"I'm proud of our team's focus and I know they are anxious to play on Thursday night," said Mendenhall, who has led the Cougars to seven wins for the first time in five years.

"There is a bigger picture for us and that is to win a conference championship and return this program where it once was and this was just one more step towards that."

BYU's defense led the effort against the Rams, holding the struggling CSU offense to one field goal after the Cougars got off a 17-yard punt in the second quarter. The Rams got the ball at BYU's 44 and it would be one of two times CSU crossed into BYU territory all night.

The Cougars had five sacks, led by a pair by Cameron Jensen. "The underlying factor is when CSU had the ball, they were getting backed up all night. It's hard to drive the ball over 80 yards on our defense, the way they are playing with everyone in concert," Mendenhall said.

The lone field goal allowed puts BYU's scoring defense at 13.1 points allowed per game following the CSU win.

Offensively, the Cougars won by 21 points, gained more than 400 yards on a Ram defense ranked 15th nationally, but quarterback John Beck failed to throw a touchdown pass for the first time this season. CSU handed Beck his fourth interception of the season on a first-half play near the goal line when a Ram defender left Fui Vakapuna and cheated coverage help on Matt Allen.

"We had some minor breakdowns, which we usually don't do," Beck said. "But we also made big plays when we had to, converted a lot of third downs and moved the ball."

Beck's pass efficiency against CSU was 148, which propelled him two slots higher in the NCAA over the weekend. Beck jumped from sixth in the NCAA to No. 4 because he completed 73 percent of his passes for 10 yards per attempt - even with a pick and no TD tosses. If the pick had been a TD instead of an interception to CSU's Darrell Williams, his game efficiency rating would have been 172.

The Cougar offense has not had to play with intensity in the fourth quarter since the TCU game after blowout victories over SDSU, UNLV, Utah State and Air Force.

"We've been up in halftime for every game," said quarterback coach Brandon Doman. " We're going to have some tougher games in the second half in the future. We'd better come out ready and prepared."

"I'm glad we've got some things to work on."

CSU brought a lot of defenders to the line of scrimmage and pressed BYU's receivers on the line, inviting a long ball throw. BYU rarely attacked that Saturday, a similar Cougar mindset seen in the Arizona game. Beck did connect with McKay Jacobson for the longest play of the game, a 52-yard bomb, on one of the rare times CSU's coverage was exploited.

Mendenhall said the CSU win was "another solid victory on the road," and credited CSU's defense for making it difficult to score.

"We're moving the ball and putting points, but at the same time we are dictating tempo in the game, not only moving the ball but preventing the opponent from having field position and forcing them from having to play from behind," said the coach.

Mendenhall got no argument from CSU coach Sonny Lubick.

"I could see the handwriting on the wall that we weren't going to move the ball consistently on their defense," Lubick said.

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E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com