Cougars close but need polishing

PROVO — In the mid-part of BYU's major scrimmage of fall camp Wednesday in LaVell Edwards Stadium, coach Bronco Mendenhall said he felt like he did as a defensive coordinator at New Mexico facing Texas Tech, witnessing a passing attack go off like a well-oiled nearly unstoppable machine.

At times, John Beck and the Cougar offense was that good, scoring three straight touchdowns, moving the chains, converting third and fourth downs and producing big plays, including a 33-yard touchdown pass from halfback Curtis Brown to Todd Watkins.

But, at the start and end, BYU's defense was tough and much improved from the first week of fall camp.

"I thought it was up and down for both sides," Mendenhall said of the offense and defense. "I thought in the movement portion of the scrimmage the offense was precision based and methodical and did a nice job moving the ball. Then in some pretty critical situations at the end, the defense realized they were here to play today and performed better."

One of those plays was a reaction tackle by sophomore linebacker Bryan Kehl, who reacted to a receiver screen from Matt Berry to Zac Collie, changed direction and collared Collie for a minor gain.

Beck completed 13 of 20 passes for 141 yards and a touchdown to redshirt freshman Michael Reed. During the scrimmage, tight end Jonny Harline had a big fourth-down conversion catch to keep a drive alive. Harline led all receivers with four catches for 43 yards.

Reed had three catches for 35 yards.

Before settling for some long incompletions in a two-minute drill, Beck was on target, throwing pinpoint passes while receivers Reed, Daniel Coats, Nate Meikle, Harline and Joe Griffin had big catches. It was during this stretch the Cougar offense rattled off four touchdown drives.

"There was a time in there when he knew where to put the ball, how fast to get rid of it before the sack could get there," Mendenhall said. "He was moving the offense and controlling the tempo. Then at the end, when the defense actually stepped up, he had some difficulty. Those are the situations that he's going to have to — and we as a team are going to have to — step up offensively to win some of the close ones, which is something that we haven't done in the past couple of years."

Mendenhall called the Cougars close but needing polish. Wednesday may likely be the last time he puts his No. 1 offense out against the No. 1 defense. Beginning today, the Cougars will start working on the game plan for the opener against Boston College.