This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Kansas City, Mo.
As the clock ticked down and it became clear BYU would miss an opportunity to turn a good season into something better Saturday night at Arrowhead Stadium, quarterback Tanner Mangum stood on the sideline with his hands tucked into the collar of his jersey.
Pinning the Cougars' 20-16 loss to Missouri on the BYU offense would be misguided, due to the defense's penalties and third-down lapses, but that's always a good place to start dissecting this team's issues against Power 5 programs. If the Cougars expect to beat a Southeastern Conference member or other other high-level teams in the coming years, they must "get comfortable with this kind of stage and this kind of opponent," said offensive coordinator Robert Anae.
That didn't happen until the second half, when the Cougars scored two touchdowns — after having gone about the equivalent of two games against Power 5 defenses without reaching the end zone. Yet the offense also blew a scoring chance and basically gave Missouri a touchdown with its two fumbles, and couldn't sustain what turned out to be a final drive.
The painful effect of this game is not so much the defeat for BYU (7-3), but the failure to further validate the Cougars' progress. If the reference point for Mangum and the BYU offense is a scoreless performance at Michigan in September, there were considerable signs of growth. "You could tell he's matured a lot," said tight end Remington Peck.
Mangum completed 23 of 41 passes for 244 yards and a touchdown — a huge improvement over his 55-yard effort at Michigan. Even so, Anae lumped his QB with an offense he repeatedly labeled "soft" and "hesitant" in the postgame, and Mangum acknowledged the group's needing "a more fierce mentality, being more assertive."
Points sure did not come easily, continuing the Cougars' trend against tough opponents. Since becoming independent in 2011, BYU is 10-13 against Power 5 teams. In those losses, BYU has averaged 15.3 points. Whether the Cougar quarterback was Jake Heaps, Riley Nelson, Taysom Hill or Mangum, the offense's failures were central to the story of each defeat.
The backdrop of this game was complicated. The Tigers became a major story last weekend when the players' involvement in a campus protest of the school administration's handling of racial matters eventually resulted in the resignation of the university system's president. Otherwise, the game may have been canceled, because Missouri coach Gary Pinkel backed his players' boycott of practice. Then came Pinkel's announcement that he would retire after the season due to health reasons, making everyone wonder how the Tigers would respond. Clearly, BYU got their best shot.
From the Cougars' perspective, the No. 1 issue was how its offense would perform against a top-tier SEC defense that Anae compared favorably to Michigan's. That context was hardly encouraging, after BYU barely topped 100 total yards in a 31-0 loss to Michigan — having opened the season with a 33-28 win at Nebraska.
In the third quarter, Algie Brown's 11-yard run gave BYU its first touchdown against a Power 5 opponent in almost 120 minutes, since the third quarter at UCLA. After falling behind 20-10, partly due to Mangum's fumble while being sacked, BYU answered with Mangum's 6-yard TD pass to Francis Bernard. The Cougars gained only one first down on their next possession and didn't get another chance.
The loss left the Cougars feeling "hurt," by coach Bronco Mendenhall's account, and knowing they must rise to another level to beat a Power 5 team — whether in a bowl game in December or next September vs. Arizona in another NFL stadium.
Twitter: @tribkurt