BYU football: Cougars fall victim to Beavers' big fourth quarter, just can't dance to 'all that Vaz'

"We were trying to match score-for-score," Mendenhall said, "and started not to."

On the Cougars' next series, Nelson threw a low pass in the flat to Ross Apo, who reached down and tipped the ball right into the hands of OSU safety Jordan Poyer, who sprinted 49 yards for a touchdown, officially slamming the door on the Cougars.

Oregon State set the tone from its opening drive, as Vaz drove the Beavers 75 yards in six plays, capped by an 11-yard touchdown pass to Wheaton. That score snapped BYU's streak of 13 quarters without surrendering a touchdown..

The Cougars answered with Nelson engineering a 75-yard drive that ended with a one-yard TD run by Jamaal Williams to tie the score, 7-7.

After the two teams traded punts, the Beavers struck again with 3:01 remaining in the first quarter when Vaz connected on a 24-yard touchdown pass to Wheaton.

"Even when we were dropping eight (defendeers), they were completing passes," Mendenhall said.

The Cougars missed another scoring chance when they marched to the OSU 24 before Nelson floated a pass up for grabs that was intercepted.

A pair of penalties on OSU punting plays helped BYU tie the game. An illegal shift nullified a punt that would have given the Cougars the ball at their own 30. On the second punt, JD Falslev danced his way for 27 yards, while Malcolm Agnew was whistled for a 15-yard penalty for participating after his helmet had come off.

Suddenly, BYU had the ball at Oregon State's 30-yard line. It took 12 plays and more than four minutes, but the Cougars knotted the game at 14 when Riley found Devin Mahina on fourth-and-2 at the Beavers' 2-yard line. On that drive, BYU converted three times on fourth down.

BYU was even with OSU at halftime and held its own after three quarters. But the Beavers took control in the final quarter.

The Cougars travel to unbeaten, top-10 ranked Notre Dame next Saturday (1:30 p.m. MT, NBC).

Email: jeffc@desnews.com