BYU defense rises up to save first Cougar road win in Big 12

BYU’s offensive players and staff now have an extra week to:

• Take defensive personnel to dinners.
• Pick names of defensive mates for future naming of offspring.
• Find lucrative NIL deals for defenders.
• Clean up all messes by defensive players in the locker room, dorm rooms and apartment rooms, and complete Door Dash deliveries to all of them.
• Do early Christmas shopping for defensive coordinator Jay Hill.

BYU’s defense stepped up about 400 times in the course of BYU’s 34-28 win over Baylor on Saturday under a hot, energy-zapping sun to lift the No. 22 Cougars to a 5-0 record to end September and into a tie for first place in the Big 12.

But none of those hundreds of lifelines were bigger than killing two Baylor drives in the final four minutes.

BYU safety, Crew Wakley, intercepted Baylor quarterback Sawyer Robertson with 59 seconds left in the game to seal an incredible effort by the Cougar defense.

It was BYU’s first Big 12 road win. Ever.

“There was too much drama, but I’m glad we got the win,” said BYU head coach Kalani Sitake after the game.

Moments before that, linebacker Jack Kelly’s pressure forced a holding penalty on Baylor. Kelly also had an interception bounce out of his hands.

Before that, pressure and outstanding man press coverage by the Cougar secondary foiled Baylor’s attempts to erase a 6-point BYU lead.

BYU raced to a big lead early with lightning plays on both offense and defense that appeared to be leftover from the win over No. 13 K-State.

BYU held a 21-0 lead in the first quarter, initiated when BYU defensive tackle John Nelson tipped a Robertson pass on Baylor’s first play of the game and tackle Blake Mangelson brought it down for a pick.

But after securing that big lead, the Cougar offense melted in the Texas sun late in the second and third quarters. It allowed Baylor to find its mojo.

Quarterback Jake Retzlaff, who had a brilliant first half, was intercepted twice, his second on a tipped ball at the line of scrimmage in the fourth quarter. Receivers dropped passes, and there were futile runs after gaining more than a hundred yards in the first half.

Baylor, who lost to Colorado in a heartbreaking overtime game the week before, had its back to the wall and took advantage of a lot of emotion to fight back and press BYU.

“This is a testament to our grit,” said Retzlaff afterward on BYUtv. “Our defense? I trust those guys so much.”

BYU appeared to have the game cooked when the defense stopped Baylor in the final two minutes. The offense got the ball and earned a second and five in their own territory on a run by Enoch Nawahine. An official called a BYU tackle for a 15-yard penalty after the play was called dead. The penalty led to a second and 20, forcing BYU to punt and essentially breathing life back into Baylor’s squad.

Wakely and company took the challenge and nailed the coffin shut on his center fielder’s safety pick in front of a streaking Baylor receiver.

“We were playing tough the entire game,” said Nelson on KSL radio afterwards. “They were coming after us hard. It’s tough to win on the road in the Big 12.”

Afterward, Sitake called the late penalty call “bullcrap.”

“I thought it was an obvious flop,” said Sitake. “A James Harden.”

He said, “We teach our players to be smart in that situation especially when we’re trying to grind the clock. They marched us 15 yards back and I had to let the refs hear it. It was a bullcrap call, but that’s OK. Officials are human, they’re not perfect. I’m not either. That’s why I yelled at them.”

Sitake was as emotional in this game as he’s been all season.

BYU’s offense came out looking like the nation’s top unit at Baylor. Missing starting running back LJ Martin, who didn’t make the trip, the Cougars then lost receiver Kody Epps and starting center Connor Pay to injuries in the first half, which created obstacles for BYU in Waco.

After BYU blew a big lead, Baylor had three chances to win the game. Those three drives ended in nine plays for 9 yards and a punt; seven plays for 21 yards after a fail on fourth down, and a two play negative 10 yards on the Bears final drive that died on an interception.

BYU’s defense, which struggled to contain Baylor’s Robertson and his chemistry with his receivers in the middle part of this game, switched from a soft zone to man press coverage and that adjustment by coordinator Hill proved decisive in disrupting Robertson’s timing.

Hill never stopped bringing pressure, dialing up extra blitz help from his corners, safeties and linebackers.

In years past, this was the kind of game BYU would lose by letting a QB sit back in the pocket and tear them apart.

No, that won’t do in Hill’s world.

“Any time I wanted to make a recommendation, Jay was all over it,” said Sitake on KSL radio. “He stayed aggressive.”

Baylor coach Dave Aranda credited BYU, especially coaches he’d worked with at Utah State and Wisconsin (TJ Woods, Chad Kauha’aha’a) for presenting different looks at his offense and defense.

“I was disappointed in the start to this game,” said Aranda. “We were missing players for this game, but so were they.”

Sitake said BYU should be way better than they played at times on Saturday and there’s plenty of work to do. He had to settle some players down who were trying to do too much on their own and getting away from assignments, he said.

BYU’s five road losses in the Big 12 last year featured slow starts. But on Saturday, BYU built up a 31-14 lead that forced Baylor’s offense to pass and take chances.

In the end, that’s what cost a desperate Baylor team and Robertson with the Wakley pick.

Baylor came into this game giving up just 14 points a game, but BYU doubled that up in the first half with a pair of TD passes from Retzlaff to Darius Lassiter of 44 yards and Miles Davis of 26 yards. Retzlaff, who could and probably should have run more in the second half, scored on a 17-yard QB run in the first half.

Tyler Batty got his first sack of the season. Wakley and John Taumoepeau also got sacks, which brings BYU’s season total to 13 when a year ago BYU got a total of 10 all year long.

BYU now takes a week off before hosting Arizona in LaVell Edwards Stadium.

Disrespected with prognostications this summer, you get the feeling Sitake’s team is crawling out from “under the radar” to BOLO status — Be On the Lookout.