No matter where blame for 1-3 start lies, BYU football faces gut-check

(Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)


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PROVO — Let's start with a fact: BYU opened the 2016 season at 1-3, its worst start to a season since 2010.

Another fact: the Cougars' three losses have come by a total of seven points, and every game has been decided by a total of nine points.

"I just am really disappointed that we’re 1-3 because we had three close losses," BYU coach Kalani Sitake said Saturday after a 35-32 loss to West Virginia. "I thought that if we would have played a lot more sound as a team, we would be in a different situation. But it’s easy to sit there and say, ‘I wish’ and ‘I wish we would’ve done things differently.’ That’s kind of like the story of life.

"I just know that our guys are resilient; they want to work hard; they want to win, and we really look forward to next week and getting ready for this next game and being home."

Whether you agree that the problem with BYU’s woes through the first four games of the year falls on the shoulders of quarterback Taysom Hill, even the fifth-year senior can acknowledge his share of the blame.

A lot of the Cougars’ travails fall on the starting quarterback after all. It’s just the nature of being the starter at a place once called Quarterback U. that has fallen on hard times offensively under the command of Sitake and first-year coordinator Ty Detmer.

“Everything falls on the quarterback,” Hill said before the Cougars fell to 1-3 with a 35-32 loss to West Virginia. “I’ve got to be better, and there are parts of the game where we can all be a little bit better. But it’s all about moving forward and getting better week to week.”

Hill has had his fair share of detractors through the first month of the regular season. He admits he hasn’t been perfect, but a lot of the issues with an offense that failed to score 20 points in its first three games — even with one of them coming in a win — was rested upon him.

BYU quarterback Taysom Hill (7) and his teammates leave the field after the Cougars fell to West Virginia 35-32 at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016. (Photo: Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)
BYU quarterback Taysom Hill (7) and his teammates leave the field after the Cougars fell to West Virginia 35-32 at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016. (Photo: Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)

But Hill threw for 341 yards and two touchdowns (with three interceptions) and ran for 101 net yards in the three-point loss to the Mountaineers. The game also featured 169 net rushing yards and two touchdowns for Jamaal Williams against a less-than-aggressive West Virginia front seven.

“I’m proud of the way we fought, of my brothers and everything we’ve done,” Williams said after the game. “We have heart. I’m grateful for them. We just need to come out and finish it.”

Offense wasn’t BYU’s problem against the Mountaineers, but just as in the two previous games against Utah and UCLA, winning was.

“The offense clicked the whole game. We just need both sides to click,” said linebacker Francis Bernard, who had four tackles and a fumble on defense. “Today was the offensive day, and now we just need to make sure it’s both.”

While the offense tried to rally after West Virginia took a 21-13 lead at halftime, it was barely doing enough to tread water against a defense that allowed 481 yards of total offense.

An offensive production of 521 yards — even with three picks by Hill — could barely do enough to keep up with one of the top offenses in the Big 12, a conference BYU has sought to join in recent weeks.

“They came out and exploited the things we weren’t expecting this game,” Bernard said. “We just need to go back and watch the film and continue to get better.”

Certainly, the BYU defense has been among the best in the nation for three games of the season, when it gave up just 18 points per game. One less-than-stellar outing shouldn’t be an indictment on the season rather an opportunity to get better.

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But the Cougars have issues, on the offensive line, wide receivers, the defensive front and even at quarterback. Addressing and fixing those issues is what coaches get paid to do, and Sitake, Detmer and the rest of the coaching staff will earn their paychecks in the coming weeks as they seek to right the ship and keep BYU on track for its 12th straight bowl game.

BYU goes back to the drawing board in hopes of righting the ship before Friday night’s game against Toledo (3-0), which is coming off a 52-17 win over Fresno State and a bye before it meets BYU at LaVell Edwards Stadium for an 8:15 p.m. MT kickoff.

In the Cougars’ first three games, they found success running a two-minute drill and put together successful final drives — albeit ones that failed to earn a win on a two-point conversion in Salt Lake City and a missed onside kick against the Bruins.

Even at 1-3, BYU has most of the season in front of them, and the Cougars can get better.

But the Cougars will need to display the same urgency they showed in hustle packages against the Pac-12 South.

“We just need to have that same sense of urgency throughout the entire game,” Hill said. “There were a lot of good things we can learn from those drives, and make sure they carry over to have the same urgency in the entire game.”

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