When BYU’s offense stagnated last week against Virginia, many cougar fans lamented that it would be another year of hoping that great defense and poor offense could win games. The fact that the Virginia game could have been won by simply managing the clock better on the last two drives put the offensive coordinators abilities in question.
Now bring to Cougar Country a #15 ranked Texas, and the 2013 season looked like it would start at 0-2, which would be a first for the Bronco Mendenhall era.
Instead, something magical happened this week. It began with a shift in the offensive lineman, and a willingness to let Taysom Hill run. Suddenly BYU’s offense started clicking.
Taysom Hill lead his team to a quick field goal. The BYU defense stopped the Longhorn’s first three drives, each a three an out. But Texas threw a deep touchdown pass on their fourth drive, and for a second it looked like Texas was just experience a slow start. Taysom Hill however, wanted them to know that it wasn’t just a slow start. He answered their score with a 68 yard rushing touchdown, confirming that Texas was in for a long night.
But Taysom Hill threw an interception on BYU’s first drive of the 2nd quarter. Texas didn’t hesitate to drive the ball down to the red zone. It looked like BYU’s defense would stop the Longhorns at the goal line, but on 3rd down, Joe Bergeron managed to barely break the plane, making it 14 – 10 for Texas.
But then BYU’s defense took over and shut out the Longhorns the rest of the half. If this had been last year’s BYU offense, the score would have stayed at 14 – 10 and Texas would have taken their lead into half time.
But no . . .
BYU’s running game came to life. BYU’s Jamaal Williams rushed for 179 yards. Paul Lasike rushed for 87 more. As if those numbers weren’t good enough, Taysom Hill almost matched both of his running back’s rushing yards by rushing 258 yards himself.
The three Cougars ran around and through the Texas defense like a warm knife through butter. The first half ended with BYU leading 27 – 14. BYU’s stingy defense allowed only one more score in the third. The Cougars entered the fourth quarter up 40 – 21. They shut out the Longhorn offense in the 4th quarter and properly ran the ball, milking the clock. The fourth quarter went scoreless.
BYU upset #15 Texas and what seemed like a hopeless season is now as bright as ever.
The Cougars didn’t just win. They broke records. The offense racked up a 550 yards rushing, the most rushing yards for a BYU team ever. It was also a record for rushing yards against Texas. Texas has never in the history of its program given up that many rushing yards.
And now Texans know that . . .
Football matters in Utah.