BYU gained 506 yards Friday night and left two trips inside the Iowa State 5-yard line with no points. That combination should have produced a nervous finish.
The defense refused to allow one.
No. 8 BYU held Iowa State to 49 first-half yards and 200 for the game, turning Bear Bachmeier’s 438-yard performance into a 24-10 Homecoming win at LaVell Edwards Stadium. The Cougars are 5-0 overall and 3-0 in the Big 12. Iowa State fell to 3-3 and 1-2.
The score makes this look like a steady two-touchdown win. It was stranger than that. BYU averaged 8.3 yards per play, completed two passes of at least 63 yards and rushed for 177. It also went 0-for-3 on fourth down, lost a punt-return fumble and scored on only three of five red-zone trips.
BYU created enough offense to win by considerably more. Its defense made sure the missing points did not become a bill due in the fourth quarter.
BYU-Iowa State final receipt
| Game item | BYU | Iowa State |
|---|---|---|
| Final score | 24 | 10 |
| Total yards | 506 | 200 |
| Rushing yards | 177 | 102 |
| Passing yards | 329 | 98 |
| First downs | 18 | 14 |
| Third downs | 4 of 10 | 2 of 13 |
| Fourth downs | 0 of 3 | 1 of 2 |
| Red-zone scores | 3 of 5 | 1 of 1 |
| Turnovers | 1 | 0 |
| Time of possession | 32:43 | 27:17 |
| Record | 5-0, 3-0 Big 12 | 3-3, 1-2 Big 12 |
BYU’s official event is marked completed, the official box score lists the 24-10 final and the WMT game feed is finalized. The permanent Iowa State game center now carries the final, team comparison and official postgame video at the same URL fans used before kickoff.
Bachmeier gave the offense its missing dimension
Six nights after throwing for 62 yards in the rain at TCU, Bachmeier completed 22 of 30 passes for 329 yards and two touchdowns. He added a career-high 109 rushing yards on nine attempts.
That is 438 yards from one quarterback, or 86.6 percent of BYU’s offense.
The number is enormous, but the method matters more. Bachmeier completed his first seven passes. On BYU’s opening possession, he connected on four throws and broke a 26-yard run before Journee Tonga scored from six yards out. The drive covered 75 yards and required Iowa State to defend the entire width of the field.
The second touchdown came after the pocket started to break. Bachmeier moved left and found Roger Saleapaga II for 63 yards. Two plays later, Kyler Kasper caught a five-yard touchdown pass for a 14-3 lead.
Those throws answered the ugliest question from Fort Worth. BYU did not abandon Bachmeier’s legs, but it no longer needed them to drag a stalled passing game behind them. The Cyclones had to account for a quarterback who could beat pressure, run through an open lane or send the ball over the secondary.
The pregame watch guide asked whether BYU could replace LJ Martin without turning Bachmeier into its only credible runner. The running backs never supplied a clean answer. Tonga finished with 19 yards on eight carries, and Preston Rex had 21 on six. Bachmeier was still the leading rusher.
What changed was the cost of loading up against him. Iowa State could no longer crowd the run and wait for third down. Bachmeier punished that choice through the air.
Glasker’s 75 yards broke open a game BYU had not finished
BYU led 14-3 late in the third quarter but had already failed on two fourth-down throws inside the Iowa State 5. A third empty fourth-down attempt would come later. The Cougars were moving the ball without consistently cashing it.
Then Legend Glasker removed the red zone from the equation.
With 1:18 left in the third quarter, Bachmeier found the freshman in stride down the middle. Glasker finished the 75-yard touchdown with nobody close enough to turn the catch into another short-field decision. BYU led 21-3 nine seconds later.
Glasker caught five passes for 99 yards and the score. Kasper added three catches for 40 yards and a touchdown. Walker Lyons had five for 61, while Saleapaga’s two receptions gained 72. Four targets reached at least 40 yards, which is a much healthier distribution than asking one receiver to rescue every long down.
The touchdown also exposed the difference between yardage and usable offense. BYU’s five red-zone trips generated 17 points. One throw from its own 25 generated seven more.
That is not an argument for living on 75-yard touchdowns. It is a reminder that explosive plays can cover for an offense while it fixes its short-field execution.
Iowa State’s five-touchdown threat never reached the end zone
Aiden Flora arrived after rushing for 212 yards and accounting for five touchdowns against West Virginia. Against BYU, he ran 17 times for 86 yards and caught two passes for minus-1.
He had 11 rushing yards before halftime.
BYU did not erase Flora by selling out against every handoff. The Cougars repeatedly won the next part of the down. Iowa State finished 2-for-13 on third down and punted seven times. Jaylen Raynor completed 16 of 29 passes for 98 yards, with no completion longer than 16.
That put the Cyclones in a box. Flora could still find a useful run, but Iowa State could not pair it with an explosive throw or a dependable third-down answer. The offense gained six yards in the second quarter and went three-and-out on three straight possessions.
