BYU escaped TCU with a win Saturday night, but the Cougars left behind a bigger question than the 17-10 final: was this just a bad night, or a revealing one?
For long stretches, the offense looked nothing like a team trying to climb toward the top of the Big 12. It was clunky from the start, short on push, short on rhythm and short on answers.
The Cougars struggled to run the ball, barely threatened downfield, kept putting themselves behind the chains and collected too many penalties along the way. The whole operation felt stuck in neutral.
The numbers told the same story. BYU finished with 216 total yards, and the two teams combined for just 475. Wet conditions were part of the setting, but not nearly enough to explain away how rough the offensive football was.
The Cougars still found a way, and the difference came late. A 10-play, 72-yard drive ended with a punishing 21-yard touchdown run by Bear Bachmeier, the kind of finish that covered up a lot of earlier frustration.
Without BYU’s defense, there may not have been much to celebrate at all. The Cougars’ first-half touchdown came after safety Faletau Satuala intercepted a pass and returned it more than 50 yards, setting up another Bachmeier scoring run. That defense spent most of the night bothering a TCU offense that had not done much this season, but the Horned Frogs still managed a 76-yard touchdown drive and tied the game at 7 with 27 seconds left in the second quarter.
From there, the game stayed very much in doubt.
BYU also had to deal with injuries. Offensive tackle Andrew Gentry was out, running back LJ Martin got hurt, and linebacker Isaiah Glasker got hurt.
Martin’s absence mattered in a big way. With him dinged early and the offensive line struggling to open space, Bachmeier was left carrying far too much of the load.
The quarterback’s passing day never really got going. He threw for 31 yards in the first half and 31 more in the second, completing only six passes before finishing with a performance that looked hurried and uncomfortable throughout. The Cougars leaned heavily on his legs instead, and he responded with 66 rushing yards on 15 carries.
But the larger takeaway was less flattering. BYU’s offense was conservative to the point of caution, with offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick leaning on short throws, routine handoffs and Bachmeier’s running ability. The Cougars gave the ball to backs like Preston Rex and Journee Tonga and mixed in Glasker, but the approach never looked especially explosive.
Matthias Dunn’s 49-yard field goal put BYU ahead 10-7 midway through the third quarter, and then the game drifted until the final drive finally produced separation.
Afterward, Bachmeier summed up the night in the simplest way possible: “I just want to win the game.”
He did. And BYU did, too. But the performance raised as many doubts as it answered.
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