The BYU Defense was Suffocating in Shutout Win Over Portland State
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BYU Cougars
On Saturday night, BYU set a program record for the largest shutout win in program history. BYU dominated Portland State 69-0 in a game that the Cougars led 49-0 at halftime.
The defensive performance against Portland State was one of the most suffocating defensive performances in BYU history.
After the first two Portland State drives that ended in punts. the Vikings had 47 yards of offense. Over the next 12 drives, BYU allowed just 9 yards. Portland State finished the game with -5 rushing yards on 24 attempts. BYU had a TFL on 38% of Portland State’s rushing attempts.
BYU ended the game allowing just 1.2 yards per play. BYU allowed 0.3 yards per play on the last 10 drives of the game. The Cougars did not allow a first down after the first quarter.
The only time Portland State threatened to score was after a fumble by Parker Kingston that gave PSU the ball in BYU territory. BYU pushed Portland State back two yards on that drive and blocked the Portland State field goal attempt and returned it for the score.
BYU was faster, bigger, and more physical than Portland State at every level.
To be clear, the Portland State offense is very bad. The Vikings have failed to score in both of their first two games of the 2025 season. However, Portland State was able to move the ball in the season opener. It was turnovers that kept points off that board in that game. Portland State had 277 yards of total offense.
It was only a few years ago that BYU was allowing lots of yards regardless of the competition. The evolution of the BYU defense under Jay Hill has been spectacular, and the 2025 defense is looking to continue the positive trend.
Perhaps most notably, there was not a drop-off when the second and third-string defenses played in the second half. The Vikings had -3 yards of total offense in the second half when BYU’s starters were on the bench. BYU’s depth on defense is perhaps better than it’s ever been.
The BYU defense was expected to be good once again in 2025, and maybe even better than they were in 2024. While you can’t draw too many conclusions from a game against a FCS opponent, the BYU defense lived up to hype against Portland State.
