BYU Football: Questions Answered In Win Against Utah State

PROVO, Utah – The No. 19 BYU football team defeated the Utah State Aggies 38-24 to retain the Old Wagon Wheel with a strong second half performance.

Let’s answer some key questions from another BYU football

Who was the most valuable BYU football player?

I desperately wanted to say somebody other than Jaren Hall this week, but I’m going with Jaren Hall once again.

The defense didn’t come to play in the first half so Hall needed to put points up on the board in the second half to secure the win.

He did just that, completing his first seven passes of the second half with touchdown passes to Ethan Erickson and Kody Epps.

There were a handful of NFL scouts on hand who were surely impressed with his play, especially in the second half when he took over the game in the third quarter.

Hall was lucky to finish the game after taking a scary hit from Bryon Vaughns in the third quarter.

BYU needs Hall to stay healthy if they want to beat better teams like Arkansas and Notre dame in the coming weeks.

Most impactful play of the game?

Jake Oldroyd was back as the field goal kicker against the Aggies, but the results weren’t good.

He made his first attempt from 45 yards out, but missed his second attempt from 33 yards and third attempt from 35 yards.

After his first miss, Utah State got the ball back with a chance to cut the lead to single digits early in the fourth quarter.

The Aggies faced a critical 4th down at their own 44 yard line.

Tyler Batty broke through and stopped Aggie quarterback Cooper Legas behind the line of scrimmage for a turnover.

Offensively, BYU ran the ball on all six of its plays resulting in a 18 yard touchdown run for Chris Brooks.

The game was out of reach after that sequence.

That’s back to back weeks now that the Cougars had double digit penalties.

Although BYU won both games, they are not playing clean football.

The Cougars jumped offsides multiple times, had an interception erased due to a low hit on the quarterback, and threw an opponents shoe in the air.

If BYU wants any chance of beating Notre Dame next week, they will need to play cleaner that they did these past two weeks.

When was the game won for BYU football?

BYU struggled to run the football for most of the night. They were out gained by the Aggies on the ground 204 to 117.

With the game on the line, and an opportunity to put the game away, offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick leaned on the run game.

The Cougars ran the ball six times for 44 yards. That’s an average of 7.3 yards per carry.

That was double their average for the game.

Chris Brooks capped it off with a 18 yard touchdown run.

Miles Davis had moments in the second half on that game securing drive as well before hobbling off the field.

BYU has good running backs. I think the run game struggles are more a reflection of scheme and the offensive line, rather than struggling running backs.

You can hear Matt Baiamonte every Saturday on KSL Newsradio for Cougar Sports Saturday from 12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. or you can find him on Twitter.