BOISE, Idaho – BYU football came up short on final play from two yards out, falling to Boise State 21-16 Saturday night at Albertsons Stadium.

Postgame Notes & Quotes
Box Score
Photo Gallery

BYU got the ball back with just over two minutes to play from its own 17-yard line. On the first play from scrimmage Zach Wilson dumped a screen pass over the middle to Matt Hadley who took it 59 yards to put the Cougars in business at the Boise State 24-yard line.

Two plays later, BYU was at the five yards from the end zone with 58 seconds remaining. The Cougars had four tries but came up short, with Wilson getting sacked to end the game. 

For the second week in a row, BYU outgunned the opponent in total yards but not in the points column. The Cougars posted 388 total yards to Boise State’s 327. The Broncos forced three turnovers while BYU nabbed two takeaways. 

Hadley had 39 yards rushing to go along with his 59-yard catch and run. Talon Shumway led the team with 62 receiving yards with a long of 42 yards. Wilson scored the only touchdown of the night for the Cougars while going 18 of 27 for 252 yards. He also picked up 36 rushing yards.

Skyler Southam kicked three field goals, connecting from 43, 41 and 26 yards in the game. 

Sione Takitaki led BYU with 11 total tackles including four solo stops. Corbin Kaufusi and Trajan Pili both tallied sacks while Michael Shelton recorded his first interception of the season.

First Quarter Review
Bosie State scored the first points of the game on their first drive. The BYU defense held the Bronco’s offense to the one-yard line for two plays with tackles from Merril Taliauli and Sione Takitaki. However, a rush from Alex Mattison on fourth down put the Bronco’s on the board 7-0 with 9:27 left in the first quarter.  On BSU’s next drive, AJ Richardson caught a seven-yard pass from quarterback Brett Rypien to put the Broncos up 14-0 to close out of the first quarter.

Second Quarter Review
At the beginning of the second quarter, BYU put its first points on the board as Skyler Southam kicked a 26-yard field goal, making the score 14-3 with 9:08 left on the clock.

On the next Boise State series, Rypien threw an interception to Michael Shelton who returned the ball 31 yards putting Cougars in great field position. A nine-yard reception from Dylan Collie put BYU on the five-yard line but back-to-back sacks pushed the Cougars back 20 yards.

Southam connected on a 43-yard field goal to make the score 14-6 going into halftime.

• Michael Shelton recorded his first interception of the season and third of his career which he returned for a career high of 31 yards

Third Quarter Review
Only two minutes into the third quarter, Rhett Sandlin fell on a fumble giving the momentum back to the BYU offense. A 42-yard reception by Shumway put BYU on the Boise State 10-yard line setting the Cougars up to get into the end zone. Two plays later, Wilson ran it in from four yards out to bring the score within one point at 14-13 at the 11:46 time mark.

Boise State answered back with an eight-minute drive that ended with a touchdown. Mattison rushed for three yards on the score, tallying his second touchdown of the game putting the score at 21-13 with just under two minutes left in the third quarter.

• Rhett Sandlin grabbed his first career fumble recovery which ultimately set up the Cougars to score a touchdown
• After Corbin Kaufusi’s sack in the third quarter he now totals 7.5 on the season and 16 in his career

Fourth Quarter Review
A penalty and another sack forced the Cougars to kick another field goal as Southam connected on a 41-yarder putting the Cougars down by five with 6:32 left in the game.

BYU had one more drive to get into the end zone for the win. Hadley started out the drive with a 59-yard catch from Wilson to bring the Cougars to the Broncos' 24-yard line. With seven second left on the clock, Wilson attempted to run for the end zone but was ultimately sacked on the 3-yard as the clock ran out and BYU fell 21-16. 

• Matt Hadley tallies a career long reception of 59 yards, going for Wilson's longest pass of his career as well 

The Cougars hit the road again to take on UMass on Saturday Nov. 10. Kickoff is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. EST with a live broadcast available on  BYUtv, Eleven Sports and NESN. A live stream is available on UMass All-Access with radio coverage on BYU Radio Sirius XM 143/89.1 FM HD2, BYU Sports Network and KSL 1160 AM/102.7 FM.

PROVO, Utah – BYU football will be on the road at Boise State on Saturday, Nov. 3 at 8:15 p.m. MDT. The game will be televised live from Albertsons Stadium on ESPN2. 

Live radio coverage can be found on the BYU Sports Network two hours prior to kickoff with Greg Wrubell, which will be broadcast on BYU Radio Sirius XM 143/89.1 FM HD2, KSL 1160 AM/102.7 FM, BYUCougars.com/LiveRadio, BYURadio.org and on the BYU Cougars app, BYU Radio app and KSL app.  

BYUtv will provide pregame and postgame coverage with Countdown to Kickoff starting 7:00 p.m. MDT. Postgame coverage runs for half an hour or more after the game depending on the timing of the game.

BYU (4-4) vs. Boise State (6-2)
Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018
Kickoff: 8:15 p.m. MDT
Boise, Idaho
Albertsons Stadium (36,387)

BYU Game Notes
Boise State Game Notes

The following quotes are from Monday's media availability. 

