In the first half, BYU’s defense gave up 318 total yards and 24 points. They were lucky that the largest lead Iowa State ever got was only 14 points. The best play they had was when Logan Lutui got an interception when the ball was thrown to him without an Iowa State player in the same zip code. The next best play was a sack that BYU got right before the first half ended.
But BYU had been here before. They had gotten behind early against Colorado and fell behind against Arizona. The Cougars clawed their way back into both of those games.