PROVO, Utah. — The Huskies could have won this.
One guess as to why they didn’t?
That’s right: offense.
Right after the Cougars went up by three points on a 25-yard field goal by Trevor Samson early in the fourth quarter, the Huskies got their opportunity to tie or go ahead. But on third down, the Cougars came rushing in on quarterback Bryant Shirreffs, who let the ball go to no one in particular. BYU’s Brandon Kaufausi was there to snatch the ill-advised throw at the UConn 21.
“Interceptions are unacceptable,” said Shirreffs, who was 14 of 27 for 168 yards and a TD, with two interceptions, for UConn (2-3). “If you turn the ball over, you’re going to lose, and my interception changed the game, and that’s unnaceptable.”
One play later, Cougars quarterback Tanner Mangum (35 of 53, 365 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions) found Mitch Matthews for the 21 yards and the score.
Yes, UConn managed to answer with a 42-yard field goal by Bobby Puyol, but the Huskies saw the Cougars come back and score again, this time a 6-yard pass to Matthews with 7 minutes, 26 seconds to play that clinched a much-needed 30-13 win for the Cougars (2-3) before 56,393 at LaVell Edwards Stadium Friday night.
“Tough loss. Everybody is hurting,” UConn coach Bob Diaco said. “We’re going to move forward. We’re going to get better. We’ll learn from our mistakes and improve and execute and close out games that are very winnable and win.”
After the Huskies pulled to 20-10 on Puyol’s field goal, Diaco called for an onside kick. It went off a BYU player, but the Huskies failed to track where it was.
And the Cougars made them pay for it on the final scoring drive.
“BYU is a great team that executed its game plan well,” UConn offensive lineman Andreas Knappe said. “We didnt execute our plan well enough.”
So, the two big opportunities the Huskies had at big nonconference wins on the road have come and gone with the Huskies having lost both, including the 9-6 loss at Missouri.
Conference play is on tap the rest of the way for the Huskies, and if they aren’t better offensively, starting with the “Civil Conflict” next Saturday against UCF (3:45 p.m., ESPNU) in Orlando, Fla., things could get rough for the Huskies down the stretch.
The same problems plaguing them all season were with them 2,300 miles away from home.
The Huskies were fortunate to be tied with BYU at halftime because the Cougars defense was dominating, and the UConn offense, well, wasn’t. The Huskies were 1-for-6 on third down in the half.
UConn had seven drives, 114 yards of total offense and ran just 24 plays in the first 30 minutes compared to the Cougars, who ran off 51 plays.
The bulk of the Huskies’ yards came on their scoring drive, a six-play, 80-yard march that concluded with Shirreffs stepping up in the pocket, looking downfield, then turning to his left to find a wide-open Arkeel Newsome, who had gotten behind his man for a 30-yard touchdown reception with 1:42 left in the half.
UConn welcomed Max DeLorenzo (three receptions, 14 yards at halftime) back to the offense. He played a key role on the TD drive. BYU’s Sione Takitaki was flagged for targeting (which didn’t look like it) after a hit to Shirreffs, and that added 15 yards to the end of a first-down reception for 8 yards by DeLorenzo on a third-and-3. Takitaki was ejected.
Other than that, it was difficult for the UConn offense to get going, failing to convert on third down on its first five tries — on the heels of a 4-for-12 showing on third down against Navy the previous game.
BYU, which outgained UConn 283 to 104 in the first half, was 5-for-7 on third down at that point and should have had more points, especially when you factor in the cushion the UConn defense was allowing the BYU receivers early. That opened things underneath, clearing the way for Mangum to complete 11 of his first 12 passes on the way to going 23 of 31 for 239 yards in the half.
The Huskies defense did shut down the BYU ground game, which managed 44 yards on 19 first-half carries. Mangum was sacked twice in the half, but most of the time he had a lot of time to throw and his receivers, who had been jammed up in a 31-0 loss at Michigan last week, roamed free for receptions.
The reason UConn stayed close? The Cougars lost a fumble, threw an interception and missed two field goals in the first half. The Huskies turned Jhavon Williams’ interception into their touchdown. But they went nowhere after recovering Mangum’s fumble deep in UConn territory in the first quarter, going three and out.
The teams were knotted at 10 heading into the fourth with both teams squeezing out field goals.
UConn went up 10-7 on the heels of an interception by Jamar Summers, who was burned for a touchdown last week against Navy.
On a fouth-and-1, Mangum rolled out to his right and Summers rolled with his man too, and when Mangum let it go, Summers stepped in front of the receivers, intercepted the ball and raced 26 yards up the sideline to the BYU 37.
Bobby Puyol’s 37-yard field goal gave the Huskies the three-point lead, aided by Noel Thomas’ 4-yard catch on a fourth-and-2.
The UConn defense was still bending but not breaking. The Cougars went 63 yards in 11 plays and had to settle for a 26-yard field goal by Samson with 3:02 to go in the third to tie score at 10.
BYU had accumulated 438 yards of offense through the first three, but they also accumulated 55 yards worth of penalties, most of them coming after a big offensive play.
UConn had 129 yards of total offense through three quarters.
