3 takeaways from No. 11 BYU’s road win over Cincinnati

CINCINNATI — Make that 10 wins on the 12 months for BYU.

The Cougars went on the street and earned a hard-fought 26-14 win over Cincinnati Saturday night time, shifting to 10-1 on the season and getting dangerously near clinching a Large 12 championship recreation berth.

3 takeaways

LJ Martin was a famous person. BYU’s bell cow set a brand new single-game private finest with 266 complete yards — 222 dashing, 44 receiving — with two landing runs.

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Most impressively, he surpassed his earlier career-high (162 complete yards) earlier than the tip of the third quarter.

When the Cougars desperately wanted to place the Bearcats away within the fourth quarter, Martin stored churning ahead and ultimately broke off a 33-yard landing to ice the ballgame and sprinkle on some much-needed fashion factors.

Heading into Saturday, many believed Cincinnati’s success in opposition to BYU could be decided by the Bearcats’ skill to include Martin and the Cougars’ dashing assault as a complete.

Lengthy story brief, they didn’t.

BYU ran for 265 yards as a crew, averaging 5.4 yards throughout 49 makes an attempt.

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Bear Bachmeier ran 13 occasions for 46 yards, discovering the tip zone for the eleventh time in 2025 to interrupt BYU’s single season quarterback dashing landing document.

With such a punishing effort on the bottom, BYU dominated the clock battle with greater than 38 minutes of possession time.

For probably the most half, BYU’s protection delivered. Although Cincinnati did put up 387 complete yards, the Cougars have been largely strong defensively and located methods to affect the sport.

BYU pressured three Cincinnati turnovers — a Tanner Wall interception, an Isaiah Glasker fumble restoration and a turnover on downs within the purple zone — and held the Bearcats to a 4 of 13 mark on third down.

The Cougars’ robust third down protection resulted in three Cincinnati discipline purpose makes an attempt of greater than 40 yards, every of which the Bearcats missed.

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BYU is nearer than ever to incomes a visit to the Large 12 championship recreation. Two weeks from now, we could also be seeing the Cougars in Arlington.

With a win over UCF subsequent week in Provo, BYU would clinch the possibility to play for a convention title. It could be the Cougars’ first league championship look for the reason that WAC days of 1998.

BYU narrowly missed the Large 12 title recreation a 12 months in the past. The Cougars then in fact misplaced their veteran beginning quarterback late within the offseason and turned the place over to a real freshman this season.

What appeared destined to be a rebuilding marketing campaign has resulted in probably the most thrilling, unpredictable and total spectacular seasons at school historical past.

Kalani Sitake, his teaching workers and BYU’s veteran management deserve main credit score for a way they’ve dealt with enterprise this 12 months and defied each attainable expectation.

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However they nonetheless have to deal with enterprise subsequent week in opposition to UCF.