{"id":288857,"date":"2025-11-13T09:31:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T09:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/288857\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T09:31:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T09:31:10","slug":"what-went-wrong-for-byus-offense-against-texas-tech-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/288857\/","title":{"rendered":"What went wrong for BYU’s offense against Texas Tech? \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

After joining a long list of quarterbacks who have struggled against Texas Tech\u2019s well-built and well-compensated defense, BYU freshman Bear Bachmeier was \u201chard on himself\u201d immediately following the Cougars\u2019 29-7 loss to the Red Raiders<\/a> last Saturday, according to offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick.<\/p>\n

Cougars on the air<\/p>\n

TCU (6-3, 3-3) at No. 12 BYU (8-1, 5-1)<\/p>\n

Saturday, 8:15 p.m. MSTAt LaVell Edwards StadiumTV:\u00a0ESPNRadio:\u00a0102.7 FM\/1160 AM<\/p>\n

\u201cHe felt like it was his fault,\u201d Roderick said Tuesday. \u201cI\u2019m not surprised. As a freshman, he finally had a bad game. It is what it is. He\u2019s played so well all year, and each week, he\u2019s exceeded our expectations, and then this game, he had a tough game, just like all of us did, me included, and he felt really bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bachmeier committed two turnovers \u2014 an interception and a fumble \u2014 and was part of an offense that could generate only 255 yards in windy Lubbock. After playing brilliantly in 8-1 BYU\u2019s first eight games<\/a>, he looked like a freshman, at times, while battling the nation\u2019s top defense, a raucous and rowdy crowd, and the ever-present wind at Jones AT&T Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just been trying to let him know that it\u2019s a team game. We need all 11 guys to play their best, and our coaches (to coach their best),\u201d Roderick said of his chats with Bachmeier this week. \u201cWe all have to coach better, and I expect him to bounce back and play well this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although he was sacked just once, Bachmeier faced relentless pressure from Tech\u2019s defensive front the entire game and could never get his running game going, either. He had 11 carries for 12 yards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, you always want to compete, and you just hate losing, so yeah, you are always gonna look back (with some regret),\u201d Bachmeier said Tuesday. \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t harp on it forever. But you kind of look at the negatives early on, and kind of get emotional. But yeah, you turn that into gratitude and just being grateful for the moment. We just gotta bounce back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bouncing back should be more doable this week as the Cougars, who tumbled from No. 7 to No. 12<\/a> in the College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday night, are back at LaVell Edwards Stadium for the first time since beating No. 13 Utah 24-21 on Oct. 18. They will face former Mountain West rival TCU (6-3, 3-3) at 8:15 p.m. MST Saturday knowing they can\u2019t afford another loss<\/a> if they hope to stay in the hunt for a spot in the CFP, or a place in the Big 12 championship game next month.<\/p>\n

Bachmeier, LJ Martin healthy and ready to go<\/p>\n

Bachmeier acknowledged that Texas Tech\u2019s defense was as good as advertised.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe play great teams. For example, Texas Tech,\u201d Bachmeier said. \u201cWe got ourselves in a hole. Sometimes you can\u2019t dig yourself out of that hole against great teams. So we just gotta start faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

The good news is that Bachmeier says he came out of the game \u201chealthy and feeling good,\u201d and Roderick said running back LJ Martin \u201cfelt good\u201d after leaving the 41-27 win over Iowa State with an upper-body injury. Martin was held to 35 yards on 10 carries vs. Texas Tech. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t able to give him a lot of carries, because in the second half, once we got down three scores, we had to just go two-minute (drill) and try to stay in it,\u201d Roderick said. \u201cHe\u2019s ready to play again this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roderick said even though Tech took away Bachmeier\u2019s signature powerful runs, he won\u2019t hesitate to continue to use the QB in the run game moving forward.<\/p>\n

\"\"BYU running back LJ Martin pulls away from Iowa State defensive back Ta’Shawn James Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025, in Ames, Iowa. | Matthew Putney, Associated Press <\/p>\n

\u201cThey were pretty dialed in on stopping Bear from running the ball,\u201d Roderick said. \u201cBut yeah, he\u2019ll be a part of our running game every game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he would have game-planned differently, in retrospect, Roderick nodded and then added: \u201cYes, but I am not going to tell you what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the wind \u201cwas a little bit of a factor in the passing game, but no excuse there. I mean, we did not play well enough to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

BYU expects Bear to bounce back<\/p>\n

In his weekly press briefing Monday, Kalani Sitake said that BYU\u2019s inability to run the football after the first quarter played into Texas Tech\u2019s ability to make life difficult for Bachmeier. <\/p>\n

\u201cBear is going to respond the right way. He knows that it wasn\u2019t his best outing. It was not the best for our entire team,\u201d Sitake said. \u201cBut I know one thing about him. He\u2019s willing to work. He has great work ethic, and he\u2019s going to be better next time, and so we\u2019re looking forward to seeing the improvement, and he\u2019s committed to doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tight end Carsen Ryan, who was asked to block more than usual against Texas Tech as Roderick went with a seven-man protection scheme to block the Red Raiders\u2019 four terrific down linemen, said Bachmeier will bounce back nicely.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a really tough guy, and he\u2019s hasn\u2019t experienced a loss in college before, but I\u2019m sure he\u2019s lost a football game at some point in his life,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cWe (will) tell him: \u2018It\u2019s the same thing, dude, you just gotta bounce back. You just gotta move on, look at what mistakes we made and what we can do better, and how we can learn from it.\u2019 \u2026 Bear, he\u2019s a really mature guy. He will be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

BYU offensive lineman Austin Leausa said Bachmeier remained composed and positive throughout the game, despite the adversity, and will respond with more of the same against TCU.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s kept his poise all year. I don\u2019t think anything really distracted Bear. I don\u2019t think it really did anything to him personally,\u201d Leausa said. \u201cBear has done his job. He\u2019s done more than just his job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier is driven to the ground by Texas Tech Red Raiders safety Cole Wisniewski (5) at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock Texas on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After joining a long list of quarterbacks who have struggled against Texas Tech\u2019s well-built and well-compensated defense, BYU…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,3125,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-288857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-news-feed-local","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}