It’s as gratifying as any win I’ve ever been a part of as a player or a coach. – BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall
BERKELEY, Calif. — Standing nervously on the sideline in the waning seconds of Saturday’s game against California — with the prolific Golden Bear offense driving and poised to tie the game — BYU quarterback Christian Stewart and his teammates had seen this scenario before.
“Guys were thinking, ‘This might go into overtime,’ ” said Stewart. “We’ve been on the wrong side of this too many times this season. It feels like every one of our losses has been these types of games … I was dying. I was praying, ‘Please, please, please, we’ve worked too hard, we’ve come too far to lose this game.’ ”
Against Cal, Stewart threw a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown passes to Jordan Leslie, then the Cougar defense held the Bears on four straight possessions from the BYU 14-yard line to seal a dramatic 42-35 victory at California Memorial Stadium.
“Our defense came up huge,” said Stewart, who completed 23-of-38 passes for 433 yards and five touchdowns. “I’m so happy for them.”
In the regular-season finale for both teams, BYU (8-4) won the crazy shootout that featured big plays, big momentum swings and several lead changes against a motivated Cal (5-7) team looking to get bowl eligible.
Afterwards, the Cougars celebrated their road victory over a Pac-12 opponent in the locker room with hollering and cheering.
“It’s as gratifying as any win I’ve ever been a part of as a player or a coach,” said coach Bronco Mendenhall.
To win the game, BYU had to overcome penalties, turnovers and other mistakes — which it has had trouble doing this season in setbacks to Utah State, Central Florida and Nevada.
“We made one more play, and I’m proud of our coaches, proud of our team and so happy for the resiliency that they’ve shown,” said Mendenhall. “I’m glad to see they’re rewarded for their efforts.”
Stewart said his team has learned from past miscues.
“We’ve grown. I was proud of my teammates today. We battled and fought hard,” he said. “We had some really negative plays that set us back but we fought and the defense kept us in the game and we were able to do enough on the offensive end to win it.”
BYU dodged a bullet in the first half when Stewart threw what appeared to be a pick-six, but the play was nullified because the official ruled Stewart’s knee was down. That would have given Cal a 28-14 advantage.
The most egregious negative play for BYU came in the third quarter. The Cougars had the ball first-and-goal at the Cal 1-yard line when, on a zone read play, Stewart threw a backwards pass to Paul Lasike. It bounced on the turf and while Lasike watched, thinking it was an incomplete pass, the Bears picked up the fumble and returned it to the 33.
Cal ended up scoring on that drive to take a 28-21 lead late in the third quarter.
Despite the turnover, the Cougars didn’t fold. They answered with a 79-yard drive capped by a 9-yard touchdown pass from Stewart to Mitchell Juergens to tie the game at 28 apiece.
Early in the fourth quarter, BYU took over at its own 1-yard line. A few plays later, Stewart completed an 83-yard touchdown pass to Leslie to put the Cougars on top, 35-28.
“I saw it was man-press. I signaled him a fade route,” Stewart said. “I laid it out there. He’s a speedster, and he ran right under it.”
“He knows I can beat most people with my speed,” Leslie said. “It worked out. Once I caught it, I didn’t think anybody was going to catch me.”
After Cal knotted the game at 35, Stewart found Leslie for a 38-yard touchdown pass that gave the Cougars the lead for good with 2:39 remaining.
Then it was all up to the BYU defense to shut down Bears quarterback Jared Goff, who completed 38-of-60 passes for 393 yards and four touchdowns.
Cal drove to the Cougar 9-yard line, but BYU’s defense wasn’t going to let this game go into OT. Four straight passes from the 14-yard line, after a false start penalty on the Bears, fell incomplete.
“That was intense,” said cornerback Robertson Daniel. “That’s like everything you live for. You want to be the guy to make the play.”
Mendenhall enjoyed watching the defense, which has been much-maligned this season, close out the game with the final fourth-down pass attempt coming with 14 seconds remaining.
“Up until that point, their receivers had made critical catches to keep drives alive on third and sometimes fourth down,” Mendenhall said. “At the end of the day, our guys in the secondary made plays. We dropped eight four straight times. We got just enough pressure, and the secondary held and made critical plays at the right time, and that’s what I’ll remember.”
BYU will face a team from the American Athletic Conference on Dec. 22 in the inaugural Miami Beach Bowl.