The BYU Cougars look to get back on track this Saturday when they travel to Liberty to play the Flames, a fellow independent. The Cougars have lost 2 straight and are 4-3 while Liberty is rolling at 6-1. These two teams last played in 2019 when BYU won 31-24 but Liberty covered as a 17 point favorite. This time around, BYU is a 5 point favorite. Can the Flames cover again?
Just a few weeks ago, the BYU Cougars were ranked in the top 20 nationally. But after back to back losses to Notre Dame and Arkansas, the Cougars have fallen out of the top 25. They are now 4-3 on the season, with their other loss coming to No. 13 Oregon in week three. The Cougars are currently ranked No. 32 in the latest power rankings. The Cougars are coming off a pretty convincing home less to the Arkansas Razorbacks, who pounded them 52-35. This game was listed as a pick 'em, so a 17 point loss is not a good showing. In fact, when you take a deeper look, you see that this game was downright ugly. The Cougars gave up a whopping 644 total yards in the game, while they gained 471 yards themselves.
This ended up being the biggest play of the game in Arkansas' 52-35 win over BYU. Arkansas outscored the Cougars 35-14 after this play. pic.twitter.com/vpJE5 sIWVE
— Mason Choate (@ChoateMason) October 16, 2022
They also gave up 34 first downs while they had 8 fewer first downs themselves. There were really two big problems for BYU — they allowed Arkansas to convert 12 of 15 third downs and they turned it over three time — with one interception and two lost fumbles. Quarterback Jaren Hall played well enough to win, going 26 of 41 for 356 yards and 3 touchdowns with 1 interception. So did his top two receivers, Puka Nacua, who had a ridiculous 8 catches for 141 yards, and Kody Epps, who caught 9 passes for 125 yards. Both caught touchdown passes. But the problem was defense. While they average 32.4 points per game, which is 53rd in the nation, they give up 30.3 points per game, which ranks 99th. They give up 404 total yards per game, which is 94th, and allow 189 yards rushing, which ranks 114th.