At one point, things weren't going well for BYU. With 11 seconds left in the first half, Hall drove the Cougars to the Air Force 3-yard line before throwing an interception into the end zone. At halftime, the Falcons clearly had the momentum. But that changed suddenly early in the third quarter.

After Air Force shanked a 21-yard punt on its first possession, BYU drove 45 yards, capped by a 1-yard touchdown run by Harvey Unga. On the ensuing kickoff, freshman Blake Morgan forced Falcon return specialist Reggie Rembert to fumble. The ball was recovered by Spencer Hadley and that turnover set up a 2-yard TD run by Unga. Suddenly, the Cougars were up 24-14 — and they weren't finished yet.

Following another BYU defensive stop, Collie, who finished the day with seven catches for 130 yards, caught the first of his two touchdown passes to give the Cougars a 31-14 cushion.

As expected, though, the Falcons fought back, scoring 10 unanswered points to cut the deficit to 31-24 midway through the fourth quarter.

BYU took over on its own 8-yard line after a holding penalty on the kickoff. The Cougars marched to the Air Force 45 when Collie hauled in a deep pass from Hall and streaked into the end zone.

"They were playing aggressive," Hall said about the Air Force defense. "We hadn't run a double-move on them all game. We just thought it was a good time to do it. Austin ran a great route and made a great catch. I just kind of threw it up, hoping he'd come down with it."

Before that drive, Hall knew his team needed to put more points on the scoreboard to seal the game.

"Air Force is a great football team. I love how they play. I love everything about them," Hall said. "They kept battling to the end.

"They got it back down to within seven points. We had to drive down the field and score. We've been in those situations and we performed."

Besides the interception, Hall fumbled the ball away at the end of the third quarter. But he rebounded from those mistakes and ended up completing 28 of 37 passes for 354 yards.

"Max made some great plays and helped our football team score 38 points," Mendenhall said. "Then there's also some things in terms of ball security. We all know he's very competitive. He pushes the envelope right to the edge. Some of those things I'm sure he'd like to take back. But I don't fault his effort, just his judgment in a few of those cases."

On their final possession, the Falcons moved the ball to the BYU 31 before cornerback Brandon Howard picked off quarterback Tim Jefferson in the end zone. Despite surrendering 421 yards of total offense to the Falcons, including runs of 33, 45 and 46 yards, BYU's defense reached its goal for the game, Mendenhall said.

"Ultimately, we were hopeful to keep Air Force to 24 points or under. That's exactly where they ended up. We did make some plays, and we gave up some big plays. We felt if we could keep them to 24 points or less, we would win the game."

The victory sets up a huge game next Saturday against the Utes.

"In the second half, we stepped it up and we proved that we're one of the best teams," Collie said. "We're going to continue that way.

Hopefully our momentum will carry us on to next week."

---

E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com