BYU football: 3 takeaways from Week 5 win over Utah State

Through one half, it felt like BYU football met its match. Utah State came to play and forced a tie heading into the locker room at halftime.

The Cougars came out angry in the second half, scoring within the first three minutes and then running away with a double-digit win. BYU was the better team for the final 30 minutes and controlled the game, picking up another big win in Provo to improve to 4-1 on the year.

What did we learn from this gritty win by BYU on Thursday night other than the fact that the kicking game needs some serious work?

3. Defense came up huge in the second half

Although the defense was getting gashed a little bit in the first half and it was much closer than BYU would have hoped at halftime, the second half was a much different story.

Looking up at a 17-17 score at halftime must have made the defense angry because it came out of the locker room with a much better sense of urgency.

After the offense scored a quick touchdown to take a 24-17 lead three minutes into the half, Kalani Sitake tried to get cute and sneak an onside kick by Utah State and it gave the Aggies incredible field position. They allowed only a field goal on that gaffe by the coaching staff and didn’t let Utah State score again until the final minute of the fourth quarter.

Also, the Cougars came up huge on numerous occasions on third and fourth downs. It just looked like a different unit in the second half.