Head coach Kalani Sitake

On lessons learned against NIU
I know there were a lot of things that were disappointing from last week’s performance, but we need to be more consistent as a team, and that’s my job as a head coach. We need to find a way to be consistent. If you look at the season, we’ve played some really good games and played some really bad ones. Even within the game we’ve shown some really good things, some good drives and then it’s just not consistent enough. What I need to do as head coach is find a way to get our team to be consistent, because we have really good players and they do everything we ask them to. They work hard, so really I need to do a better job at making sure our team, our program and our results on the field are more consistent. That will give us a better chance for success.

That being said, I understand frustrations that are out there from fans and their expectations and they’re valid. My focus is entirely on finding a way to keep our team consistent, getting the results that we need and the results I think our players deserve. That’s going to be the focus and I’m trying to find a way to have results and give our guys what they deserve for how hard they’ve worked.

On improvements going into Boise State
I think we need to have an aggressive mindset and show a little more confidence in our guys. I would just like to see more points on the board and more disruption on defense. I’ll probably say that no matter what the score is after the Boise game. We could probably have success and I could say the same thing next Monday.

On wide receiver play
They were inconsistent, just like everything else that I’ve said. Our team hasn’t been consistent, that’s the biggest issue right now. It’s not the fault of the players, it’s on me. I need to find a way they can play really well, feel comfortable and utilize their skill set. We have some guys that can run, that can catch, that can block, that can throw and can tackle, and they’re physical. So we’ll build around that and devise a plan where all our guys can have success, regardless of whether they’re a freshman or a senior.

Wide receiver Micah Simon
On establishing more consistency
Coach Sitake puts a lot of the blame on himself but at the end of the day, we’re the ones out there playing. We’re the ones that have to make the plays happen. With the other captains, we take it upon ourselves to lead our guys and make sure that the confidence is still high so everyone can go out there and make plays. We’ll have meetings later on with our coaches and figure out what’s next.

On adjusting to making mistakes as a senior vs. as a freshman
As you get older, you’ve been in all different types of situations throughout the course of the games. You can figure out how to bounce back after mistakes. As a freshman, it’s maybe more difficult to do that. Our coaches do a great job of trying to teach consistency and having everybody own up to their mistakes. Things happen but there’s always time to bounce back.

On the freshman playing
The young guys playing have done a lot of great things for us. They’ve really stepped up and taken on a bigger role than maybe they thought they’d have in their first season. Our coaches have gotten those guys ready throughout fall camp and practices during the season. What they’ve done has been great. They do make mistakes but as a leader I have their back, telling them that I’m right there with them and they’ll bounce back.

Tight end Matt Bushman
On being pushed into different roles in the tight end group
"My freshman year the same thing kind of happened. You always have depth and then the tight end position is always a physical spot. You do a lot of things. You’re blocking linemen in the trenches and then you’re running out and exposing your body over the middle and taking hits, so there’s always something new. 

On the limitations in the tight end group
Things happen with the switch of the quarterback also. Our offense didn’t switch, but there were switches to game plans. Zach Wilson can run the ball more, he made plays last game against Hawaii. You run more RPO’s and you switch it up with the defense when there’s another threat on the field with a runner like Zach. Maybe we won’t have two tight ends in as much, but that just means that we have a receiver out there. You just have to play to your strengths as injuries happen or with changes to the game plan. As tight-ends, we feel confident that we know the scheme and that we know the offense. We know what we have to do and we’re always trying to progress and get better and I think we have over the season.

Linebacker Isaiah Kaufusi
On adjusting to his role
I feel pretty good and confident in my play right now. I’ve been focused on improving myself in every aspect of my game. For as long as I’ve been playing, I’ve always been trying to push myself and improve to help the team. I feel pretty confident right now. I feel confident in my play. There’s still a lot of things I need to work on and a lot of things that came up in this last game that I need to fix. Overall, I’m feeling confident and good about my play. I’m feeling confident in our defense.

On balancing the success of stops with the failure of getting big plays like turnovers
That’s tough. When it comes to turnovers and takeaways you want to do your job. That’s really what it's about and that’s why we get so many stops because everyone’s doing their job. Takeaways are almost like low gambles. You’re stretching yourself and doing your job but also being able to read a little quicker and faster. Coach Kalani has preached to us to do our jobs and if the takeaway presents itself, go get it. It’s kind of hard to balance between doing your job and whether you should make the big play.

On waiting for the targeting call to be made
That was honestly my first time. I came up, made the play and when I popped up I saw the referee throw the flag.  I was thinking “Oh, man.” I’m replaying the play in my head. I did duck my head and I was just thinking I’m a goner. I’m not sure what’s going on and my perspective is a little different than everyone else's. I took my gloves off because I wasn’t sure that I was going to continue playing. It was a little bit nerve racking and I apologized to the quarterback. Then I huddled with the team and told them that I loved them and to keep playing hard. Luckily it worked out for me.