LAS VEGAS — As BYU attempted to rally in the waning moments Saturday night in the Las Vegas Bowl against Arizona, Mitch Payne's 38-yard field goal smacked the left upright.
And with that, a Cougar season that began with so much promise ended with a resounding thud.
A bevy of BYU penalties, turnovers, missed field goals and defensive lapses proved costly as Arizona defeated the Cougars, 31-21, at Sam Boyd Stadium.
"It's very disappointing. We had high hopes coming into this game," said wide receiver Austin Collie, who caught 11 passes for 119 yards.
"We thought we had the potential to come out here and get a 'W'. We just haven't been executing. We wanted it. We didn't play to our potential."
The Wildcats (8-5) executed much better, explained coach BroncoMendenhall.
"They made the critical plays when they needed to make critical plays," he said. "We didn't play championship football tonight."
Arizona quarterback Willie Tuitama turned in an impressive performance in his final game in a Wildcat uniform, completing 24-of-35 passes for 325 yards and two touchdowns en route to earning Las Vegas Bowl MVP honors.
"It basically came down to execution," said senior linebacker David Nixon. "We slipped up. It's something that's plagued us in our three
losses."
BYU ended the season with a 10-3 mark and, if there was a common
theme in those three losses, it was falling behind early, then perhaps pressing too much and committing errors while trying to stage
a comeback.
Still, the Cougars rolled up 444 yards of total offense, compared to 416 yards for the Wildcats.
"Arizona really didn't stop our offense today," said wide receiver Michael Reed. "We stopped ourselves."
While the Wildcats had played as recently as two weeks ago, BYU had a month-long layoff between its regular-season finale and Saturday's game. But coaches and players said that wasn't the reason for their lack of precision against Arizona.
"We had some execution and ball-security issues in our last game (against Utah)," Mendenhall pointed out.
In the end, the Cougars failed to fulfill their potential, both against Arizona and throughout the 2008 campaign.
"It was a good season, not a great season," Collie said. "We had the potential to have a great season. It was kind of a letdown. We didn't
do what we thought we could have done."
"It wasn't the way we wanted to end this season, but we've got to pick our heads up," Reed said. "We had a good year. A lot of teams
around the country would like to have a record of 10-3. We lost as a team. No individual lost this game for us. Our opportunities were there, but we didn't capitalize on certain ones. When you don't capitalize, you don't win the game."
Arizona struck first when it drove 96 yards highlighted by a 71-yard catch-and-run by wide receiver Terrell Turner, who was chased down from behind by BYU cornerback Brandon Bradley at the Wildcat 1-yard line. One play later, Nic Grisby barrelled into the end zone to give Arizona a 7-0 lead.
Meanwhile, the Cougar offense sputtered during the first quarter. Things got worse early in the second when Hall fumbled the ball at the Wildcat 24. Arizona capitalized on the miscue as Jason Bondzio booted a 31-yard field goal to make it 10-zip.
BYU quarterback Max Hall answered with a couple of long passing
plays — a 35-yarder to Reed and a 36-yarder to Collie, setting up a
one-yard run by Harvey Unga to cut the deficit to 10-7.
BYU's defense followed that up by forcing Arizona's first punt of the night, though Reed White fumbled the punt and Scott Johnson recovered. The Cougars started moving the ball once again and, thanks to a pair of catches by Reed, had second-and-1 at the Wildcats' 18. But BYU squandered that opportunity.
The Cougars were whistled for three straight dead-ball penalties — illegal substitution, delay of game and a false start — to push it back to the 32. Then Payne's 40-yard field goal attempt sailed wide left with 2:01 remaining. The score remained 10-7 at halftime.
To open the second half, BYU got a huge break as Tuitama dropped a bad snap, fumbled and Cougar linebacker Coleby Clawson recovered at the Wildcat 27. BYU took advantage as Hall connected with tight end Andrew George for a one-yard touchdown pass to give the Cougars their first lead of the game, 14-10.
But that lead didn't last long. A couple of series later, Arizona jumped back out on top 17-14 on a 37-yard touchdown pass from Tuitama
to Delashawn Dean.
The Wildcats maintained that advantage as a 53-yard field goal
attempt by freshman Justin Sorensen late in the third quarter fell short.
Arizona answered by driving 65 yards on a five-play touchdown drive in 1:48 capped by a 24-yard TD pass from Tuitama to Chris Gronkowski.
Suddenly, the Wildcats had seized another 10-point advantage at 24-14.
BYU coughed up the ball again as Hall fumbled again when he was hit in the pocket, but the Cougar defense prevented any damage from being done by forcing a punt. On BYU's next series, Wildcat cornerback Marquis Hundley picked off Hall in the end zone to halt yet another Cougar drive.
Following a one-yard touchdown run by Hall with 3:38 remaining in the game, BYU successfully executed an on-side kick that was recovered by O'Neill Chambers. The Cougars drove deep into Arizona territory, but a pass play to Dennis Pitta was negated by a holding penalty. Then came Payne's field goal attempt that hit the upright, which was emblematic of the kind of night it was for BYU.
E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com