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PROVO — The BYU Cougar football team looks to regroup against West Virginia after two tough losses. Here are three keys to beating the Mountaineers:
Contain Skyler Howard
Howard, the Mountaineers' senior starting quarterback, has been very impressive through the first two games of the young season. He has especially shown vast improvement as a passer, completing over 63 percent of his throws in 2016 after connecting on just under 55 percent last year in his first full season as a starter. Last week, Howard put the offense on his back as he threw for 389 yards and five touchdowns en route to a scorching 203.6 quarterback efficiency rating.
Becoming a more polished passer has made Howard more of a true dual-threat QB as he runs the ball well. In 2015, he carried the ball 157 times for 502 yards and six touchdowns. This year, he hasn't called his own number nearly as frequently yet, but when he has he's been very effective. On just 15 runs, he has picked up 85 yards, including a long of 20. The Cougars will have to keep Howard in the pocket and not let him get to the edge if they want to be successful.
The good news for the Cougars is that Howard hasn't faced nearly as good of a defense as BYU's. Last week, the gunslinger put up impressive numbers against FCS opponent Youngstown State. The week before it was a mediocre Missouri squad. It will be interesting to see how he responds to the increase in competition.
Establish the run game
In the Y's only win so far this year, the offense was committed to pounding the ball on the ground and eating up time of possession. The game plan worked as Jamaal Williams had a brilliant game rushing for 162 yards on 29 carries. As a whole, the offense churned out 213 total rushing yards on 47 runs.
The last two weeks, BYU has not found as much success running the ball. Against the Utes, Williams only had 12 carries as the Cougars aired it out on 41 occasions and only ran 27 times. While Hill had a nice game running the ball, the offense as a whole struggled and couldn't capitalize on six turnovers forced by the defense.
Against UCLA, things got much worse offensively. The Cougars averaged less than a yard per rush and finished with a measly 23 total yards on the ground. The inability to get anything going running the ball forced Hill to throw on nearly every down. While he did the best he could, it got ugly and he took some nasty hits. Even as a senior, it seems that Hill is not a good enough passer to beat teams purely with his arm.
The Cougars have a good shot at getting back on track in the ground game against WVU. The Mountaineers gave up 180 and 185 rushing yards in their first two games against offenses that have had their fair share of struggles. BYU's O-line needs to establish its dominance in the trenches and take pressure off of Hill and the receivers in the passing game.
Convert on third downs
BYU's offense actually has done decently well on third-down conversions this year. The offense has converted on 40.43 percent of third-down opportunities, which is good for 53rd in the nation; not spectacular but not awful. As a surprise to nobody, the team's best performance in this department was against Arizona. In that contest, BYU converted on almost 50 percent of its chances.
However, even against the Wildcats there were some huge dropped passes and missed chances on third downs. These problems have been exasperated in the Cougars' two losses. What could have been game-changing conversions for the team deepened the mounting frustrations of the players, coaches and fans when drives stalled because of mistakes on third down.
A big key to converting more third downs will be to get to manageable distance by picking up solid yardage on first and second downs. This is where a commitment to the ground game will be so important. If the Y can consistently get into third and two or three situations, offensive coordinator Ty Detmer will have a lot more options in his play-calling. Again, this will make BYU much more dangerous on offense and relieve Hill of a lot of pressure to beat teams single-handedly.
Dylan Cannon is a regular KSL.com contributor and can be reached at DylanCannon86@gmail.com or via Twitter @DylanCannon11.
