PROVO — Opposing teams, and fans alike, have done a pretty decent job of late picking on BYU's secondary.

Injuries and a transfer have added to those woes, which had many feeling the Cougars — ranked eighth in the MWC in passing defense — would get picked apart further Saturday against San Diego State's third-ranked conference passing offense.

"We haven't played well the past few games, and we took it personal and a challenge that we have to get better every time out," boundary cornerback Andrew Rich said following BYU's 41-12 win over the Aztecs.

So instead of getting chewed up again, the Cougars' makeshift secondary turned in its finest game in weeks, holding the Aztecs to only 160 yards passing and one touchdown — which came, by the way, against BYU's second unit.

"To me, the biggest thing was (the first unit) didn't allow them to score a touchdown," defensive coordinator Jaime Hill said. "We haven't been doing that the past few weeks. That's the key of the game because it gives us confidence that we can go out and execute and win the game."

More importantly, most of San Diego State's passing yards came after the game was well in hand. The Aztecs never did establish their most-preferred way of moving the football, which is through the air. Coming into the game, the Aztecs averaged 230 yards per game passing. At the half, they had only 45 yards passing and only 108 after three quarters.

"It just shows that they're learning and they're growing," head coach Bronco Mendenhall said of his secondary. "But it will take continued improvement the next two weeks to reach our goals."

One key number, which can be credited mostly to BYU's secondary, is San Diego State was only 3-of-12 on third-down conversions. When David Nixon picked off Ryan Lindley's pass in the second quarter, it ended Lindley's streak of 67 straight passes without a pick. Through three quarters, the Aztecs' longest pass play was 16 yards. They did have a 20-yard completion in the fourth quarter, but Rich quickly spoiled that when he knocked the ball loose from Aztec receiver Darren Mougy, with Shawn Doman recovering the fumble at midfield.

"I think our guys flew around and made plays," Rich said.

Rich was a big part of BYU's new secondary look. Because of an injury to corner Scott Johnson last week, Rich was moved from safety to boundary corner — which also opened up a spot for David Tafuna, recovering from an injury, to return to his safety position.

"I think the defense, honestly, gained momentum in this game, and I guarantee they'll take it to the next game, even with Air Force having a different scheme," receiver Austin Collie said.

"Say what you want about our defense. We haven't put them in the best situations with our turnovers. But they are going to continue to work hard. They have a lot of grit."

Rich feels the secondary will progress from what it learned in this game.

"It's going to take a good 60 minutes of concentration every time out, and we're starting to learn that," he said. "It's always nice to have a win like this to get a little confidence back."

Hill said confidence is really what he hopes the defense gains from the San Diego State win.

"Hopefully, we can use this as a building block to the next game and the following game," he said.

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E-mail: jimr@desnews.com