There are a ton of nicknames that I have seen over the past week for Bear Bachmeier after posting a 5 touchdown total debut – 3 passing and 2 rushing touchdowns. BYU won the game 69-0. BYU was favored by 44 points and I thought no way are they going to reach that but alas they did and in a huge fashion.

Game Recap vs Portland State

We have to bear (get it) in mind that this was against Portland State, but it was still a clobbering. BYU scored 69 points. I saw someone on X (Twitter) say that there was no way God would let BYU score 69 points haha (we all know what 69 stands for right) and yet they did. BYU also out gained Portland State 606 – 53. Six hundered and six to fifty three.

BYU Offense

BYUs offense was humming from the beginning, especially the running game. BYU ran for 468 yards and 5 TDs. LJ Martin recorded 131 yards, a new career high for him, on only 8 carries. Bear only recorded 135 total yards, but he had 3 passing and 2 rushing touchdowns. He had 97 yards throwing and 35 rushing. He also only completed 7 passes out of 11. Almost half of his passes were touchdowns. He made some really good decisions and throws after he had some errant throws to start the game.

Carsen Ryan was a focal point in the passing game. He had a great catch for a touchdown and Bear seemed to look for him often. Chase Roberts also caught a touchdown. Some takeaways I had from this game were:

• LJ Martin looks stronger and faster this year. He could be the best running back in the Big 12 this year. He had a good handful of runs where it looked like he was carrying guys with him.
• The decision making from Bear might be better than Jake Retzlaff. Bear had some bad throws to start the game, but his decision making looked better than Jake. He didnt take a lot of risks and he got the ball out quick and fast. He also made the decision to run right away when he didnt see anything open. There were times that Retzlaff just sat with the ball and got sacked or had to scramble and throw it away.
• Lastly, the offensive line looks good this year. They are very much a running type of offensive line and block there much better than pass blocking.

BYU Defense

Theres not much to talk about the defense, they were dominant. They didnt let Portland State run the ball at all and were constantly in the backfield. Portland State had -3 total rushing yards. That is crazy! I know it was only Portland State, but our defensive line looked good. Purcell , Lutui, and Taumoepeau stood out with tackles for loss and sacks. That was a question mark for me before the season started. I am excited to see if they can keep the good play going against Stanford this week. My biggest takeaways are this:

• Linebacker and Safety are still BYUs best defensive positions. The defensive line showed up in the last game. Can BYU do enough at the corner position to stop the passing game throughout the season.
• Glasker and Kelly are a dominant duo. Glasker played really well and its going to be hard for teams to plan for both of them.
• Hills defensive scheme is still very hard for teams to figure out. I dont know exactly what he is doing, but he mixes and matches and ton. He is fun to watch and makes BYUs defense exciting, which is something we have not had before in a long time.

Side note, Will Ferrin might also be the best kicker in the Big 12. He knocked down a 56 yard field goal, tied for the longest made kick in BYU football history.

Game Preview vs Stanford

BYU finally plays a formidable opponent in Stanford this week. While Stanford isnt the Stanford of old, its still a power conference team and a respectable program. Bear Bachmeier and LJ Martin both were committed to Stanford at one point before decommitting and committing to BYU because of coaching changes and other changes in the program. Stanford now has Andrew Luck as their General Manager, and Frank Reich, a former NFL coach, as their interim head coach. Stanford didnt play last week, but they played Hawaii in Hawaii the week before, where they lost on a last second field goal.

Stanford Offense

Like the Stanford teams of old, Stanfords offense is predicated on the run. Against Hawaii, their main back and probably best offensive player, Micah Ford, had 26 carries for 113 yards and 1 TD. This is accompanied with the fact that their offensive line is a good unit too. Their QB is a question mark for sure. Ben Gulbranson only completed 15/30 passes for 109 yards and 1 INT. I expect Stanford again to rely heavily on the run game and control the game.

Stanford Defense

Stanfords defense didnt look bad or good vs Hawaii. They only allowed 23 points but gave up 306 total yards – 210 passing and 96 rushing. Hawaii passed the ball a lot but didnt complete a lot of long passes. I expect BYU to go to the run game and then play action, similar to Portland State. Hawaii averaged 4 yards a run and I expect BYU to exploit that weakness more. Stanford has a baller at linebacker in Matt Rose. He had 13 tackles, 1 sack, and 2 tackles for loss against Hawaii. BYU will have to know where he is at all times.

Injury Report

Last week, Weylin Lupuaho didnt play because of an undisclosed injury, he has since been removed of the depth chart for this week because of the injury. Sonny Makasini and Kyle Sfarcioc are in his place at LG. Sfarcioc played most of the time last week.

Oklahoma St defensive tackle transfer, Justin Kirkland, didnt play last week because of an injury, we should expect to see him and Tanuvasa rotated more often this week. He is the sole backup now to Tanuvasa on the depth chart.

Prediction

Right now, the line is at 20.5. I am still shocked it is that low. I expect a similar game to what Utah did to UCLA where the Utes pummeled the Bruins, 43-10. ESPN Analytics gives BYU a 89.2% chance to win this game. Stanford can absolutely win this game. They have the coach and the personnel to do it if they play a complete game on offense and have better QB play. I just think BYUs defense is going to be too much. I see BYU winning by 24, 41-17.

BYU Football News

I want to leave you with this interview of former BYU LB, Brady Poppinga, on BYU Sports Nation. He gives a great breakdown of Stanford and how they are very capable on both defense and offense to beat BYU with their talent and style could wear down BYU throughout the game but that it feeds right into what BYU wants to do on both sides of the ball. At about the 10:20 mark, Brady says that he feels “far more confident” in Bear than Jake Retzlaff at QB. He points out that Jake was a wild card and how you didnt know exactly what he was going to do and were sitting on pins and needles. He goes on to say that Bear is consistent and efficient and he likes his size where he can pound the ball if needed and is hard to tackle. He also points out that he feels Bear has more upside than Jake and is an upgrade over Jake in some aspects.