BYU football: Errors doom Cougs, leave Bronco feeling mystified

ARLINGTON, Texas — The result was the same but this TCU-BYU game felt a little different.

Riley Nelson's grit and BYU's defense played the Frogs tougher than in recent memory.

Gary Patterson's Horned Frogs, the defending Rose Bowl champions, whipped BYU 38-28 Friday night in Cowboy Stadium. They beat the Cougars easily again. But instead of humiliating BYU all over the field from start to finish like the last three meetings, Patterson had only to watch BYU self-destruct on its punt-hike game to tap out a victory over the Cougars.

In those three previous games, BYU wilted like TCU had taken a blowtorch to a flower. Oh, BYU did compete for the first half in Fort Worth last year and led 3-0 until the dam broke in a 31-3 loss.

But you can tell competing and not competing.

TCU beat BYU by 10 points Friday but a pair of "unclean" hikes from snapper Reed Hornung to punter Riley Stephenson deep in BYU territory directly led to 14 Frog points.

That turned out to be the difference in the game. TCU had polish. BYU, at times, looked like they'd swallowed a real bad Polish dog.

"I can't even describe it night now," said BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall of the punter hike issue. "It completely caught me by surprise."

That single aspect of a game that lasted 3 hours and 34 minutes loomed catastrophic for BYU.

The first time it happened, it was on BYU'S first series of the game.

Stephenson couldn't get to a left side, low snap to even attempt a punt. He chased the ball and as TCU defenders chased him and the ball, he illegally kicked it off the turf and out of bounds for a penalty and TCU got a first and goal at BYU's 4.

This had never happened to BYU all season. The first time, it looked like something out of a Keystone Cop movie. Made you wonder if BYU even practiced the play.

Then, on BYU's second possession of the second half, it happened again. Same thing, low flier to Stephenson's left foot he couldn't handle. TCU got the ball deep in BYU territory and scored four plays later to take a 35-10 lead.

"Not only once, twice but three times. I didn't think it could happen. It wasn't until the third time that we decided to do something different because there hadn't been any issues," said Mendenhall.

It marked the first time in Mendenhall's tenure, he genuinely looked perplexed and confused about one thing in a game. He could accept the rest.