BYU football: Coach, team come to Hall's defense

No one left Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday with a heavier burden on his shoulders than BYU quarterback Max Hall.

In throwing a career-high five interceptions — which easily could have been six or seven — and fumbling the ball away once, Hall will be the goat to many BYU fans and an easy target for Utah fans looking for water-cooler and blog-comment fodder.

"In a game like this, when a championship is on the line, you have to play cleaner than we did," BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said.

Whether it was the unfriendly setting, the emotion, or just Hall trying too hard to "help his team win," the Cougar coach really didn't have an explanation for Hall's worst game this season, and probably the worst of his career.

But Mendenhall acknowledged that the main reason BYU lost was because of turnovers, and all six were directly connected to Hall.

"I think without the turnovers it's a completely different game ... but I don't fault Max because of the leadership he's displayed all year," he said. "I just think he was trying to help his team win."

Hall did complete 21 passes for 205 yards, and he added a season-high 42 yards rushing on six carries. But he failed to throw a touchdown pass for only the third time in his career. However, he did have a 20-yard TD run.

"Our offense moved the ball effectively, we just self destructed at critical times and made turnovers and that changed the game," Mendenhall said.

Hall himself, didn't have many answers, but also no excuses.

"I think our guys played hard. I think I played hard," Hall said. "The bottom line is we just made a lot of mistakes. ... I take the bulk of it, but it's a team effort and we just have to regroup."

Other Cougars were coming to Hall's defense.

"It's not his fault that we lost," defensive end Jan Jorgensen said. "So we're all behind Max. We all have his back. He's our leader and our captain, so we're going to live and die with him. We're all behind him and he knows that. We're going to fight with him until the end."

Three of Hall's turnovers came at critical times. Late in the first half, the Cougars were driving for a chance to tie or take the lead into halftime, when Hall threw a pass right at Utah safety Joe Dale. Three plays later, Utah led by 10. He thought tight end Dennis Pitta was going to cross, rather than settle on his route.