Faletau Satuala led BYU with seven tackles and a pass breakup. Keanu Tanuvasa recorded two tackles for loss and two pass breakups from the interior. The Cougars finished with three sacks and 10 pass breakups. That is a disruptive passing-down line without an interception or a fumble recovery.
The pass breakups deserve attention. Iowa State’s short passing game was supposed to punish pressure and keep the chains manageable. Instead, BYU got hands into throwing lanes and forced Raynor to keep trying. The Cyclones averaged 3.6 yards per play.
BYU’s defense has now allowed 10 points in consecutive conference games. TCU gained 259 yards last week. Iowa State gained 200. The opponents and game plans were different, but the common result was a defense that did not need offensive perfection.
The fourth quarter showed both sides of BYU’s margin
Iowa State’s only touchdown started with a gift.
Tiger Bachmeier failed to secure a punt early in the fourth quarter, and the Cyclones recovered at the BYU 49. Raynor finished the short field with a one-yard touchdown pass to Christian Greenlaw, cutting BYU’s lead to 21-10 with 12:51 left.
The turnover was damaging because BYU had already passed on points twice near the goal line. A game the Cougars had controlled by every yardage measure was suddenly one touchdown and a two-point conversion from becoming uncomfortable.
The defense answered in the least flashy way possible. Iowa State drove 69 yards on its next possession, but three pass breakups, two sacks and a false start pushed the Cyclones into a 45-yard field-goal try. Kyle Konrardy missed left.
Bachmeier then ran 39 yards on BYU’s next possession, setting up Matthias Dunn’s 38-yard field goal. The lead returned to 14 with 1:51 remaining.
That sequence is the actual closing receipt. The defense absorbed the punt-return mistake, prevented a touchdown on Iowa State’s last serious drive and handed the offense enough field to put the game away. BYU did not need to pretend its own errors had disappeared. It simply stopped them from deciding the result.
Five red-zone trips should have produced more than 17 points
The postgame celebration can hold two true thoughts at once: BYU handled a Big 12 opponent by two touchdowns, and the offense wasted a chance to make the fourth quarter irrelevant.
The 0-for-3 fourth-down line is the starting point. Two failures came inside the Iowa State 5, both on incomplete end-zone passes. BYU also failed to convert near midfield in the second quarter.
Aggression was not the problem. The Cougars were moving the ball, and the defense had Iowa State pinned. The issue was the shape of the short-field offense without Martin. BYU’s backs combined for one rushing touchdown but little steady production. The condensed field removed some of the space that made Saleapaga’s 63-yarder and Glasker’s 75-yarder possible.
That forced BYU to solve short yardage with fewer credible threats. Bachmeier can run, but using him on every important carry creates its own cost. Throwing into a packed end zone did not solve it Friday.
The reported Martin timeline analysis argued that the replacement plan had to become more than a list of backup carries. Iowa State supplied the first full receipt. Rex, Tonga, Jojo Phillips and Devaughn Eka helped BYU reach 177 rushing yards, but Bachmeier supplied 109 of them.
BYU found enough offense for one night. Notre Dame will study the empty red-zone trips before it worries about the final score.
Notre Dame now arrives for an unbeaten matchup
BYU is 5-0 for the third straight season. The Cougars have eight days before No. 3 Notre Dame visits Provo on Saturday, Oct. 17 at 5:30 p.m. Mountain on ABC.
The Notre Dame watch guide has the verified broadcast and radio paths, and the football schedule carries the rest of the season.
Friday gave BYU a useful bridge to that game, but not a clean one. Bachmeier proved the TCU passing line was not a permanent condition. Glasker supplied the vertical strike. The defense held a team coming off a 45-point game to 200 yards.
The Cougars also left too many points at the goal line and asked their quarterback to carry too much of the rushing load.
That makes the Iowa State result more interesting than a routine 24-10 win. BYU showed a 506-yard ceiling and a 24-point leak in the same game. The defense covered the leak. Notre Dame is the test of whether BYU can keep the ceiling and repair the rest.
Sources and further reading
- BYU Athletics: official BYU-Iowa State recap, official box score, postgame notes and quotes and official event record for the final, scoring sequence, completed status, venue, records and stable event ID.
- WMT Statistics: BYU 24, Iowa State 10 and finalized game player statistics for team totals, down efficiency, red-zone results, possession time, attendance and individual lines.
- Associated Press game report via NEWS10 ABC for independent confirmation of the final, Bachmeier’s career and season highs, Iowa State’s recent yardage lows and the fourth-down context.
- Vanquish The Foe game report via Yahoo Sports for independent context on BYU’s red-zone misses, the punt-return turnover and the Martin-adjusted rushing distribution.
- Iowa State University Brand Standards: color palette for the cardinal and gold used in the original matchup art.
- BYU Sport Nuts: Iowa State game center, football hub, results, How to Watch BYU-Iowa State and How to Watch BYU-Notre Dame.
