Analysis: BYU’s offensive struggles become Bear’s burden in sloppy win over longtime nemesis TCU

FORT WORTH, Texas — BYU could have defeated TCU by a single point in triple overtime and it wouldn’t have mattered to the thousands of Cougar fans who descended on soggy and foggy Amon G. Carter Stadium Saturday evening.

Any win over the now-Big 12 rival Horned Frogs, especially those that occur in Fort Worth, have been proven so difficult to come by for BYU over the years that the 17-10 conquest engineered by quarterback Bear Bachmeier and a determined defense feels like a 50-point shellacking.

Sure, the undefeated Cougars (2-0, 4-0) didn’t look the part of a top 10 team — not after star running back LJ Martin limped to the sidelines in the first quarter, never to return — but in this rivalry they will take anything they can get.

And what they got was a herculean effort from Bachmeier, who willed BYU to one of its sloppiest wins in recent memory with his legs far more than his right arm in wet, rainy conditions in front of 38,327 drenched fans.

“Yeah, we didn’t really have a great drive until that very last drive as an offense, and Bear, he’s just such a tough kid,” said Cougar center Bruce Mitchell.

“You know, we’re down a couple running backs now and he stepped up big time for us.”

That’s putting it mildly, as Bachmeier overcame the worst passing performance of his 18-game career to date, put the entire offense on his broad shoulders and used his Centaur-like legs, to borrow a phrase from Portland State’s coach last year, to plow No. 10 BYU to its fourth straight win.

The final numbers weren’t all that impressive, but the last touchdown drive that put the Cougars ahead 17-7 with 2:06 remaining was a thing of beauty for the 3-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust crowd.

Coach Kalani Sitake said Bachmeier wasn’t particularly proud of his play, to nobody’s surprise.

“I mean, Bear’s not happy about his performance. I just talked to him. I think it was just hard to get going overall and the elements caused some issues,” Sitake said.

“I don’t want to make excuses for him. Everybody had to play in them.”

Suffice to say that Bachmeier overcame them. The 230-pound sophomore finished with 66 rushing yards on 15 carries, teaming with Journee Tonga and Preston Rex after Martin left the game with just two carries for 16 yards.

Sitake didn’t have an injury update on Martin or defenders Isaiah Glasker and Cannon DeVries, but noted that “they aren’t on crutches or anything like that.” He did say it is a bad week for a quick turnaround, as BYU hosts Iowa State on Friday night at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

So punchless was the Cougar offense until the final 10-play, 72-yard touchdown drive that took 5:55 off the clock was that it had historians digging through the record books.

Bachmeier completed only 11 of 24 passes for 62 yards, the second-fewest yards for BYU in a win in program history. The last time the Cougars won a game while throwing for fewer than 100 yards was the 2022 New Mexico Bowl.

“It was just a sloppy, but fun, physical, gritty win,” Sitake said. “I will take it. I feel like we needed this kind of game. I feel like it is really good for our program, for the team.

“Guys are really excited and I am not gonna harp on all the negative stuff because those things are very fixable.”

BYU finished with just 216 yards, while TCU had 259 and really didn’t do much offensively, either, against a Cougar defense that got huge plays from safety Faletau Satuala and defensive ends/linebackers Tausili Akana, Nusi Taumopeau, Jake Clifton and Braxton Lindsey.

BYU sacked TCU quarterback Jaden Craig four times, but the Harvard transfer hurt the Cougars with his arm when he was upright, throwing for 187 yards and a touchdown.

In that regard, Craig outplayed Bachmeier, but wasn’t able to make the big plays down the stretch like Bachmeier did.

Heading into the fourth quarter, BYU had just 144 yards of offense, the fewest in a game since 2017 against UMass. Bachmeier was 9 of 21 for 50 yards. Things looked bleak.

Prior to that, the Cougars’ only second half offense was a 49-yard field goal by rookie kicker Matthias Dunn, which came after a 10-play 32-yard drive.

Midway through the drive, Bachmeier scooped up one of three errant snaps and made something out of nothing, running seven yards for a first down on third and 3.

Sitake hinted in the postgame news conference that TCU might have been sending “disconcerting signals” that caused a few of the bad snaps and some of BYU’s five false starts.

“But I’m not going to dwell on that,” Sitake said.

Dunn’s career-long field goal gave the Cougars a 10-7 lead with 7:34 remaining in the third quarter, capping a herky-jerky drive that was aided by a defensive holding penalty on the Horned Frogs.

Sitake credited special teams coordinator Justin Ena for having Dunn, snapper Ty Smith and holder Fuller Shurtz ready, saying “they snapped wet footballs for two weeks to get ready for that moment.”

Another key, somewhat forgotten play was linebacker Cade Uluave tripping up Craig on second and 10 to force a third and 9 and another short gain.

TCU kicker Nate McCashland’s 44-yard field goal attempt was on line, but short. In a game wherein every yard was huge, that was significant.

“I love that we won, because the last time our fans were here it wasn’t fun,” Sitake said, referring to a 44-11 beatdown the Cougars suffered at the hands of the Horned Frogs three years ago.

Obviously, there’s plenty of work to do for BYU, which welcomes probable top five Notre Dame to LES in two weeks.

“It wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win,” Mitchell said.

BYU was mostly outplayed in the first half, and fortunate the game was tied 7-7 because TCU outgained it by 50 yards in the first 30 minutes.

Hampered by the injury to Martin, the Cougars averaged just 3.2 yards per play in the first half, and their longest play was a 15-yard run by Legend Glasker on the last possession of the half.

Still, BYU took a 7-0 lead on a 9-yard Bachmeier touchdown run on third and 9 in the second quarter, just before the rain and mist rolled in.

The touchdown was set up by Satuala’s 59-yard interception return.

“We were just in Cover 2, and we were reading the quarterback’s eyes, and he kind of just missed his spot and ended up throwing it to me,” Satuala said.

“And then everyone was just blocking you to some great blocks in that place. I was grateful for all the teammates who were just running down trying to block for me.”

Without that defensive play, the Cougars probably don’t win this game.

The Horned Frogs finally got their offense going late in the second quarter after the turnover and three punts. The key play on their 75-yard touchdown drive was a 30-yard pass to Kari Ashley on third and 5, and then Ashley got behind the BYU defense for a 13-yard reception with 27 seconds remaining in the half.

And so ended a fairly miserable first half for the Cougar offense, which committed four false starts and a holding penalty.

Bachmeier was not sharp in the rain, completing just 6 of 16 passes for 31 yards. His passer rating was a lowly 53.8 in the first half, the lowest for a BYU QB since Taysom Hill in 2016 against Boise State (53.1).

It was the first time BYU was tied at halftime since being knotted with Kansas 10-10 in Provo in 2024. The Cougars lost that game, 17-13.

Back then, they didn’t have a Bear in their backfield.