Trojans dominated by No. 18 BYU

After a dominant opening win, the Troy Trojans (1-1) fell on the opposite side of a lopsided loss falling 48-7 to the No. 18-ranked BYU Cougars on the road on Sept. 26.

Troy trailed BYU 7-0 after one quarter when the Cougars turned it on scoring 17 points in the second quarter and never looking back.

BYU rolled up 664 yards of offense on the Trojan defense and held Troy to just 181 yards. Troy totaled just 19 yards on the ground, the lowest number by the Trojans since 2013. It was also the first time since 2014 that Troy failed to record at least 200 yards of total offense. Troy converted just 2-of-14 third downs.

BYU’s Masen Wake got the Cougars on the board first with a 1-yard touchdown run with 1:26 left in the first quarter and then BYU quarterback Zach Wilson added a 1-yard touchdown run with 11:03 left in the first quarter after throwing a 50-yard pass to set up the score and put BYU ahead 14-0.

BYU extended the lead to 21-0 after a 10-yard scoring pass from Wilson to receiver Isaac Rex.

Troy finally got a score after BJ Smith scored on a 2-yard touchdown run with 1:05 left in the first half. BYU drilled a 54-yard field goal as time expired to take the 17-7 lead into halftime, though.

BYU dominated the second half scoring on a 70-yard pass from Wilson to Dax Milne, a 2-yard run from Wilson, a 1-yard run from Wake and a 20-yard field goal. Troy managed just 48 total yards and one first down in the second half.

Wilson threw for 392 yards and two touchdowns on 23-of-27 passing along with scoring two more rushing touchdowns. Troy quarterback Gunnar Watson completed 21-of-33 passes for just 162 yards. Jayden McDonald led the Troy defense with eight tackles, while Reddy Steward and Elgin Griffin each had one sack. Former Opp star Orlando Lacey recorded a fumble recovery for the Trojans.

“Our team is very disappointed, and so are we as coaches. We did not play well or coach well tonight,” Troy coach Chip Lindsey said after the loss. “We had some opportunities early to take control. We had the early turnover that we didn’t take advantage of. Our defense was playing really well early, but our offense did not do a good job of helping those guys out.

“Last week, we did a really good job of playing complimentary football. We will rebound from this. We just have to get back to work and get better before next week.”