Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

Now it’s time for Perfectly Rational Overreactions (PROs).

PRO No. 1: BYU makes every quarterback look like a Heisman Trophy candidate.

Certainly seemed that way last week, when UCF’s Keyone Jenkins threw for nearly 300 yards and easily escaped the Cougar pass rush all game long. So what did Jenkins do on Saturday? Try 14 of 21 for 82 yards and an interception in a 41-9 loss to Baylor, a team that fired its coach last week. Jake Fette was 22 of 42 for 166 yards and two touchdowns for ASU on Saturday so I was right, he did have a career game against the Cougars.

What’s that you say? He’d only thrown eight passes in two games before Saturday and was making his first start against BYU? Well, that’s still a career game, right?

I actually thought the pass defense held up pretty well. Omarian Miller caught a TD pass but Jaylon Williams did a pretty good job the rest of the time. He and Tre Alexander were solid. The defense gave up 20 points and that’s was good enough to get a win.

PRO No. 2: BYU isn’t a college football playoff team.

Technically, nobody is yet. The first rankings will be announced on Tuesday and BYU will be among the top 12. The thing about college football is teams generally don’t look the same week to week. I would say the Cougars did look like a playoff team after the Notre Dame win but hasn’t the past two weeks. They have plenty of company as college football is deep in the middle of a parity epidemic. There will be several 2-loss teams in this year’s playoffs, count on it. Probably not from the Big 12, but they will be there.

PRO No. 3: BYU has no hope of getting to the Big 12 Championship Game without LJ Martin.

Doesn’t look like Martin will play next week in Salt Lake City and the Cougars running game has been anemic without him, though it was surprisingly effective against Notre Dame. Sure, Arizona State had a freshman quarterback making his first start but the Sun Devils ran the ball well with Cardae Mack. I thought Fette was pretty good and a lot of that was he wasn’t forced into a lot of 2nd or 3rd and long situations. Bear Bachmeier is having to carry the whole offense on his back and teams are teeing off on him as a runner. Without Martin, I’m not sure the Cougars have the running back room to overcome the loss against a very good Utes defense.

And finally, PRO No. 4: BYU is going to get slaughtered by Utah.

One team is coming into the rivalry game on a 14-game winning streak after boat-racing Cincinnati on the road. The other team is struggling to look like the contender it hoped to be when the season started.

In this rivalry, records generally don’t matter. The game is close way more often than it’s a blowout, and that’s what I would expect on Saturday. Having said that, it’s hard not to look at both teams and see the Utes riding high and the Cougars in a slump.

Who Carried the Boats and the Logs?

Another week without a lot of candidates. I liked what the tight ends did (Walker Lyons and Roger Saleapaga combined to make eight catches for 75 yards) and Matthias Dunn was money as a field goal kicker, especially with the 45-yarder in the fourth quarter to give BYU the lead. The game seemed to lack that special kind of intensity for a team fighting for a playoff spot, and it was felt around the whole stadium. The offensive line had trouble getting even one yard in several situations and while the defense came up with a turnover and six sacks, no one really stood out.

One good thing

You have to give it up for BYU and its 95-yard drive to put the game away in the the fourth quarter.

There were two fourth-down conversions on the 11-play drive, including one from BYU’s 14. The deep pass from Bachmeier to Legend Glasker was very pretty and the Cougars stuck it in the end zone a few plays later.

But for most of the game, the offense seemed out of sync. Why is that, this deep into the season?

Excuse me?

Oh, to be a teenager and walk around like you are the only one on earth.

I experienced this while covering the state volleyball tournament at UVU’s UCCU Center, where I often came to an abrupt halt because a teenager in front of me decided to stop and check their phone, ignoring the fact that there are other people in the hallway.

Actually, I think the issue is that they tend to travel in packs and when one of them stops, they all do. It creates quite a pile-up.

Bear’s best move

Bachmeier converted a third down with a scramble during the game after faking a throw … to offensive lineman Paki Finau. Hey, Arizona State fell for it, so it worked.

Get off my lawn

Love the UCCU Center as a venue for state volleyball but the parking is atrocious, even worse that at the University of Utah for the football finals, and that’s saying something. The rapid growth of students at UVU combined with areas that aren’t OK for event parking make it pretty difficult to find any place to park when attending the tournament. I really don’t even mind walking a fair distance from parking to the arena. A walk is good for you. I just hate driving around the parking lot for 30 minutes looking for a spot.

But Darnell, you say. You’re a member of the media. Don’t you get free parking?

Let me answer that after pausing to laugh for a while.

No, we do not. We do get some tables to work at during the tournament but we usually have to share them with fans who decide it’s a good place to bring the family for lunch during the tournament.

That’s all for now, but for this: The word “Queue” is the just the letter “Q” followed by four completely unnecessary letters.

Think about it.

We’ll see if the imposters wearing BYU uniforms the past two weeks get replaced by the real thing for the Utah game. Maybe it was a Halloween prank.

It’s officially BYU-Utah week. Try to play nice.