And that’s been the story of BYU football for much of the season, although it could well be argued that the good outweighed the bad in dispatching of a rejuvenated Baylor team by three touchdowns while holding it to just seven points scored. Whether such a performance will either help, hurt or make no difference in BYU’s CFP resume remains to be seen with the Cougar very much dependent on what has proven an unfriendly CFP committee dating back to last season.

“The coaching me thinks like, “Oh man, the score was was good, but we could have done better in that whole thing,'” summed up BYU coach Kalani Sitake. “But I’m just pleased that these guys are starting to do some really good things and we’re seeing some really good things from young guys, too. There’s a lot of young guys playing, and (we’re) showing our depth. So I’m excited.”

The good was readily apparent throughout the first half of play where the Cougars were finally able to forge a productive ground game on the heels of LJ Martin running much more efficient than he did upon returning from injury during the prior week’s loss to Utah. Martin finished the game with 49 yards on just six attempts while Sione Moa added 37 yards on his seven attempts out of the backfield.

BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier also made himself much more of a factor in the run game, and although his final stats of 54 yards gained on 15 carries certainly don’t jump off the page, he proved much more intentional in tucking the ball for positive yardage than he has in recent games with perhaps his three rushing touchdowns testifying best to that fact. Bachmeier scored on runs of eight, six and one yard during the first half of play with BYU proving much more effective with its redzone execution than it has in recent weeks.

Overall the first half saw BYU run the ball 30 times opposed to just 12 pass attempts and managed a productive 150 yards on those carries while taking exactly what the Baylor defense offered.

“It was a lot of fun. I love running the ball, so any time we can do that successfully, it is really cool as an offensive lineman,” said BYU offensive lineman Sonny Makasini. “It’s cool to give our defense a break and get them off the field.”

The best help the Cougar offense may have provided the defense was an 18-play 96-yard touchdown drive during the second quarter that chewed up 9:03 minutes of clock to procure a 21-0 lead at halftime. The drive proved to be the last fans saw of LJ Martin for the evening, however, with the senior running back leaving the game and not returning for the duration of the second half after his ailing ankle was stepped on following a successful run which caused him some noticeable discomfort.

“I think he could have (played in the second half), but there’s a play where I think he just got stepped on and and kind of irritated um his injury and so it’s a I think we just have to be smart,” Sitake said of Martin. “He’s got some hardware down there, so we got to be smart and I think having him come back early was was good for the team and everything, but look we can’t ask too much of him.”

Also leaving the game early was Moa who spent quite a bit of time on the field being looked at by trainers after sustaining what appeared to be another injury to his ankle during the second half of play.

“I don’t know. I’m not a trainer or doctor, but he’s had some some rough injuries,” Sitake said when asked of the nature of Moa’s injury. “We’ll take a look at it. I was pleased with what he was able to do when he came in the game.”

Both Martin’s and Moa’s non-participation throughout the second half was apparent as the Cougars struggled to run for just 39 yards on 17 attempts from scrimmage causing the entire operation to bog down considerably. The passing game was an exercise of quick throws to the flat with some attempts along the sidelines, although almost nothing was even attempted across the middle in the intermediate to long range.

Overall Bachmeier finished with just a 14-24 effort through the air for 104 yards with the plus coming with no interceptions which was a by-product of what proved to be a very conservative passing approach. Whether that was intentional or not left many in attendance questioning the lack of even attempting much of anything downfield with Sitake questioning the same during his postgame press conference.

“I think we weren’t really accurate in the pass game and that has a lot of where there’s pass pro(tection issues) or routes or timing, but hat needs to be fixed,” Sitake said. “We can play better than that. So, (it’s) just not efficient enough. I feel like we we had some momentum and … we felt like we were in control, so didn’t have to do too much, but it wasn’t because the calls were trying to be conservative or anything like that.”

Bachmeier’s best pass of the evening came when hitting seldom-targeting receiver Jojo Phillips with a 23-yard touchdown pass midway through the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile the Cougar defense thrived, holding a Baylor team that had scored over 40 points in the two games prior to Saturday’s game to just a single touchdown and just 268 yards of total offense, leaving a lot to be optimistic on that front. But sill, the offensive deficiencies shown forth throughout the second half is cause for concern moving forward as BYU attempts to look the part of a team worth of a CFP bid.

“It might have been boring to some people, but I think we’ve got to preserve our health and get our guys ready for the next week,” Sitake concluded. “Eventually we’re we’re going to need to open up and and do things differently in all three phases to get where we need to be.”