BYU football: Cougars' quest for perfection ends at TCU

FORT WORTH — BYU's quest for an undefeated season came to an unceremonious end Thursday night against TCU.

So did a lot of other things — such as the No. 9 Cougars' top 10 ranking, a nation-leading 16-game winning streak, a 18-game Mountain West Conference winning streak, and, almost certainly, their shot at a BCS bid. The fast, athletic and inspired Horned Frogs jumped out early and didn't let up in a 32-7 rout over BYU at Amon G. Carter Stadium.

"It just hurts. The BCS, winning streak, when you get beat 30-something to seven, that stuff doesn't matter," BYU defensive lineman Jan Jorgensen said. "When you have high expectations like our team has and as hard as we worked to get better, it just feels horrible."

TCU (7-1, 4-0), which had lost two in a row in this series took out a couple of years' frustration on BYU (6-1, 2-1).

"BYU has been the top team in our conference the last two seasons and our guys have been focused on them since January," said Horned Frog coach Gary Patterson. "We really wanted to come out and be the best TCU football team that we could be and I think we did that. We knew it would be a big stage, and we got some breaks and turnovers, and it worked out well for us."

"I was very impressed with TCU tonight," said BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall. "Coach Patterson had his team more prepared than I had our team. They were sharper in every phase of the game and executed at a higher level from beginning to end. That comes down to simply coaching and preparation. We're looking forward to learning a lot from this game. There are many things to learn. I don't think we played to our potential in any phase of the game."

The loss marked BYU's worst defeat since a 49-23 loss at Notre Dame in 2005. It was the Cougars first setback since falling at Tulsa, 55-47, on Sept. 15, 2007, and it was their first MWC loss since losing to Utah, 41-34, in 2005.

Nobody in Provo is disputing that TCU's defense is best in the nation. The Horned Frogs entered the game ranked No. 1 in total defense, rush defense and sacks and they were mighty impressive against the Cougars, who had been rated No. 8 in the country in passing.

TCU sacked quarterback Max Hall seven times, forced four turnovers and limited the Cougars to just 297 yards of total offense, including 23 yards rushing.