"I raised my voice, but I didn't throw any chairs or anything."

Wham, minutes after AFA took the second-half kickoff, the Cougars rattled off 21 straight points, and the feisty Falcons were blinking like somebody maced their faces.

There was a little drama for the remaining 17 minutes, but essentially the Falcons were done.

"I credit it to heart, grit and competitive will," said Mendenhall of his Cougars, who have won four in a row with a pair of road wins heading into the finale.

"Austin kind of rallied the team, and they responded."

The Cougar defense gave up some plays, but it generally bottled up the Falcons, who had run off a five-game win streak of their own since Tim Jefferson started at quarterback and came into the game on the cusp of a national ranking. Note: Jefferson didn't play in the Falcons' 30-23 loss to Utah here.

BYU's offense? Well, it showed some firepower, stumbled around, made mistakes, turned the ball over, got penalized, but it still had enough gas at the end to deal with the Falcons.

Now remember, the Falcons came into the game with the nation's No. 26 pass-efficiency defense and Hall had a 168 game rating; AFA ranked No. 25 in total defense and gave up 480 yards to the Cougars; they were No. 17 in scoring defense and allowed 38, and they were ranked No. 10 nationally in pass defense, but Hall clipped them for 354 yards and two touchdowns.

There are stats, then there are stats. There are rankings, and then there are rankings.

Let all the BYU-Ute comparisons begin. It's sure to be a fun week of trading statistics and numbers and making cases.

But as the last three games have shown, much of that hasn't mattered since underdog Brett Ratliff punked the Cougars in Provo and somehow the Cougars got Jonny Harline open and Collie converted a fourth-and-18.

Let the week begin.

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E-mail: harmon@desnews.com