In less than 16 minutes, TCU had already scored as many points as BYU had given up the previous 16 quarters.
TCU was well on its way to an ironic twist of revenge with a 32-7 victory over ninth-ranked BYU on Thursday night. That ended the Cougars' 16-game winning streak, the longest in major college football, and dealt a likely fatal blow to their BCS hopes.
"There will be a day or two or three before (the players) are able to get over it, knowing the expectations they had for themselves and clearly not meeting them," BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said.
The Cougars (6-1, 2-1 Mountain West) know they will need a small miracle to be the BCS buster they were hoping to be -- and maybe even to just win the conference title.
"This one hurts," quarterback Max Hall said. "But hopefully we can just keep trucking and come Monday, we can put it behind us, learn from it and move on."
That's what makes it even tougher for BYU -- a long weekend for the sting to linger.
Hall, the nephew of former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Danny White, was sacked and fumbled on the opening drive and TCU (7-1, 4-0) responded with Andy Dalton throwing for a touchdown on his first pass. After Hall threw an interception, Ross Evans kicked a 21-yard field goal and the Frogs led 17-0 in the opening minute of the second quarter.
Sports Connection
Connecting you to your favorite North Texas sports teams as well as sports news around the globe.
BYU had allowed only 17 points combined in its previous four games, including consecutive lopsided shutouts of UCLA and Wyoming. But the Cougars never had a chance against TCU, which posted its largest margin of victory ever against a Top 10 team.
"Nobody has been able to do that to BYU for a couple of years," TCU coach Gary Patterson said. "No way I could have seen it coming."
When the Cougars last visited Fort Worth two years ago, they ended TCU's 13-game winning streak that was then the nation's longest.
With the first Bowl Championship Series standings coming out Sunday, the only undefeated team left in the Mountain West is No. 14 Utah (7-0), whose eight-game winning streak is tied with No. 3 Penn State and No. 7 Texas Tech for the longest in the country.
The Utes obviously have the best chance to get into one of the major bowls since no BCS buster has ever lost in the regular season. But they still have to play BYU and TCU, whose only loss was at No. 4 Oklahoma.
"Our kids are going to be excited. I'm way excited," Patterson said, reminding everyone that the Frogs' focus is on the conference. "The bottom line is we have a lot of football to play."
Utah was the original BCS buster in 2004, then the following season came to TCU and had its 18-game winning streak snapped.
Dalton returned after missing two games with a knee injury, completing 12 of 19 passes for 170 yards and two touchdowns. He threw a 25-yarder to Jimmy Young on his first pass, and Walter Bryant caught a 12-yarder when he got a foot down in the back corner of the end zone with a nifty catch just before halftime for a 23-0 lead.
TCU scored the first 26 points against the Cougars, whose largest deficit this season had been seven. Hall scrambled for a 2-yard TD to convert fourth-and-goal late in the third quarter for BYU's only score.
Hall, sacked only twice the first six games, was sacked six times, four before halftime. He finished 22-of-42 for 274 yards with two interceptions and without a TD pass for the first time this season. He had thrown 20 touchdowns with four picks coming in.
"Max's performance was indicative of the entire offense. We just did not perform," Mendenhall said. "It was a gutty performance and he's tough. He stood in there and battled. But the momentum was never able to be regained."
TCU receiver Jeremy Kerley, a former high school quarterback, became an unstoppable running threat. He had 77 yards on nine carries, most of them direct snaps, with a touchdown.
The Cougars obviously weren't prepared for Kerley, who jiggled by a defender at the line and then zigzagged through the middle of the field for a 16-yard TD in the first quarter to make it 14-0. He also had a 24-yard run on that drive.
Kerley added a 21-yard run before Ross kicked the first of his two field goals.
"You want to come with a surprise against a team like this," Kerley said. "We were more explosive, caught them off guard."
Austin Collie matched the conference record with his fifth consecutive 100-yard receiving game (six catches, 116 yards) for the Cougars, who had also won 18 consecutive conference games, a streak that began with their 2006 victory at TCU.
BYU defensive lineman Jan Jorgensen set another MWC record with his 21st career mark. But TCU's Jerry Hughes, a converted tailback, had four in the game to push his season total to 11.
