Analysis: BYU’s uneven offensive performance, coupled with some lights-out defense, was more than enough to rout Stanford

Games against a lousy Football Championship Subdivision opponent and one of the worst teams in college football’s Power Four ranks haven’t really taught us much about the BYU Cougars in coach Kalani Sitake’s 10th season.

Well, except for this: BYU’s defense appears to be darn good, perhaps one of the best in the Big 12 and maybe one of the best in Sitake’s tenure.

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The jury is still out on BYU’s offense with true freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier at the controls. He made some great throws Saturday night, such as a deep one over the middle to Chase Roberts. He was also inconsistent, missing an open JoJo Phillips on one occasion and getting sacked three times by blitzes — which is probably more on the offensive line than the 19-year-old from Murrieta, California.

Special teams remains as solid as ever, aside from punt returner Parker Kingston’s struggles holding onto the football. The star of wins over Kansas State and Colorado last year might have lost his job to Tiger Bachmeier, Bear’s brother.

Add all that up, and Saturday night’s 27-3 win over Stanford, on the heels of that 69-0 blasting of Portland State that proved absolutely nothing about the Cougars, went about as expected, which is to say that we won’t really know if this team is going to be a Big 12 contender for a few more games at least.

Certainly the offense has a long way to go.

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In front of the biggest crowd at LaVell Edwards Stadium — some 64,692 strong — since that memorable win over Utah in 2007, BYU (2-0) and Stanford (0-2) staged something of a snoozefest, thanks mostly to the Cardinal’s inability to do anything against BYU’s defense and BYU’s inability to do much in the red zone beside kick field goals at a record rate.

“We weren’t the best at converting touchdowns in the red zone tonight,” acknowledged running back Sione Moa, who did run 8 yards for a score.

Will Ferrin, a surefire Lou Groza Award candidate, made field goals of 36, 30, 21 and 23 yards to extend his streak of makes to 22, dating back to last year.

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BYU also scored on a 3-yard run by Bear Bachmeier and a safety courtesy of a tackle in the end zone by sophomore Faletau Satuala. The Bountiful High product added an interception and is a Big 12 defensive player of the week candidate.

“Never felt like we were stressed in the game, completely,” said Sitake, which is a nice way of saying that the Cougars never felt threatened against an ACC team that has fallen on hard times as of late.

Along with Ferrin, BYU’s LJ Martin — arguably the team’s best offensive player — was the offensive star, picking up 110 yards on 18 carries.

Tiger Bachmeier’s 44-yard punt return was the special teams highlight.

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Clearly, though, this game was won by BYU’s defense, which pitched a shutout for the first three quarters before Stanford became the first team to score on the Cougars in 2025 with a 26-yard field goal with 10 minutes, 31 seconds remaining.

Obviously, interim coach Frank Reich, the former NFL QB and coach, did not want to leave Provo with a goose egg.

“It would have been great to have a shutout,” mused Satuala. “… Probably one of my best games I have had in college.”

BYU’s defense, which gave up a grand total of 161 yards, came up with three turnovers and had the Cardinal in red figures in rushing until the fourth quarter.

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The school of Christian McCaffrey, Bryce Love and Toby Gerhart finished with just 19 rushing yards. In two games, BYU has allowed a grand total of 14 rushing yards.

“Obviously, the game plan is a huge part of that,” said linebacker Jack Kelly, crediting defensive coordinator Jay Hill and his staff.

Noted Satuala: “We were prepared for everything. Coach Hill is a genius.”

The Cardinal was 2 of 13 on third down and averaged just 2.9 yards per play. For BYU, that will play when the competition ramps up in two weeks at East Carolina, then continues through Big 12 action.

Now if the offense can get it together.

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The only thing that kept this one from getting more out of hand was BYU’s struggles in the red zone. Technically, the Cougars were 6 of 6 in the red zone, thanks to Ferrin’s 4 of 4 performance. He’s now 40 of 46 in his career.

But they left a lot of points on the field, instead of the scoreboard.

“If we clean up that little stuff we (would have) beat Stanford by a lot more,” said Roberts, who contributed to the mistakes by dropping a pass near the goal line on third-and-3 that he may, or may not, have taken into the end zone.

On another red zone foray, Kingston appeared to have scored on a jet sweep, but officials threw a flag for holding on tight end Keayen Nead, a penalty that was iffy at best.

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Another time, Martin was in a scrum with the ball near the goal line, making it virtually impossible for officials to know if he scored or not.

No video review came — or if it did, it was done in record time — and on the next play, Isaiah Jatta was penalized for a false start and the Cougars had to settle for another field goal when they misfired on 3rd and six.

“We just had some misfortune when it comes to killing drives, too,” Sitake said. “We just got to clean it up.”

In one of the strangest first halves in recent memory at LES, BYU took a 14-0 lead — on a touchdown, two field goals and a safety.

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In short, the Cougars squandered several scoring opportunities in the first half, and Bear Bachmeier hit the turf far more than anyone in blue would have liked.

“It was tough sledding against this (Stanford) defense,” Sitake said. “They gave us a lot of different looks and blitz packages … They hit Bear too much for me to like.”

The Cougars went 85 yards on their second possession and took a quick 6-0 lead. The try for two failed, which Sitake attributed to the play not being run exactly as it was drawn up.

Bachmeier was sacked three times in the first half, all three on blitzes wherein the defender was untouched.

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The freshman opened with a poor throw to Phillips that could have been intercepted after Phillips tipped it into the air. Phillips sustained a right arm injury in the second quarter and did not play in the second half, watching from the sidelines with his arm in a sling.

Martin’s 47-yard run and a 17-yard strike from Bachmeier to running back Sione Moa set up BYU’s first TD, a 3-yard Bachmeier run.

After Raider Damuni’s interception and 26-yard return, BYU went backwards and had to settle for Will Ferrin’s 36-yard field goal. After Kelly forced a fumble inside Stanford’s 10-yard line that Viliami Po’uha recovered, the Cougars sputtered again, despite Kingston reaching the end zone.

While BYU’s offense looked inept in the second quarter, its defense was just the opposite. The Cougars took the 14-0 lead when Satuala tackled a Stanford receiver in the end zone.

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The Cardinal picked up just 29 yards in the first half. They were held to minus-18 rushing yards.

BYU had 160 yards in the first half, but was not crisp after that first TD drive. The Cougars were 2 of 10 on third down in the first half, averaged just 4.0 yards per play. The finished averaging 4.9 yards per play while improving to 17-3 in their last 20 night games in Provo.

“Overall, I am just pleased we got the win,” Sitake said. “We know we need to improve and get better.”

BYU has a bye this week, and will head out on the road for the first time to take on East Carolina on Sept. 20 in Greenville, North Carolina.