BYU football: Cougars shut out in second half, lose to Florida State 34-10

BYU vs. FSU boxscore

College football standings

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — For stretches during the second quarter, the BYU offense had Florida State on its heels. Led by a true freshman quarterback, Jake Heaps, the Cougars were moving the ball, seizing the momentum, and scoring on consecutive drives to end the first half.

At intermission, it appeared BYU, trailing by three points, had a decent shot at knocking off the Seminoles.

Unfortunately for the Cougars, they showed little signs of life during the other three quarters of play. As a result, FSU steamrolled BYU, 34-10, Saturday afternoon at Doak Campbell Stadium.

"I thought we had a real strong chance to make a comeback right at the end of the half and coming into the third quarter," said coach Bronco Mendenhall. "(FSU) made all the critical plays as the game wore on. They made more of them and at the right times."

The Seminoles held the listless, punchless Cougars to 191 yards of total offense — BYU's lowest production since gaining 156 yards in a 2003 shutout loss to Utah in a snowstorm.

As bad as that was, the Cougars gained 146 of those 191 yards in the second quarter alone. BYU recorded six yards in the first quarter and just 39 yards of total offense in the second half.

For three quarters, the Cougars were as colorless as the all-white uniforms they wore.

"It's a matter of not making plays when plays need to be made," explained running back JJ Di Luigi, whose performance was one of the few bright spots for the Cougars. Di Luigi gained 93 yards rushing and caught three passes for 36 yards, accounting for 129 of BYU's 191 total yards.

For the second consecutive week, all of the Cougars' points came in one quarter and, for the second straight week, they were shut out in the second half.

BYU's defense struggled too, missing tackles and giving up a passel of big plays to FSU's stable of fast, athletic playmakers, including an 83-yard touchdown run to sophomore tailback Chris Thompson.

"They're a good team and they made plays," senior safety Andrew Rich said of the Seminoles. "We've got to have everybody swarming. We've got to be better tacklers to give ourselves a chance. It comes down to we missed some tackles."

Quarterback Christian Ponder, who shredded BYU's defense a year ago, completed 14 of 21 passes for 149 yards and a touchdown and he rushed 13 times for 50 yards and a TD.