Shreveport, La. • The BYU football team had the ball with just minutes left in the Independence Bowl. Trailing by three points and facing a fourth-and-4 situation, the Cougars converted for just the second time on fourth down. It seemed like they would mount a late comeback not unlike their win over USC three weeks ago.
Not this time.
The Cougars lost 31-28 to the University of Alabama at Birmingham on Saturday at Independence Stadium, robbing BYU of a second consecutive 11-win season.
“They just made a couple of plays more than we did,” coach Kalani Sitake said. “Not to take away from them, but I know we can play a lot better.”
Wide receiver Samson Nacua caught a pass from Baylor Romney that would’ve been a first down and some extra yardage. But after he caught the ball and took a couple of steps, it slipped out of his hands and onto the field. The Blazers recovered it and grinded out the game until the final whistle.
Romney started in place of an injured Jaren Hall, but the night belonged to running back Tyler Allgeier. He ran in three touchdowns and netted 192 rushing yards on 27 carries. He was named the offensive MVP of the bowl game.
Nacua had BYU’s other rushing touchdown. The Cougars did not record a single receiving touchdown.
It was BYU’s defense that let it down against UAB. It missed tackles or assignments that led to big plays.
In one sequence, UAB running back DeWayne McBride ran 64 yards and past a pair of BYU’s tackle attempts to give the Blazers a 14-0 lead. In another, after the Cougars tied the game at 14, quarterback Dylan Hopkins curled to his right and passed across the field to a wide-open Gerrit Prince, who caught two TD passes Saturday.
Also, McBride on several occasions rammed the ball directly down the middle of BYU’s defense. He finished with 183 rushing yards and one touchdown.
Sitake attributed the defensive struggles to “breakdowns.”
“I thought they did some stuff to scheme our pressure,” Sitake said. “We pressured quite a bit at the beginning of the game, just trying stop to the run, trying to put more bodies on the ball. They took advantage of it.”
Freshman defensive lineman Tyler Batty, who was named defensive MVP for the bowl game, seemed to agree with Sitake in his assessment of the team’s defense.
“What tonight came down to was everybody doing their job,” said Batty, who recorded eight solo tackles and 2.5 sacks.
BYU struggled keeping key players healthy throughout the season, particularly on the defensive side. Sitake said Friday in the pregame press conference that while the team got a bit healthier on offense, it didn’t really happen on defense and the team needed players to step up.
Part of what told the story on the defensive end was the numbers on third- and fourth-down conversions. The Blazers missed only five of their 14 attempts on third downs, and converted both of their fourth-down attempts.
But in keeping with Sitake’s comments that UAB made a few more plays than BYU, the Cougars were just 4 of 12 on third down and 2 of 5 on fourth down.
