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By Bill Koch
GoBEARCATS.com
PROVO, Utah - There was a simple explanation for the University of Cincinnati's first two losses this season. The Bearcats simply committed too many turnovers. And even then they came within a play or two of beating both Temple and Memphis.
When the Bearcats committed only one turnover in their win over Miami (Fla.) two weeks ago, it seemed to lend credence to the theory that if they took care of the ball they were talented enough to win most, of not all, of their remaining games.
But their 38-24 loss to BYU on Friday night had nothing to do with turnovers. UC (3-3) didn't cough up the ball once - although it did have a 58-yard field goal attempt blocked - and still was soundly whipped in the second half before a crowd of 57,612 at LaVell Edwards Stadium. This was a case of physical domination and the Bearcats were on the extreme short end of it.
UC coach Tommy Tuberville didn't attempt to sugarcoat what happened after the game.
"They just whipped us," Tuberville said. "They just absolutely hit us in the mouth and whipped us. It was an old-fashioned here-we-come and we didn't take on the challenge, bottom line. They just got to us."
The game began well for the Bearcats, with redshirt freshman Hayden Moore getting the start at quarterback over junior Gunner Kiel. UC led 10-0 at the end of the first quarter when it out-gained BYU, 205 yards to 19. The Bearcats increased their lead to 17-3 midway through the second quarter, but led by only seven, 17-10, at halftime despite dominating the game statistically to that point.
BYU (5-2) tied the score, 17-17, on a 19-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Tanner Mangum to Nick Kurtz. The Bearcats reclaimed the lead when running back Tion Green scored from two yards out after receiving a direct snap from center. That completed an 8-play, 64-yard drive and gave UC a 24-17 advantage with 3:28 left in the third quarter. The key play on the drive was a 19-yard scramble by Moore on third and 12 that gave UC a first down on the BYU 2-yard line.
The Bearcats took that lead into the fourth quarter only to be outscored, 17-0. They were powerless to stop the Cougars on defense and unable to mount anything against them on offense. Moore completed 15 of 30 passes for 219 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions. He was sacked eight times and was under extreme pressure for most of the second half.
"We got a little pressure but it's nothing that I wasn't supposed to handle," Moore said. "I've got to get the ball off faster. They just came with more blitzes. They knew they were getting to us faster and they just kept on coming with it. Once that started working for them they started doing it over and over again. I've just got to be able to see my receivers and throw it faster."
BYU's Mangum, a 22-year-old true freshman, was 19-for-32 for 252 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. He was not sacked and was rarely hurried as he patiently picked out his receivers.
"We didn't blitz a whole lot," Tuberville said, "but sooner or later when he throws the ball 32 times you should at least get in his face. They did a good job of protecting him, much better than we did (of protecting Moore). The bottom line is their offensive line played and ours didn't. You can make excuses, but there ain't no excuses for this game. We got whipped up front on both sides pretty much."
Perhaps the easiest throw of the night was the one that gave the Cougars their first lead. On the first play of a drive, spotted Kurtz wide open, with no UC defender within 20 yards of him, and calmly lofted a pass into his hands for a 53-yard touchdown pass BYU ahead, 31-24, with 8:14 to play.
"They ran a switch route and one guy went two-on-one and no one went on the other one," Tuberville said. "We can't get people to do that to us, but for some reason we just had physical and mental lapses starting in the fourth quarter. You could kind of just see them taking the ballgame over. They just kind of took it to us on both sides."
Following a three-and-out by the UC offense, BYU's Garrett Juergens returned Sam Geraci's punt 39 yards to the UC 32, setting up an 11-yard touchdown run by the Cougars' Francis Bernard to account for the final 38-24 score.
BYU ended up with 449 yards to UC's 331, numbers that would have been hard to imagine after the Bearcats dominated the first quarter so thoroughly. But after that first quarter, UC managed only 136 more yards to 430 for BYU. It was as if the two teams had somehow switched uniforms.
The eight sacks were especially disturbing because the Bearcats had done a decent if not great job of protecting the quarterback this season, allowing 14 sacks in their first five games. As Tuberville said, at times it looked as if the Cougars were rushing seven or eight players when in reality they were rushing only three or four.
"We just can't make those mistakes," Green said. "Eight sacks. That hurts. You can't have those mistakes on the road. When you're on the road, you've got to be perfect."
UC will return to American Athletic Conference play at home next Saturday against Connecticut. They'll embark on the second half of their season with an 0-2 conference mark, looking nothing like the team that was overwhelmingly picked to win the conference championship and seemingly at a loss to explain what has happened.
"We don't know," said safety Zach Edwards when asked where this team stands. "Obviously, as one of the leaders on the team and on the defense, we don't know. We have to get more physical, we have to play and we have to win in the fourth quarter. They won in the fourth quarter."
Bill Koch covered UC Athletics for 27 years - 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer - before joining the staff of GoBEARCATS.com in January, 2015 as featured columnist. Follow him on Twitter @bkoch.