Sloppy quarter took some luster off BYU opener

Robert Anae took a few minutes in the locker room to review in his mind what the 41-17 win over Northern Iowa meant on Saturday.

The Cougars delivered the expected 24-point win over the Panthers before a packed LaVell Edwards Stadium. They raced to a convincing 27-3 lead at the half and amassed 563 total yards at the finish.

But the 16th ranked Cougars basically took the third quarter off.

And it bugged everyone on the squad because it featured three of four silly turnovers.

The Cougars allowed 14 straight Northern Iowa points and the offense coughed up four turnovers in a stretch that definitely took off some luster of the home opener heading into a road game with Washington next Saturday.

Anae was surprised and disappointed at ball security failure by his veteran offense.

"We'd actually done very well with our ball security all during camp, it was one of the better things we did in camp."

I was surprised the Cougars didn't throw the ball to Dennis Pitta 25 times. The Panthers had no answer for the big junior who finished with 11 catches for 213 yards. A few times Pitta was down field all alone waving his hands for the ball. He could have set an NCAA record for catches and yards.

"At times, I thought I was running by myself," said Pitta.

The Cougars looked dominating at times in this game, as they should have been. Then they looked clueless. The offensive line was outstanding. The one visible breakdown was a blind-side sack on Hall by Panthers defensive end James Ruffin that resulted in the second Northern Iowa touchdown.

"On that play, freshman Matt Reynolds just took the wrong (stance) set, simple as that," said quarterbacks coach Brandon Doman. "The rest of the game, in his first ever college game, he played great and even got out and picked up a corner blitz, which is something the backs struggle to do."

Harvey Unga had 18 carries for 64 yards, but those chunks were all effective and when Unga caught six passes for 47 yards, it really hurt Northern Iowa. The FCS team had all it wanted in trying to take away Austin Collie and wideouts Michael Reed and Spencer Hafoka.

Max Hall, who got his bell rung in the second half, was in total control of his game, completing an impressive 34-of-41 passes for 486 yards (198.60 pass efficiency rating) and a pair of touchdown tosses to Reed and Unga. He nearly got a third on a 30-yard pass to his cousin, Reed White, that got called down on the 1-yard line.

"He actually played better after he got his bell rung," Doman said. "He kind of lost focus out there for a few series and that got him back. He's gritty, that's what I like about him. He's a tough kid."

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