The Good & The Bad: BYU Football vs Western Kentucky

The Cougars came out and dominated once again on Saturday night. BYU improved to 7-0 for the first time since 2001. Here is a summary of the good and the bad from BYU-Western Kentucky:

The good

On the first drive of the game, a great catch by Gunner Romney on third down put BYU inside the 10 yard line. Tyler Allgeier capped off the drive with a touchdown run and BYU was off to a quick 7-0 start.

Great TFL by George Udo on the first drive of the game followed up with another nice tackle on the same drive. Udo is coming into his own and his athleticism stands out on defense. Once he cleans up a few open-field tackling issues he will be one of BYU's best players on defense.

After allowing a long WKU drive to start the game, Zac Dawe and Bracken El-Bakri combine for a sack on third down to force a WKU field goal. El-Bakri is officially credited with the sack.

BYU gets the ball back up 7-3 and they made a touchdown drive look easy. Zach Wilson looked great throughout the drive. I really liked the pitch to Allgeier in a short-yardage situation, and Wilson's touchdown throw to Milne was a dart.

Isaiah Kaufusi with a nice forced fumble and fumble recovery to give BYU the ball back. Kaufusi has been all over the field for BYU this season.

Gunner Romney looked really good in the early going. Romney sat out of the second half for precautionary reasons. BYU really needs him against Boise State.

Tyler Allgeier had a very efficient night for BYU - Allgeier ran for 95 yards on 16 carries.

BYU brought six on a long WKU third down. The pressure forced a quick throw and D'Angelo Mandell played great defense on the outside to breakup the back shoulder throw. It's really easy to interfere on a throw like that but Mandell played that ball perfectly.

Zach Wilson hits Lopini Katoa in stride and Katoa does the rest for a 42 yard touchdown. BYU's offense was 4/4 scoring touchdowns on their first four drives.

BYU gets the ball back up 28-3. BYU drives and scores another touchdown after Isaac Rex caught a perfectly thrown fade in the endzone from Zach Wilson. BYU's offense was 5/5 scoring touchdowns on their first five drives the first half.

BYU outgained Western Kentucky 312 yards to 100 yards in the first half.

After Western Kentucky put a long drive together to start the second half, BYU's defense came up with a goal line stand and got the ball back for the offense.

True freshman linebacker Josh Wilson (brother of Zach Wilson) cracked the two deep for the first time this week. Wilson saw playing time against Western Kentucky and had a nice tackle in the second half. Wilson has great instincts and the athleticism to make an impact for BYU in the future.

General observation: the second unit for BYU is so much deeper than prior BYU rosters, especially in the defensive backfield. They have a few things to clean up, but the talent is there.

Jackson Kaufusi intercepts a Tyrrell Pigrome pass. Both Kaufusi brothers forced a turnover on Saturday night.

Sione Finau looked good in limited reps at running back. When healthy, Finau brings a different element to BYU's backfield. Chris Jackson was also effective on jet sweeps late in the game.

BYU took care of business and set up a massive game next Friday at Boise State.

Selfishly, I was very happy when Jake Oldroyd made his second field goal of the night and made my 41-10 score prediction a reality.

The bad

In what has become a trend the last few weeks, BYU's passing defense struggled on the first drive of the game. However, the Cougars settled in and forced a field goal.

Random rant: I'm tired of seeing helmets ripped off of BYU players as a result of facemask penalties. In some ways, a violent facemask penalty feels worse than targeting in my opinion. Tyler Allgeier had his helmet ripped off against WKU, Zach Wilson has been the victim of some violent facemask penalties this season. I've seen enough of those this year.

Similar to the first drive of the game, BYU struggled to stop WKU on the first drive of the second half. Western Kentucky put together a 20+ play drive before turning the ball over on downs inside BYU's one yard line.

Zayne Anderson went down with an injury playing kickoff cover. Not good to lose a defensive starter one week before Boise State.

Zach Wilson throws an interception (gasp) after a record-breaking streak without an interception. Wilson had Hill open but missed his target on that play, he al missed a wide open Isaac Rex over the middle. For the first time this season, Wilson threw an interception that was his fault.

Overall, a little sluggish in the second half but nothing to be overly concerned about. BYU has a few things to clean up before they take on Boise State next week.