6-0 is actual and it’s stunning. BYU soccer earned its sixth win in as many video games for the 2024 season and is formally bowl-eligible after Jake Retzlaff and the Cougars dismantled the Arizona Wildcats in Provo on Saturday afternoon. I believe it is protected to say the “vampire cougars” storyline is dying out.
With a 41-19 ultimate rating, the Cougars appeared sturdy for almost all of the sport, with the errors feeling largely inconsequential and the excessive factors sparking encouragement for the rest of the season.
After failing to transform within the pink zone on the opening drive, and turning the ball over on downs, Noah Fifita marched the Wildcats down the sphere to interrupt the scoring seal with a first-quarter landing cross.
Arizona’s 7 factors could be matched by 24 straight factors from the house Cougars, who rapidly responded with a landing of their very own on the very subsequent drive to settle the rating earlier than placing their foot on the fuel.
With three straight touchdowns and a area purpose for a 24-7 lead, BYU’s response earlier than the 13-minute mark within the third quarter would show to be insurmountable for the Wildcats. Particularly because the opening sequences of the second half felt like a reenactment of the Kansas State convention opener, when Jakob Robinson picked off Fifita’s cross on a nook blitz earlier than Fifita would fumble the ball away on the subsequent possession.
LaVell Edwards Stadium was rocking underneath the October solar, and the suspected night-merchant Cougs would reply to Arizona’s lone area purpose within the third quarter with 3 factors of their very own, and after buying and selling the Wildcats’ following area purpose with an LJ Martin landing run, the stadium breathed a sigh of reduction as the sport was lastly out of attain.
…however I assume nobody informed that to Arizona.
Because the Cougars regained possession and stood able to run out the clock, Arizona’s protection punched out the soccer from Hinckley Ropati in an try to crawl again into the sport down 13-34 with underneath 4 minutes to play. Shocked on the audacity of the visiting workforce, the BYU protection allowed one other landing rating from Arizona however held sturdy in denying Noah Fifita’s desperation 2-point conversion try.
Lastly, with the possession again within the Cougars’ palms and the sport clock down under 3 minutes, BYU started to expire the clock. However these loopy cats from Tucson known as all three timeouts to cease the Cougars and pressure a punt.
Although by all accounts this recreation had been determined way back, the Wildcats weren’t letting go of this soccer recreation with no combat. Whilst a superb punt pinned Noah Fifita’s offense at their very own 1-yard line, the Wildcats battled and determined to go for it on 4th-and-10 in their very own endzone. A desperation cross was a Glasker pick-6, and the soccer recreation was lastly put to mattress.
Watching the Cougs on this matchup was a wierd phenomenon, the place BYU’s solid–though not flashy–output saved the Cougars within the driver’s seat. As they constructed upon their lead and the sport’s end result was unquestionable, I virtually did not discover how rapidly the lead grew to become virtually insurmountable. I’ve to present credit score to BYU; they managed the soccer recreation comfortably regardless that it did not all the time really feel that approach.
Jake Retzlaff had an uneven efficiency on this one. Although he made loads of glorious throws and ran the choice play expertly all through this matchup, inaccuracy and second-guessing saved the Cougars out of the endzone on a handful of possessions. A 22-point win appears to be like nice, however a extra constant output from Retzlaff may have helped his overload the scoreboard.
Nonetheless, the Cougars gained the turnover battle, and Retzlaff deserves reward for caring for the soccer, throwing zero picks to Noah Fifita’s three.
The protection was glorious, protecting the Wildcat receivers terrifically, and forcing Fifita into uncomfortable conditions. The line of defense could not have compelled many sacks, however they deflected passes and hurried the opposing QB all recreation.
The Cougars’ operating again room is lastly wholesome once more, and seeing LJ Martin take the sphere for the primary time since his damage at SMU was an exquisite sight for a BYU workforce that was very hobbled from damage of their earlier recreation.
Now, in a season the place bowl eligibility was initially seen to be the purpose, this BYU soccer workforce made a press release in incomes their sixth win in six video games to open the season, and Kalani Sitake’s workforce appears to be like poised to make a run on the wide-open Huge 12 championship.
Regardless of the way you view it, that is an unimaginable end result for BYU soccer.