Saturday's game was a chess match, with both teams playing conservatively for much of the contest. The Lobos relied on the ground game and its bruising running back, Rodney Ferguson, who rushed for 86 yards on 24 carries. New Mexico's offense had possession for 32:31, compared to 27:29 for BYU — which was a main focus of the Lobos' game plan — to keep the ball away from the Cougar offense.

"The number one objective we have is to control the points. There were times when we were a little bit more patient than we needed to be or that I would have liked to be," Mendenhall said. "But I didn't want to take the chance of giving up a play action or a gadget play or something like that at the risk of not giving our offense the ball enough through time of possession to win the football game. That was the interplay going on. As it worked out, it was, I think, managed appropriately. There will be many who will look at the score and wished it would have been more or less. I wouldn't have changed a thing. It was exactly what we needed to do to win this game, which was our objective."

UNM threw some surprises at BYU's defense, such as utilizing backup quarterback Tate Smith, who completed 5 of 10 passes for 69 yards and an interception.

"We didn't really prepare for that," linebacker David Nixon said of Smith. "He's done some reverse passes this year, so we were looking out for that. But he did a great job throwing the ball and presented a whole new challenge to us. Give credit to them. They played well."

The first quarter finished 0-0, then New Mexico scored first on a 27-yard field goal by James Aho early in the second quarter, which marked the first time BYU had trailed since the Washington game on Sept. 6.

On the ensuing kickoff, Collie caught the ball deep in Cougar territory, near the sideline, and stepped out of bounds. "I didn't want the ball to roll into the end zone," Collie explained. "I thought I was a lot further away (from the sideline) than I really was. That was honestly my fault. I should have let it go because it had the chance to get out of bounds."

Fortunately for BYU, Collie made up for that miscue by hauling in a 58-yard pass from Hall a few plays later. That was key in a 95-yard drive, which ended with a one-yard touchdown strike from Hall to Andrew George, lifting the Cougars to their first lead of the game, 7-3,

with 6:34 left in the second quarter.

BYU added another score in the third on another TD pass to George, an 11-yarder, with 6:08 remaining in the third.

But those pesky Lobos kept putting the pressure on the Cougars.

Finally, BYU marched 76 yards on 11 plays, culminating on the touchdown pass to Collie with three minutes left.

Before that final drive, offensive coordinator Robert Anae gathered his players together. "We have to make this work," he said. "Let's get it going."

The Cougar offense did just that. Hall told his teammates: "We have to score. If we're going to put this game away, we have to score on this drive. Austin had some key catches during that drive. We started playing like we normally do. We just need to be a little more consistent and come out and play like that on every drive.

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E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com