Laramie, Wyo. • As soon as the ball left his hand, Jake Retzlaff knew he’d missed his mark.
The BYU quarterback rolled out to his right, saw wide receiver Chase Roberts wide open in the flat, and fired a pass on the run. But the ball landed nowhere near the target as Retzlaff slapped his helmet in frustration.
But on the ensuing drive, Retzlaff saw Roberts again on what would be a much harder throw. Only this time, Retzlaff threw a rope to his top target for 20 yards down the sideline. Then, on the next play, Retzlaff dropped in a 23-yard connection deep across the heart of the defense.
That is simply the Jake Retzlaff experience at quarterback for BYU. It can be maddening or spectacular, head-scratchingly difficult or made to look stunningly easy.
Saturday’s 34-14 win over Wyoming was just the latest example of that. Retzlaff had nine passes of 15 yards or more. He accounted for 353 total yards and had the offense humming at times. But he also had an interception (and four other close calls) and a handful of throws that badly missed the intended target.
Retzlaff lives on the razor’s edge. The Cougars know the risks and the rewards. And they are fine with it because it gives them their best chance to win heading into Big 12 Conference play.
“He is just going to go out and sling it. Especially going into the Big 12, that is what we need,” Roberts said. “This was a perfect game for the offense, and for Jake, to look at the mistakes that we made. I think we obviously should have beat this team by 60, 60-0. But as we go forward and fix those mistakes, play clean, then we are going to beat a lot of teams this year. Watch film and fix everything.”
There will be plenty on film to unpack.
You could start with the good. Like when Retzlaff scrambled late in the third quarter to evade pressure and found Darius Lassiter for a 20-yard touchdown. Or when Retzlaff layered a ball into Roberts over a defender for a 30-yard completion that set up a score.
Roberts ended with 129 yards and six catches. Retzlaff had completions to 12 different receivers.
Or you could start with the bad. Like on the first drive when Retzlaff was marching BYU downfield and threw an opening interception on an under-thrown ball to Kody Epps. Or when he nearly turned a routine throw into a pick-six on a screen pass. It was just tipped at the last second to avoid Wyoming going to the house.
Or perhaps most egregiously when Retzlaff was under pressure and he decided to throw into double coverage near the goal line. Instead of the ball reaching Lassiter, it was caught by a Wyoming defender who landed out of bounds. Crisis avoided, sure. But the ball shouldn’t have been thrown.
It all led to an odd first half for BYU. It had 248 total yards. Retzlaff had a quarterback rating over 160. Yet BYU was only up by 10.
The good and the bad all mixed together.
“I feel like we could have scored more in the first half for sure. But just keep executing,” Retzlaff said. “Trust the offense and we are going to put up points on the board at the end of the day.”
Ultimately the Cougars did follow that mantra. It was the most points BYU has scored against an FBS team in regulation since the Cougars beat Cincinnati last September.
Retzlaff was responsible for much of BYU’s success Saturday night. But the reason there wasn’t more — that the scoreboard didn’t read 60-0 like Roberts hoped — was also partially on the quarterback, too. But it is a dynamic BYU head coach Kalani Sitake is willing to live with, or maybe needs to live with for BYU to win in the Big 12. Retzlaff can raise the team’s ceiling, but he can also be the reason for some difficulties.
“We did not want him to feel shy about playing the game of football and playing quarterback. Interceptions happen sometimes. We wanted to keep being aggressive,” Sitake said. “After the interception, he made some really tight-rope throws. I was really pleased, really happy with the way Jake played.”
Perhaps the best window into BYU’s psyche right now came from Roberts. While some groaned about Retzlaff’s first interception of the night — his sixth interception in his seven starts at BYU — Roberts wasn’t worried.
BYU already knew it was going to live with some Retzlaff mistakes. It was asking their quarterback to make one-on-one throws. He couldn’t make all of them, BYU knew, but it figured he’d make enough to put them in position to win.
“Right now it is just building trust. Give us shots. If we are manned up, one-on-one, then give us a shot. I think you’ve seen that. We will just keep taking shots,” Roberts said.
That will be BYU’s situation going forward. With the Big 12 play starting next week against Kansas State, the Cougars will go as far as their risk-taking quarterback takes them. They will keep taking shots.