BYU Football: 3 takeaways from tough loss at Toledo in Week 5

3. Zach Wilson doesn’t deserve to be the scapegoat

It will be easy to look back and assume that Wilson is the reason that the Cougars lost in Toledo on Saturday. Yes, Zach Wilson threw the costly interception that allowed Toledo to score the winning touchdown. Nobody can deny the way in which that tipped the scales of an otherwise close contest. But when it comes to college football, one person is rarely responsible for either a victory or a loss.

Until that point, however, the BYU quarterback was a major reason why the Cougars were able to keep pace with the Rockets at the Glass Bowl on Saturday afternoon. Without his contribution, BYU would have struggled to keep pace with their hosts.

Wilson ended the day 22-of-38 for 315 yards and two touchdowns. On the game-sealing pick, though, the quarterback suffered an injury that took him out of the game on the final drive. Had it been Wilson leading the Cougars in the final minute rather than backup Jaren Hall, who knows whether BYU could have engineered a comeback to force overtime?

BYU will rue this ending in Ohio, but in the end losing Wilson for any length of time will prove far more costly for the Cougars than a single defeat in September.