingston and surely Kody Epps, who has yet to make any impact at all. On defense, linebacker Ben Bywater went out. Even with the added resources to support staff to help prevent the injuries, they keep coming. Sitake said he likes his team’s depth and that will truly be tested each and every week.

And finally, PRO No. 4: This program just isn’t ready for the Big 12.

Sitake said in the post-game his team can compete in the Big 12. Losing by 11 on the road hurts but wasn’t embarrassing. The Cougars were good enough to take a 17-14 lead at the half and got outplayed in the second, but pulled within eight points in the fourth quarter. You might have noticed that none of the new Big 12 teams — BYU, Houston, Cincinnati or UCF — won a conference opener, all losing by double digits. Nobody got blown out. The Cougars next opponent, Cincinnati, held Oklahoma to 20 points in a 20-6 loss. The Sooners had averaged 55.7 points in their first three games.

You can point to some areas where BYU is ready, but others where they are not. This is a process and the Cougars are deep into it. They showed they can compete at this level the past two weeks. Winning takes a cleaner and more consistent effort, though.