One week after posting arguably the worst game of his career, Allgeier gave us one of his best ever. With 34 touches, 193 total yards, and two scores against Washington State, the only other viable candidates for best career game by Tyler are ...
2020 vs UCF - 20 touches, 233 yards, 1 TD (dominance in bowl victory)
2021 vs Utah - 29 touches, 112 yards, 0 TD (best RB performance vs Utah since '09)
2021 vs USU - 25 touches, 240 yards, 3 TDs (complete obliteration of a rival)
I think given the stakes of the WSU game -- where a loss puts BYU in a three-game tailspin and invalidates some of the early season success; where a win keeps BYU on track to sweep the P12 which is awesome any time but especially crucial now that BYU is carrying the Big 12 banner -- Allgeier's Saturday performance was his best ever. As many have pointed out, forget Allgeier's career, it was actually the best rushing day ever by a BYU running back against a P5 team.11. Honorable mention to Taysom Hill who has the record for rushing yards period against a P5 team, with 259 against Texas in 2013.
Some PFF stats from Allgeier's monster day.
Allgeier rushed for 11 first downs - best of his career.
Allgeier forced 8 missed tackles - best of his career.
Allgeier gained 137 yards after contact - 2nd best of his career.
The short passing game needs work
Last year when BYU threw the ball behind the line of scrimmage (think screens, quick outs, dump offs) the average attempt resulted in 8.4 yards gained. How good was that? Really good. Good enough to rank second in the country.22. Minimum 24 attempts. This year those same plays have been half as effective, gaining about 4.2 yards per pass attempt.
What's changed?
Well the accuracy on these throws is about the same (89% for Zach, 86% for Jaren) so it's not that. The volume of attempts is a bit higher this year (about 20% of BYU's passes are behind the LOS this year, compared to about 13% last season) so maybe defenses are getting used to what BYU is doing. Competition is certainly a bit more stiff this year, so that could explain a bit of the regression.
But the biggest difference I'm seeing is after the receiver has the ball in his hands. Last year the main guys who caught passes behind the line of scrimmage on average ran for 12 yards after the catch. This year the players getting those same targets are averaging 7 yards after the catch. Whether the blocking is worse, the opponents or better, or BYU simply isn't executing as well, guys just haven't been able to escape as easily.
In particular Gunner Romney and Lopini Katoa have had no luck in the short game. Last year Romney gained 93 yards (with 14 YAC/catch) on plays originating behind the line of scrimmage and Katoa went for 102 (with 16 YAC/catch). This year Romney and Katoa are at 8 yards and 12 yards for the entire season, with 5 YAC/catch 6 YAC/catch.
I imagine opponents expect BYU to use Katoa in this fashion and have adjusted accordingly. That might explain why in an attempt to switch things up, guys who got no attention behind the line of scrimmage last year are getting a lot more looks this year. For example, in 2020 Pau'u, Rex, Wake, and Hill combined for 2 receptions behind the line of scrimmage. This year they've had 14. It's just that those 14 haven't really worked either, only gaining 59 yards.
Honestly, I think it probably all comes back to Grimes. BYU's opponent might be better this year, but BYU's receiving talent upgraded this year too, with two P5 transfers and an extra year of seasoning for the Romney/Pau'u types. I think when you lose the best offensive line coach in the country, your short yardage plays -- which are so reliant on blocking expertise -- are going to suffer.
Waiting for Pau'u or Allgeier to go deep
That's enough talk about boring short throws. Let's talk about bombs, aka passes that travel at least 20 yards through the air en route to their target. This season Neil Pau'u has only caught one deep pass (the 67-yard TD against Arizona which sure feels like it was a long time ago) and has only been targeted deep three times. Similarly, Tyler Allgeier hasn't had a single target 20 yards down the field this season or even in his whole career. He hasn't even been targeted on a pass 10 yards down the field in his career!
So this is my way of calling a shot I suppose: in a big game where BYU needs a big play (paging Virginia, USC) be on the lookout for one of these guys abandoning their typical receiving territory and going down the field. A deep wheel route by Allgeier would be something that BYU hasn't shown on film in at least two years. A fly route by Pau'u is something BYU has targeted only 5 times in the last two seasons. There's an opportunity to surprise the defense with these two.
How is BYU doing at tackling?
It's felt like BYU has missed more tackles this season than last, which would make sense if you believe BYU is playing against better athletes/tougher competition this season. But the reality is that things have been pretty stable the last two seasons. Per PFF, BYU missed once every 7 tackle attempts in 2020, and has missed once every 6.6 tackles this season.
PS - BYU's best tackling team of recent memory was the cover-your-eyes 2017 squad, who allegedly missed tackles only once every 8.1 attempts. It's numbers like those that make me question the accuracy of statisticians. (Or maybe BYU didn't miss tackles in 2017 because they didn't try to tackle in 2017)
Some bait for the BYU isn't aggressive on defense crowd
BYU blitzed Washington State only 5 times on 39 dropbacks, which math folk will inform us is a 13% blitz rate. That's quite the change from the Utah game where BYU was the most aggressive it had ever been against a P5, blitzing on 45% of Utah's dropbacks.
Where BYU's defense excelled
BYU was solid in two areas of the passing game against Wazzu. BYU didn't allow a completion on Wazzu's three play action passes (or on the two point conversion reverse pass for that matter), and they were also solid against the deep ball, allowing only 1 of 8 deep passes to be completed. (Yes, yes, the defense left a pick on the field ...)
Shoutout Jakob Robinson
Proudly wearing the jersey number of Greg Ostertag, Robinson had his best game as a Cougar. He played the second most snaps of anyone on defense, defended 42 passing downs (the most among corners), gave up only 2 receptions on 5 targets, and allowed no yards after the catch. Oh and he also made the play of the game sniffing out the pass option on the 2-point conversion. Well done. You've made Greg proud.
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