Watch: BYU vs Troy Highlights
For the second time in as many tries, BYU football dominated from start to finish. BYU beat Troy by a score of 48 to 7 on Saturday. BYU released highlights on Sunday of BYU's convincing victory on Saturday night, you can watch those above. You can also watch the full ESPN highlights here:
The Good
Early in the game, BYU's defense was put in a tough spot when Dax Milne muffed a punt deep in BYU territory. How did the defense respond? By forcing a turnover on downs. Payton Wilgar made an excellent play off the edge on fourth down - Troy came up an inch or two short of the sticks.
Sacks! BYU's defensive line has looked much improved over 2019. BYU had four sacks against Troy meaning the Cougars have nine team sacks on the season. For reference, BYU had 17 sacks in 13 games last year.
BYU consistently dropped eight in coverage, but I thought they did a much better job of mixing up looks and confusing Troy's QB.
Jake Oldroyd with the 54 yard field goal that would have been good from 63-65.
Zach Wilson, my goodness. Wilson threw for 246 passing yards and 1 touchdown in the first half on 19 attempts. He finished with a career high 392 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Young guys played well against Troy
- Tyler Batty played well, he had a sack and another QB hurry.
- Micah Harper played very well in his first career start. He had a really nice TFL on a Troy jet sweep.
- Isaac Rex had his first career catch for a touchdown. He capped it off with a nice celebration dance.
- Kody Epps had his first career catch - he was out with a minor injury against Navy.
- Miles Davis played running back late in the game for BYU and looked very good.
BYU linebackers have looked very good in the first two games. Keenan Pili and Payton Wilgar, in particular, made a lot of plays in the first half.
The defense has exceeded my expectations in both games this season. Allowing a combined 10 points in two games is very impressive - especially when you consider the opponent's scoring totals against defenses not named BYU. Troy and Navy scored 47 points and 27 points respectively last week.
From what I could tell, it looks like the Cougars escaped without major injuries against Troy.
There's a lot more we could talk about, it was a dominating performance all around.
The bad
Dax Milne's muffed punt could have been a costly mistake in a closer game. BYU's defense erased the early mistake.
Even after scoring 45 points, there were a few things that BYU needs to clean up on offense. At one point, BYU was 0/5 on first downs. The Cougars also had a few red zone issues in the first quarter.
The only thing stopping BYU's offense in the early going were penalties. While expected after three weeks off, it's something the Cougars can clean up next week.
Some of the dance moves coming from BYU's sideline.