The Cougars lost to the West Virginia Mountaineers 35-32 to fall to 1-3. Here are five takeaways from the game.

The offense shows signs of life

Going into the WVU game, the Cougar offense had been anemic all season. In its first three games, the Y failed to score 20 points in a single contest — not exactly what people around the nation think of when they think about the Coug football program. There was very little to be encouraged about for BYU faithful when the offense had the ball. The line was getting manhandled, Taysom Hill was erratic passing and hadn't exhibited his past explosiveness, receivers were dropping passes and Jamaal Williams was sorely underutilized in the contests against the Utes and Bruins.

While the loss to the Mountaineers stings, the offense made some huge strides in the game. Offensive coordinator Ty Detmer did a brilliant job of mixing run calls with passing plays. The balanced offense kept WVU on its toes throughout the game. Maybe the best stat of the game was that the O went 10-15 on third-down conversions. Detmer made up for last week's game, one in which he said that he went away from the run game too soon. Against the Mountaineers, the Cougs pounded the ball, rushing for a whopping 280 yards. Williams saw his workload increase, and he made it count, racking up 169 yards on the ground.

Hill threw the ball well overall also, passing for 241 yards and a couple of scores. He made one terrible decision that led to a pick-six, but otherwise looked poised and decisive all game. Perhaps even more noteworthy, though, is his return to form running the ball as he picked up 101 yards on just 13 carries. His ability to extend plays was an important element in the offense's effectiveness.

The line and receivers need to be mentioned as well. Williams had gaping holes to run through all game and got some good blocks by receivers to free him for big runs as well. The line gave Hill much more time to go through his progressions this week and gave him a sizable pocket to throw from. The receivers made some really nice catches as well. There were far fewer drops, and they seemed to make the necessary adjustments to catch balls that were behind them or a little high. While far from a perfect game, Cougar fans finally got a glimpse of what Detmer's offense is supposed to look like.

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No matter where blame for 1-3 start lies, BYU football faces gut-check

Let's start with a fact: BYU opened the 2016 season at 1-3, its worst start to a season since 2010. Another fact: the Cougars' three losses have come by a total of seven points, and every game has been decided by a total of nine points.

Turnovers again haunt BYU

While the O did some great things, it was again bitten by the turnover bug. Hill threw three interceptions, including drive killers on the last two possessions of the game. The pick-six was absolutely a horrendous decision and an even poorer throw. The other two were a bit of bad luck. On the second to last drive, Hill's pass sailed a bit on him and a leaping Mitch Juergens tipped the ball right into the hands of a WVU defender. The last pass of the game was well thrown but nicely broken up by a corner and again tipped to a defender.

The most surprising turnover was Williams' fumble. The senior had not lost a fumble in his first three plus years in Provo. The Mountaineers scored on the drive after getting the recovery. All four turnovers were killer. WVU scored 14 points off of them and stopped both of BYU's last-minutes drives in which it could have tied or taken the lead. Detmer needs to preach with fiery rhetoric the importance of ball security for the rest of the season. Of course, it may sound a little hypocritical coming from a guy who threw 28 picks in his Heisman campaign.

Cougar defense gets burned by elite speed

Just last week, I wrote an article saying that this defensive unit might develop into one of the best in school history. It had shut down two very dangerous offenses in Arizona and UCLA and forced six turnovers against the Utes. Going into the game, I felt confident the D would come out with a great game plan and be ready to go.

Boy, was I wrong. WVU came out swinging from the very get-go on offense. They scored on their first drive, and Skylar Howard and the rest of the O hardly slowed down the rest of the game. Howard sliced and diced the secondary on his way to 332 passing yards and completed nearly 78 percent of his passes. The Cougs clearly were overmatched in terms of speed as they struggled to tackle in space and to keep up with Mountaineer receivers running deep patterns. The defense's poor showing should worry BYU fans some about the prospects of joining the Big 12 since numerous other strong teams in the conference (Oklahoma, Texas, Baylor, Oklahoma State, TCU) run a similar offense to WVU.

BYU needs to work on more two-point conversion plays in practice

Thus far, BYU is 0-4 on two-point conversions. It first attempted one against Arizona, and not getting into the end zone made it so the Cougars had to put the game in the hands of a backup freshman kicker who couldn't break the school's ban on facial hair if he tried. The second missed conversion came at the end of the game in Salt Lake to keep the Utes' win streak in the rivalry alive.

The two misses against WVU would have made up the difference in the game. The first attempt was a rather vanilla play to Williams that was stuffed. On the second try, the Cougs got a little wacky and tried a gadget play that was doomed from the start. Hill pitched the ball to Williams who reversed it to Juergens who looked to pass back to Hill. The play had no chance. With the Y being in so many close games, it would behoove them to set apart time each week in practice to work on plays specifically designed for two-point conversions.

Cougars lose another heartbreaker

In three losses against solid Power 5 competition, BYU has lost by a total of seven points. The sales of heartburn relief tablets have probably gone through the roof in P-Town since Sept. 3. The closeness of the losses can be taken one of two ways. First of all, players, coaches and fans can focus on the team's inability so far to close games and be frustrated and self-pitying. Much more constructively, however, everyone associated with the program should realize that this team is close to being a really good team, and as head coach Kalani Sitake pointed out, the Cougars haven't even played nearly their best game yet. It will be interesting in the coming weeks to see if this squad folds or rallies and finishes strong.

Dylan Cannon is a regular KSL.com contributor and can be reached at DylanCannon86@gmail.com or via Twitter @DylanCannon11.

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