All Smiles from The Cougars: BYU beats CSU 90-21

In what looked to be an exciting matchup, the Cougars dominated from start to finish. CSU captain, Mason Kreiter, had mentioned physicality as a key to the game for his squad. He was spot on as it was a key to the game, but in this matchup, it was the key to their demise. The Cougars monopolized the contact area in every phase of the game. In this 90-point track meet, Cole Semu and Tielu Sagala both scored a mind-numbing four tries. Sagala earned himself the first-ever "Try Times Player of the Game" award with his ridiculously hard running.

Just as I predicted, missed tackles absolutely killed the Rams. Sure their alignment was bad defensively at times, but so many line breaks were generated from missed tackles. I was also disappointed with the absence of Sam Masterson, CSU's most dynamic back. Without the boot of Masterson, the Rams struggled to take advantage of BYU's penalty count and lack of back-three experience. 

BYU's attack looked incredibly sharp for most of the match. The offensive onslaught began right away. In the first few minutes of the match, fullback Tasyan Hammer snatched the ball out of the air on a very contestable box kick from Strider Fountaine. Hammer then offloaded to Cole Semu who offloaded to Jakob Barker who fell across the line for the first try of the match. To see an attacking kick fielded perfectly with a plethora of support is really a good sign for BYU. Subsequent line breaks were the same story. BYU players all coming off their lines in support of their teammates. 

Regarding their attack, BYU's All-American center, Cole Semu said; "Offensively I thought we played our system pretty well. We moved the ball and varied our attack well."

In terms of structure, I concur with Semu. The Cougars were patient in attack. There are still improvements to be made, but I saw plenty of out-the-back balls that led to line breaks, short balls, and some attacking kicks. I think that variety will serve them well moving forward. 

They definitely committed too many penalties in rucks on both sides of the ball. BYU could've easily scored three or four more tries if they had cleaned up their rucking. 

Honestly, their penalty count is the reason that CSU was able to score 21 points on a team that only allows three points per game. A sequence in the 36th minute is a perfect example of this. BYU had a miscue in the lineout in their own 22. For the next few minutes, CSU was knocking on the door. BYU committed three penalties in those three minutes, one of them warranting a yellow card for fullback Taysan Hammer. The sequence ended in a nifty tap-and-go that put the powerful Mason Kreiter over the line.

If the Cougars want to have a shot at hoisting the championship trophy they can't have sequences like that. To play fantastic defense and dominate physically, only to give away all that effort due to stupid penalties is not the mark of an elite squad. BYU needs to clean up those penalties across the board if they want to be a national contender. 

Semu also commented on the Cougar's discipline. "Defensively we were a little scattered at times and lacked discipline here and there but I think that's fixable." I'm confident BYU will look to shore up their defenses and sort out their discipline issues in the coming weeks as they prepare for their last few conference matches and #2 Lindenwood to cap off their fall campaign. 

Colorado State proved that they are the second-best team in the Rocky Mountain Conference. Their 21 points against the Cougars were very respectable. They had moments where they looked promising. In open space, they even made a few offloads that looked sketchy but somehow went perfectly to hand. They did that on film multiple times so I'm dubbing it impressive skill rather than luck. The Rams even had some impressive chase downs, punching the ball out of the hands of would-be try scorers right as they crossed the try line. Ultimately, the Rams let themselves down in contact. If they could find a way to fix that, they would've had a better shot against the Cougs. 

Side note: I missed the mark on the score prediction with a prediction of 48-22, but I was only one point off on the Colorado State scoreline.