BYU 35, Colorado St. 16

11/3/2007 4:03 PM

By DOUG ALDEN
AP Sports Writer

PROVO, Utah (AP) -Max Hall passed for 355 yards and three touchdowns and Brigham Young won its 12th straight Mountain West Conference game by beating struggling Colorado State 35-16 Saturday.

Harvey Unga ran for 51 yards and had 110 yards receiving for the Cougars (6-2, 4-0), who are trying to sweep through the MWC for a second straight season. Austin Collie had eight catches for 111 yards for BYU, including a 45-yard touchdown on a defensive breakdown, one of several blunders by Colorado State in its worst season under coach Sonny Lubick.

The Rams (1-8, 1-5) failed to score two of the first three times they got inside the BYU 10-yard line.

Colorado State finished with 311 yards of offense and gained 175 of that in the fourth quarter, mostly against BYU's reserves. Hall, who completed 22 of 30 passes, passed for 44 more yards than the Rams' offensive total.

Colorado State needs to win its remaining three games just to tie the lowest win total in Lubick's 15 seasons, set last year and in 2004.

Hall was 13-for-17 in the first half and got 98 of BYU's 245 yards on two plays. Unga took a short pass 53 yards on BYU's first offensive play, leading to a 9-yard touchdown pass from Hall to Michael Reed.

After a 3-yard run by Manase Tonga put BYU up 14-3, the Cougars scored again on another short pass that turned into a big play. Collie got behind the defense and Colorado State's Zac Bryson had no chance when he leaped for Hall's pass, which landed safely in Collie's hands and Collie ran untouched for a 45-yard touchdown.

Colorado State got inside the BYU 10 three times in the first half, but got only Smith's 25-yard field goal in the second quarter out of the three chances. Smith was wide right on the opening drive, then at the end of the second quarter the Rams botched a fake field goal after getting inside the 10 again.

The Cougars read it and holder Jimmie Kaylor's pass was way over the head of Tommie Hill.

Colorado State's self-destruction continued on the very first play of the second half, when Smith's kickoff went out of bounds and BYU got the ball at the 35. The Cougars drove the remaining 65 yards and scored on Unga's 3-yard run.

The Rams' misfortune didn't let up there. Colorado State had BYU's C.J. Santiago punting from his own goal line and Santiago dropped the ball as he was stepping into his kick. But he picked up the ball and ran 15 yards for a first down.

After Myers scored Colorado State's first touchdown, BYU answered with a 65-yard drive which Hall ended with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Joe Semanoff.