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The BYU Cougars left Notre Dame Stadium on the short end of a 17-14 game on Saturday afternoon. While BYU had chances to upset the 5th-ranked Irish, the Cougars couldn't come up with plays on offense and defense when they needed them most.
BYU led the game 14-7 at halftime and was feeling pretty good about its chances. Unfortunately, the third quarter was BYU's undoing. Notre Dame found its running game and BYU's defense couldn't make stops. The offense didn't pick up the slack, failing to score in the second half.
Riley Nelson ended the day with 177 yards passing, with two touchdowns and two interceptions. The picks aren't good, but the biggest issue was Nelson's off-target passes. There were several throws behind receivers; one that led to Riley's first INT. The back-breaker was a pass behind Cody Hoffman that if caught, was going for a touchdown. "That play is going to haunt me until the day I die," Nelson said on the KSL Radio postgame show.
Defensively, BYU bounced back after last week's tough performance against Oregon State. Through two quarters, the defense had held the Irish offense in check. Notre Dame made adjustments in the third quarter and started to rush the ball exclusively. BYU gave up a very uncharacteristic 270 yards on the ground. After being so good against the run all season long, it was surprising that the Cougars gave up that many rushing yards.
The question now is: Where does BYU go from here? With games against Georgia Tech, Idaho, San Jose State and New Mexico State still on the schedule, BYU has to win at least two games in order to become bowl eligible. At this point, BYU's only goal is to win as many games as possible and hope it's good enough to play in a bowl game.
I know fans are frustrated. Heading into this year, we all expected better results than being 4-4 after eight games. BYU expected to be better than a .500 team at this point. Games like the one in South Bend are all too familiar these days, and that's the frustrating part for fans.
