Unbeaten no more: BYU football’s red zone woes too much to overcome in loss to Kansas
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- BYU junior quarterback Jake Retzlaff gets tackled during the Big 12 game against Kansas at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- A BYU ball carrier gets tackled during the Big 12 game against Kansas at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- BYU sophomore Harrison Taggart tried to make a tackle during the Big 12 game against Kansas at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- BYU sophomore LJ Martin carries the ball up the field during the Big 12 game against Kansas at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- BYU junior quarterback Jake Retzlaff looks to pass the ball during the Big 12 game against Kansas at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- BYU junior kicker Will Ferrin kicks off during the Big 12 game against Kansas at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- BYU senior Tyler Batty makes a tackle during the Big 12 game against Kansas at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- BYU junior quarterback Jake Retzlaff carries the ball up the field during the Big 12 game against Kansas at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- BYU linebacker Isaiah Glasker reacts during a Big 12 football game against Kansas at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 17, 2024.
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- A BYU ball carrier carries the ball up the field during the Big 12 game against Kansas at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- BYU junior quarterback Jake Retzlaff carries the ball during the Big 12 game against Kansas at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- BYU defenders try to make a tackle during the Big 12 game against Kansas at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- BYU senior Hinckley Ropati carries the ball during the Big 12 game against Kansas at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- BYU sophomore Isaiah Glasker makes a tackle during the Big 12 game against Kansas at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- BYU junior wide receiver Chase Roberts carries the ball up the field during the Big 12 game against Kansas at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- BYU flags wave over the field during the Big 12 game against Kansas at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- Fire knife dancers entertain the BYU crowd during the Big 12 game against Kansas at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- BYU flags wave over the Cougar bench during the Big 12 game against Kansas at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
17 points … 73 yards rushing … 242 total yards.
If you had told the No. 7-ranked BYU football team on Saturday afternoon that the Cougar defense would hold visiting Kansas to those numbers that night at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo, BYU would’ve been confident it would remain undefeated.
But that didn’t take into account a disastrous red-zone performance and the unluckiest bounce of the ball the Cougars have had all season.
Those proved to be just enough for the Jayhawks to snatch the lead early in the fourth quarter and hang on to hand BYU its first loss of the season, 17-13.
“It sucks,” Cougar senior defensive lineman Tyler Batty said. “We don’t like this feeling, but guys know that we don’t have quitters. I love our team and I love our coaching staff. The message is to learn your lesson and get after it.”
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said Kansas did a great job limiting the Cougar scoring.
“It was obviously a disappointing result, but you have to get a lot of credit to Kansas,” Sitake said. “They had a really good game plan. We just didn’t make enough plays and made way too many mistakes for us to come out with the victory.”
After the fact, the warning signs could be easily identified from the second Cougar drive of the game.
Kansas had marched down the field for a touchdown on its opening drive, but BYU appeared poised to answer when it got the ball at its own 43 for its second possession.
The Cougars methodically moved the ball deep into Jayhawk territory, getting a first down at the Kansas 12-yard line.
But a pair of runs only gained two yards and a Jayhawk blitz didn’t give BYU junior quarterback Jake Retzlaff time to find his target, forcing the Cougars to settle for a field goal.
BYU junior kicker Will Ferrin was on target and things looked to be heading in the right direction when the Cougar defense stopped Kansas, then BYU got a 30-yard TD pass from Retzlaff to senior running back Hinckley Ropati to go up 10-7.
The Jayhawks answered with a drive of their own to tie the game with a field goal, but left time for Retzlaff to run another two-minute drill and get BYU a first-and-goal at the 5-yard line with plenty of time left to score.
But the Cougars elected to go with a low-percentage fade route on first down, one that was underthrown and easily intercepted by Kansas senior cornerback Mello Dotson.
BYU started the third quarter with a 17-play, 66-yard drive — but again was stymied near the red zone. Three running plays from the 24-yard line only netted seven yards and Ferrin answered the call to put his team back on top.
The 13-10 Cougar lead looked like it might hold up when Kansas elected to have senior quarterback Jalon Daniels pooch punt from the BYU 36-yard line, except the Jayhawks finally got the break they had been looking for.
Daniels’ punt dropped right where Cougar sophomore cornerback Evan Johnson had tight coverage on what he thought was a Kansas wide receiver running a pass route. The ball hit Johnson’s helmet, becoming live.
It looked like BYU senior cornerback Jakob Robinson was going to get to the muffed kick first, but when he dove on it the ball squirted away.
Instead it was Kansas who got to it at the Cougar 3-yard line and the Jayhawks only needed one play — a run by senior running back Devin Neal — to turn the gift into a touchdown.
“It hit our player in the head,” Sitake said. “I thought we had a chance to recover it, but that didn’t work out. So we gave them the ball like on the 3-yard line, which is a gimme.”
Batty said it was just one of those plays that happen in football sometimes.
“I didn’t really know what was happening,” Batty said. “I thought they were running it and then the ball was away, so I thought he had thrown it. I turn and just see it hit our guy in the helmet, and I thought, ‘oh, incomplete pass. We’re good.’ Then I saw everybody kind of scrambling and hopping on it, so I realized he must have kicked it. Props to them. That was a great play. That’s the game of football.”
As unfortunate as it was, there was plenty of time and the 62,704 fans in attendance at LaVell Edwards Stadium were likely feeling good about BYU’s chances to rally once again.
Despite getting good field position off a solid Keelan Marion kickoff return and a Marque Collins interception, however, the next two Cougar drives fizzled without BYU gaining a first down.
The BYU defense continued to hold the Jayhawks, so the Cougars got the ball back with 4:47 and another chance to regain the lead.
A couple of big pass plays to junior Chase Roberts and two big runs by Ropati and sophomore running back LJ Martin had BYU in business with a first down at the Kansas 15-yard line.
With the Jayhawk defense compressed, the Cougars played right into its hands as BYU ran the ball wide three straight times with only four yards to show for it.
That put the game on the line with a fourth down, one that got harder when a miscommunication resulted in a false start penalty.
Finally going back to the air, Retzlaff barely had time to rifle a pass to Roberts before getting hit. Roberts made the catch, but ended up three yards short of the line to gain.
“I was the first read, so I’ve got to do a better job of getting to the sticks,” Roberts said. “He had inside leverage, so maybe I could’ve done something different and got there, but who knows if I could’ve shook him.”
The four trips inside the 25-yard line resulting in just six points was certainly an extremely disappointing showing from the Cougar offense.
“It just didn’t seem like it was clicking,” Sitake said. “We got a lot of yards and the run game was working pretty nicely, but settling for field goals isn’t going to work either. We just need to find more ways to make plays and the offense has got to score more points, not just get field goals.”
Roberts said the problems were all about execution.
“I feel like we struggled a little bit in practice this week in the red zone, and it carries over,” Roberts said. “You’ve got to lock in. You’ve got to be prepared when you come out and play a good team like Kansas. We knew we had to put points on the board and if we didn’t score in the red zone, then we have a tough time winning because Kansas has a great offense. I think there were too many little some mental errors and when you make mistakes, it’s hard to win.”
Despite the disappointing defeat, BYU can’t stay down long. The Cougars still control their own destiny but face a huge test when they play at Arizona State next Saturday.
“We obviously have got to refocus,” Sitake said. “You’ve got to learn from the game, but you’re going to have to overcome the feelings of regret and wishing that you could do it over again. You’ve got to just get over it. That’s life. I think there’s so much that happens in life that doesn’t go your way. You’ve just got to find a way to respond better and we’re going to choose to do it with our heads up high. We know that we have a lot more to play for still.”
