BYU's Pass Rush Forced Rocco Becht Into Most Interceptions of His Career

Rocco Becht was making his 35th career start on Saturday against BYU. The veteran signal-caller has seen it all, and he's been highly productive ever since he took over the starting job as a freshman in 2023.

Becht came into the BYU game with over 8,000 passing yards and a career TD/Int ratio of 57:21. Becht had attempted more than 1,000 career passes, and BYU forced him into more interceptions in a single game than he's ever thrown in his career: three.

While his first interception was a poor throw on a miscommunication with his wide receiver, the last two were influenced by BYU's pass rush.

After the first half, BYU's pass rush started to really put pressure on Becht. On the first snap of the second half, Viliami Po'uha came through the offensive line and sacked Becht for a big loss. That was Po'uha's first career sack and it forced an Iowa State punt. BYU finished the game with four sacks, tied for the most sacks taken in a game in Becht's career. He has only been sacked four times on two other occassions.

Becht's last interception was a direct result of a Tausili Akana pressure. Becht couldn't step into the throw, allowing for Evan Johnson to grab the easy interception. It was very similar to the interception that Noah Fifita threw against BYU. And guess who applied the pressure on that play? Tausili Akana.

BYU's ability to get after Becht was noteworthy considering how good Iowa State's pass blocking had been this season. Becht was one of the least pressured quarterbacks in college football heading into this game.

Against BYU, he was pressured on 31% of his dropbacks and he threw 8 passes under pressure. That was more pass attempts under pressure than any other game this season. Becht was just 2/8 for 13 yards, no touchdowns, and two interceptions under pressure. That is the fewest yards per attempt under pressure in a game this season.

So why was BYU able to apply so much pressure, particularly in the second half? The defensive ends. BYU's young defensive ends have started to get better and better as the season has progressed, and they made their mark in the second half. Three defensive ends had multiple pressures for BYU and the defense had 16 pressures combined. Here were the pressure stats for BYU against Iowa State:

Bodie Schoonover: 4 pressures
Viliami Po'uha: 2
Max Alford: 2
Logan Lutui: 2
Ulavai Fetuli: 1
Tausili Akana: 1
Anisi Purcell: 1
Evan Johnson: 1
Isaiah Glasker: 1
Jack Kelly: 1

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