BOSTON — OK, it is official. BYU's football program is psychologically scarred. The Cougars have losing on their minds and have for five straight years.
The Cougar psyche is as fragile as a China doll.
And it crashed once more this weekend, pummeling the Cougars to a 1-2 start in Beantown.
It was in a painful display of bad luck, ineptness, lack of composure, penalties, funky play calls and opportunities squandered. It was a thud so loud it hurt the ears and made you wince to watch.
But this is BYU football, until Cougar players overcome mind games that are apparently rattling around in their craniums.
Boston College was ripe for the picking Saturday in Alumni Stadium, vulnerable as a bare-naked featherless fowl. BYU could not grab the bird.
The Eagles were exposed for anybody who'd like to take them out of their 23rd ranking in the polls. All BYU had to do is reach up to the tree and pick the upset out, a gift that was hanging by a weak-threaded stem. The Cougars simply couldn't make the grab; one more play; one less mistake.
Instead, they return to Provo and the analyst's couch, curled up in the fetal position wondering what could have been.
"Football is a game where everything you get, you earn," Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan said.
He'd get no argument from BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall, who said his players played with heart and great effort, but they again failed to execute just one more play than the other team in the 30-23 double-overtime loss.
At halftime, Mendenhall said he told his players not "to be surprised" they were ahead of Boston College, actually outplaying them in nearly every facet of the game. He sensed some of his players couldn't believe they were ahead 13-12 and should have been up 26-6.
"The precision and execution for our program, regardless of circumstances, is something we need to move forward on, and something that is needed to reach our goals," Mendenhall said.
The Cougars failed in regulation. They failed in the first overtime. They failed in the second overtime. They failed when Boston College gave up four fumbles, two of them recovered by the Cougars. They failed when Eagles' quarterback Matt Ryan threw the first two interceptions of his senior season. They failed by missing three field goals and muffing a snap on another.
Arizona, again.
On a day BYU could have regained some of that long-gone swagger, elevated itself on a meaningful stage against a worthy opponent, they simply shot themselves in the foot. And used both hands on triggers of two double-barrel shotguns. Hard to miss with that kind of arsenal, but if maiming the foot was the objective, on this day in Boston, they probably would have missed their feet with all the pellets from all four blasts.
It was that kind of a botched dream by the Cougars.
Defensive captain Cameron Jensen said the Cougars were frustrated but not intimidated. "We felt coming in we would win this game. In the game, we felt we would win it. But we failed to execute and that comes down to working harder, and I can't wait to put this behind us and get ready for Utah State next week."
You can break the game down in a lot of ways — tipped passes, drives that sputtered, a long pass play given up, missed field goals that would have totaled 12 points, six penalties in the first quarter. Whatever.
But a classic snippet that says it all came with the game tied at 23 and the Cougars with the ball after a hit by Cougar freshman Jan Jorgenson jarred the ball loose from L.V. Whitworth and Quinn Gooch recovered for BYU at BC's 38.
After a big third-down catch by Matt Allen and a 25-yard run by Fui Vakapuna and the clock ticking down to three minutes to go in the game, the Cougars looked like they were in the driver's seat — like they'd looked most of the game.
But on third and half a yard at BC's 23, Vakapuna took a handoff and tried to run around the end as BYU's line collapsed and he was tackled for a loss of four. A QB sneak work? Sneak it twice in a row, like BYU's first touchdown and maybe the Cougs could have got that first down? Nope, a more complex play simply backfired and Jared McLaughlin's 44-yard game-winning field-goal attempt hit the left upright and bounced harmlessly to the turf.
Mendenhall said his coaches thought BC's middle linebackers would work themselves up the middle, because they'd shown that tendency, so Vakapuna was to go over the tackle to the right outside.
Nada, the 'backers went to the outside.
It was a shared breakdown in coaching decision and player execution, mixed with a great Boston College defensive play.
That one play epitomized BYU's entire show on the big stage in Boston.
And there were many of them we could break down, splice like a fish fillet.
Someday the Cougars will be back to winning close games, like they did in 2001 when they found a way to pull out at least four close ones and go 12-2.
The line between making that one defining play and failing to deliver that winning catch, kick, throw, block or lack of penalty is eluding the Cougars for now in these big games, be it BC, Utah, TCU and the like.
"These kinds of games make it very clear when we don't measure up in some of those areas," Mendenhall said.
"Again, not in effort or heart or intent do we not measure up," said the coach.
Just on the scoreboard.
E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com