It’s not the prospect most fans assumed would be the case right after the Cougars dispatched of Notre Dame, but an expected loss to UCF on top of another to Utah has them clinging to an at-large bid to the College Football Playoff currently.

But it could be a lot worse.

The fact is that the College Football Playoff committee still considers a two loss Cougar team worthy of a bid, and should they win out, it’s reasonable to believe there’s at least a decent chance that at-large berth into the CFP will still be there. But there’s a lot to play out in what could prove to be a hectic final three weeks of the season, and sure, there’s still an outside chance that the Cougars could return to the Big 12 Conference Championship game, but they need some help. All of it is a tad confusing, although it would help out matters quite a bit if Oklahoma State defeats Texas Tech, who holds just one loss in conference, on Saturday night, on top of other scenarios that will play out over the final three weeks of the regular season.

But what BYU can control is what’s in front of it, and on Saturday that will come with a suddenly hot and rejuvenated Baylor team that presents a lot of problems.

“We can’t sit around and feel sorry for ourselves. Baylor’s a really good team,” said BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick. “(They’re the) number one defense in the league in points per possession, best red zone defense in the league. So we got we got our hands full, so we’re all about Baylor.”

Baylor let go of head coach Dave Aranda two weeks ago in favor of defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman and the Bears responded with a resounding 41-9 win over UCF on top of a 42-31 win over Iowa State that wasn’t as close as the final score would indicate. While the offensive output has certainly been impressive, the defensive effort hasn’t lagged far behind, if at all, making Roderick wary of what his group will take on.

“It starts with their defensive line. They they are really good up front and just (an) excellent defensive line, and they have depth,” Roderick assessed. “The starting four is really good and then they have some backups that come in I’d put them right up there with Notre Dame as far as their front goes. And then they’re just really good at what they do. They’re really disciplined in the secondary, and they’ve got length back there.”

Of course BYU has problems that need to be addressed offensively, beginning with producing a type productive run game that has all but disappeared over the past three weeks. Sure, LJ Martin returned last week against Utah, although his workload and overall production wasn’t anywhere close to what fans and coaches a like are used to.

So what can fans expect from Martin come Saturday versus the Bears?

“Hopefully we can get more out of him each week, but he’s he’s still got a ways to go,” Roderick said of Martin’s potential contribution this week while downplaying any thought that the reigning Big 12 Conference Offensive Player of the Year was anywhere close to regaining his stellar form.

And then there’s Bear Bachmeier, who could be reeling a bit following his four interception performance against the Utes, although Roderick believes his starting quarterback will bounce back.

“Bear’s a tough guy and he has real character and I thought he had a great practice today,” Roderick said following Wednesday’s practice session. “He was outstanding today and I’m really confident he’ll he’ll bounce back and play well.”

Of course the problems Baylor presents on the defensive side is only half of the problem with BYU defensive coordinator giving high assessments to the Bear’s offensive arsenal, beginning with quarterback DJ Lagway.

“These guys are on fire on offense,” Poppinga said. “I think the quarterback’s operating at a high level, and they got a really good receiver, and great run game. I just think they do a lot of really good things. So we’re going to have to play our best game and can’t be sitting there feeling sorry for ourselves over what happened last week. We got to move on and get ready to play our best game this week.”

As for Lagway, he presents a dual-threat option who ran for 119 yards on just 13 carries last week versus the Cyclones on top of producing 229 more yards through the air. As far as skill positions go, the focus will be shutting down prolific receiver Gavin Freeman, who has caught 69 passes this year for 852 yards and three touchdowns.

On BYU’s end the focus will be a continued focus in improving team-tackling while maintaining the defensive pressure the team showed against Utah while hoping to start much faster than last week’s game which saw the Utes score touchdowns on their first two possessions.

“We always want to start fast, and to me, it’s the mindset that we come into this game,” Poppinga said. “We’ve been talking about having a warrior mindset and what that means to us as a team. There’s certain characteristics that warriors have, and that’s what we want to be.”