BYU Wins vs. UNLV

BYU gets another win after playing UNLV tonight (November 15, 2014) at home in Provo with a final score of 42-23. They now have a record of 6-4, and they received and accepted an invitation to the Miami Beach Bowl in December. That will make it 10 bowls in a row for BYU with a 6-3 records for the last 9 bowls. If you missed the game, you can watch it on BYUtv's website: http://www.byutv.org/.

The win came with a great offensive performance and a not-so-good performance by the defense and special teams. The defense was inconsistent in their execution; they had great drives and they had not-so-great drives. Special teams weren't able to tackle the returners fast enough sometimes, and they gave up two fumbles because they couldn't catch the punts. The semi-good thing was that those were the only two turnovers by BYU; the offense didn't commit any. The offense had great drives with good passes and rushes. They had a total of 592 yards (almost 600!) with the passing having about 50 more yardage than the rushing. They had higher averages on passing and rushing compared to UNLV, and they did it in less time than UNLV used. The defense also had positive aspects of their game. 3 sacks, 9 passes broken up, an interception (and almost another one) were some of the highlights of their performance. The top players of the game for me were Christian Stewart (who was the player of the game), Paul Lasike, Mitch Mathews, Jordan Leslie, Colby Pearson, Bronson Kaufusi, and Kai Nacua (for their stats, look below). The only injury that occured was Colby Pearson (WR). As he made a catch that got BYU a big first down, he got injured (the injury is unknown as far as I know; the injury was sad for me because he is from my hometown and high school).

So overall it was a good performance and win against a now 2-9 UNLV team. The defense and special teams has some execution problems to fix, but otherwise they are ready for their next game on Saturday.

With the goal of raising their current record to 7-4 next week, they are playing Savannah State (a Division I-AA team) on Saturday, November 22, 2014 in Provo, Utah at 1:00 PM MST. The game will be broadcast at that time on BYUtv. The usual pre- and post-game shows will also be on BYUtv. After that game, their last regular season one will be a week after that one in California against the University of California team.

Here are some stats from the game:
PASSING/RECEIVING (325 total yards; 3 touchdowns; 18.1 average receiving yards)
Christian Stewart (QB): 18 completions for 32 attempts (56.25%); 3 TOUCHDOWNS; longest pass was 48 yards; 0 interceptions; 2 sacks; 10.2 yards per average attempt
Mitch Mathews (WR): 120 yards with 20.0 average; longest catch was 48 yards; 1 TOUCHDOWN
Jordan Leslie (WR): 68 yards with 13.6 average; longest catch was 35 yards
Terenn Houk (WR): 38 yards with 19.0 average; longest catch was 22 yards
Colby Pearson (WR): 1 catch for 34 yards
Paul Lasike (RB): 1 catch for 26 yards; 1 TOUCHDOWN
Devin Mahina (TE): 1 catch for 15 yards; 1 TOUCHDOWN
Other players with catches: Ross Apo (WR; 13-yard catch) and Mitchell Juergens (WR; 11-yard catch)

RUSHING (267 net (299 total) yards; 3 touchdowns)
Paul Lasike (RB): 70 net yards with 8.8 average; longest run was 39 yards; 2 TOUCHDOWNS
Nate Carter (RB): 55 net yards with 7.9 average; longest run was 31 yards
Adam Hine (RB): 45 net yards with 5.6 average; longest run was 25 yards
Christian Stewart (QB): 38 net yards (18 lost) with 6.3 average; longest run was 25 yards
Jordan Leslie (WR): 33 net yards with 16.5 average; longest run was 30 yards; 1 TOUCHDOWN
Algernon Brown (RB): 32 net yards with 5.3 average; longest run was 25 yards
Other players with rushes: Trey Dye (WR; -2 net yards)

PUNTING
Scott Arellano (P): longest punt was 58 yards; 3 of 7 punts inside the 20-yard line; average punt yardage was 41.0

DEFENSIVE (3 sacks; 1 interception; 9 passes broken up; 5 tackles for loss for 30 yards; 70 total tackles)
Bronson Kaufusi (LB): 9 total (8 solo) tackles; 2 SACKS; 3 tackles for loss for 21 yards
Kai Nacua (DB): 5 total (4 solo) tackles; 1 INTERCEPTION and returned it for 32 yards (he almost had a second); 1 pass broken up; 1 tackle for loss for 1 yard
Dallin Leavitt (DB): 5 total (4 solo) tackles
Zac Stout (LB): 5 total (3 solo) tackles
Manoa Pikula (LB): 5 total (3 solo) tackles
Jordan Preator (DB): 4 total (4 solo) tackles; 3 passes broken up
Skye PoVey (DB): 4 total (3 solo) tackles; 1 pass broken up
Jherremya Leuta-Douyere (DB): 4 total (3 solo) tackles
Teu Kautai (LB): 3 total (3 solo) tackles
Travis Tuiloma (DL): 3 total (3 solo) tackles

Robertson Daniel (DB): 2 total (2 solo) tackles; 2 passes broken up

Graham Rowley (DL): 1 tackle for loss for 8 yards; 1 SACK

Players with QB hits: Michael Alisa (LB; 1 QB hit) and Logan Taele (DL; 1 QB hit)

Other players with passes broken up: Logan Taele (DL) and Remington Peck (DL) each with 1