Did BYU have a hangover heading into Kansas?

Last week, it felt like BYU’s win over Utah lingered too long. Players talked about the physical drain of that game even after Wednesday’s practice.

And then BYU came out and had their worst stretch of execution in the red zone all season. Four trips. Zero touchdowns. Even Chase Roberts questioned the preparation.

“We struggled a little bit in practice last week in the red zone and it carried over. … Some mental errors, some mistakes. Practice better, with more urgency,” he said.

The Cougars’ offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick agreed.

“I won’t use that as an excuse. The emotional and physical toll of the week before took a lot out of us. Again, that is not an excuse for anything. But it was not our best week of practice, I would say,” he said on BYUtv. “I think it is human nature. A lot of distractions. It takes a lot to emotionally and physically bounce back from a game like that Utah game.”

Still, it left BYU with a drop-off when it absolutely could not afford a loss.

Retzlaff threw an interception on a play call that was often criticized. BYU had the ball at the 5-yard line, with a chance to take control of the game, and BYU dialed up a fade to tight end Mata’ava Ta’ase. Ta’ase has three touchdowns this season but only seven catches.

Still, Retzlaff threw the ball inside the defender instead of to the back pylon. It was picked and changed the tenor of the night.

“You have a size advantage,” Roderick said. “It is either incomplete or a touchdown. Unfortunately Jake just underthrew it. He’s been doing a great job for us all year, but that was just a mistake, you know?”

Roderick stood by the play call to Ta’ase — even if he could have went to some of his other more utilized targets.

“A play we own and are very successful at. Jake, wasn’t his best throw. He knows it. He made a bad throw. It was really as simple as that on that one,” he said.

The Big Thing

Internally, BYU believes if Kansas ran that pooch punt 100 more times, 99 would have gone their way.

“You could punt that thing 10,000 and not hit our player in the helmet,” Roderick said.

But the other truth is: the one time Kansas did run that play, the Cougars weren’t ready for it.

Head coach Kalani Sitake admitted he didn’t tell his players to be prepared for the possibility of a punt from quarterback Jalon Daniels on a 4th and 14. He hadn’t seen it on film and thought the Jayhawks would go for it.

So when cornerback Evan Johnson was playing man coverage, he didn’t realize the ball was kicked and it hit him in the head. Kansas recovered the ball at the 3-yard line and scored the game-winning touchdown because of it.

“I don’t know if [Daniels] is going to punt more now. Maybe they should. It just caught us by surprise,” Sitake said.

It was a freak play, and likely won’t happen again. But it came at the most inopportune time in the final stretch of a perfect season.

In the future, Sitake said he’s going to add it to his teaching list. For now, it just stings.

“You have to,” Sitake said. “It was unfortunate. I thought Evan did a great job. He was playing man-to-man coverage and when the ball was in the air, I don’t think he realized the ball was kicked. He was focused on being on an island by himself.”

Question of the week

Do you think BYU will win out and go to the Big 12 title game?

Fourth down

1. Red zone struggles

We wrote about the red zone struggles on Sunday. But Roderick said he wasn’t worried too much about the numbers right now. He said BYU’s been successful in the red zone all year, which is true. It has converted with touchdowns on about two of every three trips. So BYU isn’t ready to sound the alarm yet.

“We are not going to panic about it because it is something we have been good at all season. But [it] will definitely have our attention this week,” he said.

2. Offense worrying?

In a weird way, the offense wasn’t a massive problem on Saturday. That is tough to say in a game where BYU undoubtedly lost because it couldn’t convert touchdowns. But BYU still had over 350 yards. That is more than it had against Utah, or Kansas State or SMU. And it got that production on just eight possessions.

BYU had an explosive play on one of every 4.5 snaps. It was just the red zone offense that was glaring. That seemed to give Kalani Sitake and the staff some confidence not all was lost.

“The loss, it is as simple as that. You can’t win when you get zero touchdowns in four tries in the red zone,” Roderick said.

3. Crew Wakley

BYU lost Wakley to a shoulder injury last week. It was a tough break for a safety who has anchored this defense at times. Sitake said Wakley could play at Arizona State; it is not season-ending. If he can’t play, Raider Damuni and even Ethan Slade become infinitely more important pieces.

4. Isaiah Jatta

Offensive tackle Brayden Keim isn’t coming back in the regular season. But Isaiah Jatta came in and replaced him without any issues. Add Jatta to the list of offensive linemen who have been good off the bench. Thinking of Bruce Mitchell too. It shows how much that unit has grown since last year — when the offensive line was a disaster.

Next up

No. 14 BYU at No. 21 Arizona State

Saturday

Kickoff: 1:30 p.m.

TV: ESPN