PROVO — It was fourth-down-and-hopeless. Actually, it was fourth-and-13. But it didn't seem to matter at the time.
Trailing by one point, with about one minute remaining in the game, the season and the career of coach LaVell Edwards, the BYU Cougars were huddled up in the shadow of their own end zone, with the Utah crowd screaming in their earholes. They knew they had one last chance to pull out a victory for Edwards in his final game. But it didn't look promising.
Edwards was on the sidelines, wondering if this was how it was going to end, with another heart-wrenching loss to the Utes. "I was dying inside," he said.
The play was called, but senior wide receiver Jonathan Pittman knew it was going to come down to this: "Throw it up and hope for the best," he said.
That's exactly what quarterback Brandon Doman did. Pittman did the rest, catching the ball for a 34-yard gain. Pittman then caught another pass for 36 yards. Two plays later, Doman ran into the end zone from four yards out to lift the Cougars to a 34-27 triumph over Utah Friday at Rice-Eccles Stadium before a crowd of 45,064 — the third-largest crowd in school history.
"I knew in my heart we were going to complete it (on fourth down)," Pittman said. "I wasn't going to let my team down."
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After the breathtaking win, BYU players hoisted Edwards upon their shoulders and carried him to midfield. The victory all but erased the painful memories of past failures in Edwards' farewell season — such as embarrassing defeats to Syracuse and Colorado State. "I can't think of a more fitting ending like that," Edwards said.
The Cougars improved to 6-6, avoiding Edwards' first losing season since 1973. What's more, BYU finally won back-to-back games for the first time all year.
Edwards, the man who has seen his team win plenty of amazing games in his career, added that Friday's victory "may be the best one ever."
"It's a great sendoff," said senior defensive tackle Hans Olsen. "A great ending to a crappy season."
But that great ending was almost spoiled by Utah.
On the game's second play from scrimmage, Doman threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown by Andre Dyson. The Cougars scored 19 unanswered points, including four field goals by Owen Pochman, but they knew they should have scored touchdowns instead.
"At halftime, I felt our inability to score in the first half was going to haunt us and it did," Edwards said.
Still, BYU jumped ahead 26-10 late in the third quarter on a 38-yard touchdown catch by Mike Rigell. And it appeared the Cougars had the game wrapped up like a Christmas gift.
But somebody forgot to tell Utah it was over. Fueled by the effort of senior quarterback Darnell Arceneaux, who came off the bench to replace Lance Rice, the Utes scored 17 unanswered points themselves.
Utah's final score came after a 29-yard punt return by Steve Smith, putting the Utes on the BYU 30. Tight end Matt Nickle hauled in a 20-yard touchdown catch to give Utah a 27-26 advantage with 2:16 remaining.
"They had me scared for a minute. I thought the game was over," said cornerback Mike Lafitte. "I said a little prayer."
So did a lot of BYU faithful.
In the future, what happened next may be referred to in Provo as The Drive. Starting from his own 20 yard line, Doman threw an incompletion, then was sacked for a 10-yard loss by Ute defensive end Andy Bowers and linebacker Kautai Olevao.
"When I sacked Doman, I really thought that we had sealed victory," Olevao said. "A miracle like that was bound to happen seeing that it was LaVell's last game."
Much to his dismay, Olevao was right. A 7-yard reception by Luke Staley on third down set up fourth-and-13. "Brandon wanted me to run an out pattern, and I said, 'Give me a fade,' " Pittman said. "I'm surprised their DB didn't hear me. We ran that play three times in a row. We ran it all game. Finally, we completed it."
Pittman beat Ute cornerback Jeff Ray by sealing him off, coming back to the ball and making a 34-yard grab at the Utah 49. "Brandon made a heckuva throw," Edwards said. "When he completed the first one, I thought, 'Hey, we're going to win this.' I didn't exactly think that down there when it was fourth and 13."
On the next play, Pittman beat Ray again, near the Utah sideline, going out of bounds at the Ute 13. "We caught them off-guard on that one," Pittman said. "I ran by 'em."
Staley followed up with a nine-yard run to the Utah 4. Doman capped the series with a scamper into the end zone.
"To have Jonathan Pittman make a play like that, then to make another after that was incredible," said Doman. "And then for the coaches to call a quarterback sweep for me to score in LaVell's last game, you couldn't dream up something like this."
Pochman said this win was even better than last week's win in Provo over New Mexico. "This was LaVell's last game, it was the rivalry," Pochman said. "To win this game the way we did was unbelievable."
"It feels like destiny," linebacker Justin Ena said. "Kind of like fate."
For Pittman, it was the right way to finish his career at BYU, as well as Edwards'. "There's no better way to go out than that," he said. "It was almost like a miracle. Somebody was looking down on us. Somebody wanted to grant him that wish."
E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com