Cougars win shootout by dancing with the stars
When Max Hall needed to light up the scoreboard to atone for three turnovers that kept CSU afloat in Hughes Stadium, he turned to Dennis Pitta and Austin Collie and they delivered on time like a Swiss watch.
The duo proved key in BYU’s 45-42 win over Colorado State in Fort Collins tonight.
Jeff Call and I have been working on our stories and commentary for that game and just now got the time to fire off a final blog for the night.
In the tunnel outside the locker room, Hall’s two favorite targets disagreed on one thing: Who deserved to be the MWC offensive player of the week.
Pitta said it should be Collie because he caught three touchdown passes. “He’s the guy,” said Pitta. Collie also set a BYU record with his 13th game of more than 100 receiving yards. He aslo set a school mark for seven in a row, tying a MWCD record.
Collie said Pitta should get the award because he caught the game-winning touchdown, capping a game-winning drive with 22 seconds left. He caught two huge TD passes in the fourth quartere when the Cougars needed 21 points to erase two turnovers in the final 15 minutes.
Hall made a case for himself by tossing a career high 5 touchdown passes.
This was another tough game for BYU’s defense which ended up three secondary players down by the fourth quarter with safety David Tafuna not making the trip. But I wouldn’t lay CSU’s 42 points on the defense. The offense provided, almost as a gift, half those points including a Hall fumble for a TD on BYU’s opening drive.
Surprises for me? One was the insertion of some inexperienced players in key roles in a hostile place on the road. Punt returner Spencer Hafoka fumbled a punt when he hasn’t really seen any action this season in this role until then because Oneil Chambers has done the majority of that work this season.
The other was insertion of freshman J.J. Diluigi in the fourth quarter and delivery of the ball to him deep in BYU’s own territory and he fumbled, setting up a CSU go-ahead TD.
Bottom line, BYU needed key defensive and offensive plays to win this game and they did exactly that. I don’t know how many last-second drives this BYU team has in it after UNLV and going back to the last two Utah games but they are producing them with uncanny accuracy right now.
Credit Hall, Collie and Pitta for being capable and working so hard all year long to call upon that kind of timing when it is needed. Of course, it helps if the defense is UNLV and CSU and they’re both worn out at the end.
Good road win for Bronco Mendenhall.