PROVO —Last week, BYU went on the road and beat Cal 42-35 to end the regular season. Here are three facets of the game that showed whether BYU made improvements.

Pass defense

Coming into the game, BYU’s pass defense had been anemic all season. During the Cougars' four-game losing streak, the team gave up an average of 335 passing yards per game. While the team put up vastly better numbers during its three-game winning streak, it had not faced a good team or quarterback in those matchups. Coming into the contest, the Golden Bears were the fifth-best passing team in the nation and had a stud at quarterback in Jared Goff.

To the chagrin of the Cougar faithful, the secondary was again exposed for most of the game. Goff had an outstanding game overall as he completed 38 passes for 393 yards and four touchdowns. It was Goff’s third best statistical game of the season as he dropped dimes all over the field. However, there is some silver lining to the overall poor performance by the secondary as it was able to force four consecutive incompletions when it mattered most.

Pressure on the quarterback

During the Cougars' four-game skid, they rarely so much as dirtied the opposing quarterback’s jersey as they only were able to account for a pedestrian 1.5 sacks a game. During the three-game winning streak, the Cougars were in the opposing team’s backfield much more as the team was able to register three sacks a game. In the Cal game, BYU was only able to sack Goff one time.

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In their regular season finale, the Cougars snuck out of California Memorial Stadium with 42-35 victory over the Golden Bears Saturday.

While that number does not look like much, the Cougars were in the backfield for much of the game as they roughed up Goff all night. While it won’t appear in the stat sheet, it looked like Goff was banged up and had some happy feet at the end of the game. BYU rushers did just enough to help the Cougars pull the victory out.

Game management

During the team’s four-game slide, the Cougars were only soundly beaten in one game (Boise State). In the other three games, the team had its chances and was even for two scores in the second half of two of the games (UCF and Nevada). Giving up big leads or losing close games often comes down to coaching. In the Cal game, the play-calling by the much-maligned offensive coordinator Robert Anae was terrific overall (though he did have one red zone gaff that led to a game-changing turnover). Likewise, defensive coordinator Nick Howell was able to call a game that slowed Cal just enough, holding it below its average in point total, to win the game.

As for the team’s game manager, it is hard to find too many flaws in the game that Christian Stewart had. True, he did throw an ill-advised interception while falling down that he was fortunate to have reversed. Stewart also made a dreadful decision near the goal line when he threw a terrible lateral back to Lasike in a play that was doomed from the start. But the former walk-on had 433 yards passing and five touchdown throws and stayed calm and composed in a shootout.

So, overall the Cougars showed vast improvement in two out of three facets of the game and as Jack Nicholson informs the American people in “Mars Attacks,” “that ain’t bad.”

Be sure to listen to my podcast, “Cougar Talk,” on iTunes and podbean.com as my co-host, David Watkins, and I discuss BYU sports topics.

Note: Last week I did something that I do not usually do and went out on a limb and predicted that BYU would beat Cal 42-35. The prediction was well researched and based off current trends for both teams but it drew the ire of many of the readers of the article. Some of the readers went on to call into question my level of objectivity at best and my sanity and intelligence at worst. Lo and behold, the Cougars pulled the game out by what score? 42-35.

Dylan Cannon is a regular KSL.com contributor and can be reached at DylanCannon86@gmail.com or via twitter @DylanCannon11. Listen to his weekly podcast, "Cougar Talk," on iTunes.

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