Going into the game, BYU knew that there would be issues with fatigue from the cross country travel on super notice and no day to get acclimated. That became very evident in the 2nd half as players struggled with mental mistakes, on both sides of the ball. The Defense could not get off the field and allowed for long, grind it out CC scoring drives. Tonga had a great 1st half, but when the focus was put on him, nobody else seemed to take over and take advantage of the double teams being used on him or BYU’s massive size difference. Their Center played the game of his life and is not much taller than a RB. That is on the D Coordinator to put more pressure on that line, instead of falling back into his old ways of not rushing more than 1-2 guys.

On offense, the O line was missing Hoge and 1-2 other starters, if I remember correctly, and it showed. They were adequate, but not the dominating line that showed up in every game. Wilson got hit and pushed out if the pocket, more that game, than most. It was a test for him and after adjusting, he performed well.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of vital drops and poor choices made by the receivers. Romney dropped a huge 4th down pass, that he makes 99/100 times, which would have resulted in a first and probable TD. Wilson could have gone to his safe choice, TE Rex, but a wide open Romney is not a bad choice. That gave the ball back to CC, in good field position. There was a 2nd half muffed punt and Allgier fumble, that also gave CC great field position and points on the board.

The worst, though, was when Chris Jackson took a short pass on 3rd and 30, and subsequently runs backwards 22 yards behind the line. Even had he not gotten a single yard after his initial 2-3 yard pass, BYU would have been able to set up the D by pinning CC back. Instead, they end up giving them great field position, once again. Despite all that, and more, Wilson still put BYU in position to win the game, and completes the comeback if Milne is able to follow forward or reaches the ball over the line. Wilson was far from his normal self, but that was not on him in the 2nd.