BYU Football: 3 takeaways from bounce-back win over San Diego State

BYU football was able to score 21 unanswered points to pull off a victory against San Diego State by a score of 28-14 in Week 15.

In each team’s final game of the regular season, BYU and San Diego State met in Provo for a tightly-contested game.

The Cougars are coming off their first loss of the season that also ended their bid for a New Year’s Six bowl appearance. The Aztecs have had a roller-coaster year that has seen three different starting quarterbacks but they’re still standing with a 4-3 record.

BYU was playing this game without two major offensive weapons, Tyler Allgeier and Gunner Romney. Allgeier was the leading rusher for the Cougars with 957 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns on the year.

On the flip side, San Diego State was running the ball exceptionally well. They used a similar blueprint to what Coastal Carolina did last week. Run the ball and eat up clock. They out rushed BYU 183-82 and held the ball for 36:43. This formula was enough to keep the game within one possession for the majority of the night.

The defining play of the game came at the beginning of the fourth quarter with San Diego State driving through BYU territory. On a fourth-and-2, SDSU opted to run up the gut with Jordon Brookshire but could not push the pile leading to a turnover on downs.

This allowed BYU to pull away in the fourth quarter led by their quarterback Zach Wilson. He was 4-for-5 with 71 yards and a touchdown in the fourth quarter as BYU was able to extend the lead. Wilson put on another stellar performance as he continues to boost his 2021 NFL Draft stock week by week.

With the postseason on the horizon, what did we learn from these teams?