Cougars had momentum in 3rd quarter

PASADENA, Calif. — No. 13 UCLA clearly proved the superior football team in Saturday's 27-17 win over BYU in the Rose Bowl, but in the middle part of the game, when the Cougars were marching all over the Bruins, panic among the powder blue hung in the air.

"You could sense it out there," senior linebacker Bryan Kehl said.

In that midgame attack, BYU sophomore quarterback Max Hall completed 16 of 21 passes for 228 yards and two touchdowns. He hit six in a row to start the second half. Settling down with play calls and personnel groups and better execution, the Cougars shook off turnovers that led to a 20-0 UCLA start and closed the gap to 20-17.

BYU's players and coaches say they'll build on that heading into the Tulsa game in Oklahoma and that they learned a lesson — they have to stop making mistakes.

"We made plays, but they made more plays in critical situations," senior receiver Matt Allen said.

A slow start offensively didn't help. BYU didn't get wound up behind Hall until the end of the second quarter.

"I think that is the time we really started moving the ball," Allen said.

Said Hall: "Things weren't clicking, we weren't communicating very well in both the pass and running game, but once we got that fixed, we were moving the ball."

The Cougars outgained UCLA 435 yards to 238 yards and had 23 first downs to 15 for the home team. But key turnovers doomed the Cougars — all of them on plays by the Bruin defense.

In the second half, the Cougars deployed a lot of two-tight-end sets, and that seemed to stymie the Bruin secondary, which had a tough time matching up.

"All of our tight ends can make plays, and their safeties couldn't cover them," Hall said.

BYU's tight ends had nine catches, led by Dennis Pitta's five for 66 yards, the longest a 17-yarder. Andrew George had a 28-yard catch, the longest BYU play of the game.

"We went to them and then to the backs, and that opened up things for our wide receivers," Hall said.

Sophomore Austin Collie caught a pair of touchdown passes from Hall in that third quarter and ended the game with seven catches for 79 yards, his longest a 24-yarder.

Collie said the Cougars came out and tried to do too much too early and did not play within themselves.