Gordon Monson: Don’t blame Lady Luck for BYU’s defeat
It’d be easy to say fortune finally betrayed BYU on Saturday night, that after so many embraces, so much good loving from Lady Luck all season long, straight through to being 9-0, the Cougars were left heartbroken, weeping, jilted and scorned., a defeat the Cougars earned by way of their own mistakes, errors that confirmed what so many had suspected: Namely, that BYU isn’t as good as its record had suggested.
Operating still in the shade, then, of last-minute, come-from-behind wins over two bottom-feeders — Oklahoma State and Utah — in a league that seems to have settled into a second-rate competitive status relative to the SEC and the Big Ten, BYU couldn’t find a way on its own field to beat a Kansas team that had a losing record and that might not even qualify to play in a no-name bowl game. Those who had said the Jayhawks were the best 3-6 team in the country … come on, man.
BYU’s first TD came in the second quarter, overcoming a 7-3 deficit. It was apparent that the Cougars could move the ball on the ground and through the air, and Jake Retzlaff’s 30-yard throw to Hinckley Ropati made in 10-7. An adjacent matter: Could they stop or slow the Jayhawks’ attack? That meant containing Daniels and running back Devin Neal.
Had BYU not blown off its own toes multiple times throughout, including turnovers, that score might have stayed comfortably to its advantage. Either way, the final two quarters would settle the contest.
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