The times Stone was in the game was a smallish sample size. He is a good passing QB and SMU, with him, has a good passing attack. It is complete folly to assume SMU could not have adjusted a couple thing to help Stone out. Also complete folly to assume BYU’s defense would have kept having the same results. Under this type of thinking, do you assume if Stone played the whole game that SMU would have had -80 yards of offense or something?
It is a very common occurrence where a team’s offense is stymied for a quarter, gaining just a few yards, and then finds its rhythm and breaks loose. It is wishful thinking to assume SMU would have been smacked down continually the whole game of Stone is playing.