Last Saturday, BYU was a three-point favorite entering a home game against TCU. The Cougars, who where coming off their first loss of the season, responded by dominating the Horned Frogs 44-13. The very next day, BYU opened as a three-point favorite over Cincinnati. FOX analyst Joel Klatt couldn’t believe that the Cougars were only favored by a field goal.
“All right, next one, BYU at Cincinnati. BYU is ranked no. 11 in the country. Cincinnati has not looked great as of late, and this line is only 2.5 towards BYU,” Klatt said on the Joel Klatt show. “What? What? What? I’m sorry. I, I saw that. Just so you know, and I think I’ve said this before on the show, I always kind of think about the game. I talk about the game with Steve, and he’ll be like, ‘Well, what do you think the score is?’ And I was like, I don’t know, 14. I think that BYU wins it by 12 or 14. And he’s like, ‘What if I told you the line was 2.5?’…What am I missing? What is happening right now? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.”
Klat continued, pointing to BYU’s dominance last weekend against TCU. “BYU looked great last week. They control their own destiny for the playoffs. If they continue to win. They win the Big 12 championship. They’re in the CFP. They were balanced last week against TCU. I know they’ve been better at home than they have been on the road…But if you watch the game that they played last week. No, 2.5. What are we doing? I’ve got to give Kalani Sitake a lot of credit…This guy gets it done. I was so impressed with what they did against TCU because of the balanced nature that they did it.”
Klatt mentioned the balance of BYU’s offense, led by Bear Bachmeier and LJ Martin.
“They were able to throw it with Bachmeier on some series. They were able to run the football with LJ Martin,” Klatt said. “LJ Martin is outstanding. Their defense is aggressive, they are physical, they’re old. They’re old. BYU is always old…I like [BYU] winning this game. I think Bachmeier is getting better as the season goes along. He does not play like a true freshman. He didn’t play like a true freshman last week. That was a tremendous. bounce back after the loss to Texas Tech. You see the nature and the character of a team with how they play [after a loss]. Bachmeier was terrific. The run game was terrific. The pass game was terrific. The defense was terrific. [Bachmeier] was 23 to 33 for 355 total yards and 2 total touchdowns…I just like BYU in this one. At 31-24, I’m coming back to 7 points there. I thought it was gonna be 14. I will come towards the line 7, and I’m still covering the 2.5. Like, come on. BYU 31, Cincinnati 24.”
“BYU is giving 2.5. I still, I don’t understand that. I don’t understand that at all,” Klatt said to end his segment.
