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PROVO, Utah (AP) -- Max Hall passed for 305 yards and a touchdown and Brigham Young's defense came up with two sacks in an 11-second span to seal a 27-22 victory over TCU on Thursday night.
The Cougars (7-2, 5-0) won their 13th straight Mountain West Conference game and remained on pace for a second straight unbeaten run through the league with a final defensive stand.
The Horned Frogs (5-5, 3-3) made BYU fans sweat a little during the crisp fall night with a 94-yard scoring drive that cut the lead to 27-22 with 3:49 remaining. The Frogs kicked off and the defense held, forcing BYU to punt after a tipped pass was overturned on review and had the ball at its own 32 with 2:39 left in the game.
But David Nixon sacked Andy Dalton on second down, then on fourth-and-8, Bryan Kehl pounced on Dalton as he lost his footing with 1:58 left. The Cougars ran out the clock and won for the 10th straight time at home.
Harvey Unga ran for two touchdowns and Austin Collie had four catches for 109 yards for the Cougars.
Chris Manfredini kicked three field goals for TCU and Dalton was 18-of-30 for 165 yards and a touchdown and one crucial interception, which set up an easy touchdown for BYU early in the third quarter. He was pulled in the third quarter, but put back in for the fourth and nearly led the Frogs to a comeback.
Dalton's 7-yard touchdown pass to Bart Johnson with 3:49 remaining got the Frogs within a touchdown and gave TCU a chance to win it after the defense stopped the Cougars.
BYU stopped TCU three times on fourth downs in the second half and the defense also set up a score on TCU's only turnover of the game.
On the first series of the second half, Dalton threw a pass right to BYU linebacker Kelly Poppinga, who returned it 22 yards to the 3. Unga scored on the next play to put BYU up 24-9 with 13:58 left in the third quarter.
TCU brought in Marcus Jackson for the next series and Jackson led the Frogs up the field. On third down at the 19, Jackson kept it on a run up the middle and lost the ball when he was tackled at the 5. BYU recovered in the end zone, but the call was reversed because Jackson was down when he fumbled.
Marcus Brock scored on a 1-yard run that cut the lead to 24-15 after the 2-point conversion failed.
BYU's defense came up with another key stop when TCU went for it on fourth-and-1 at the BYU 32 and Aaron Brown got knocked back a yard. The Cougars got the ball back and drove to the 11 for Mitch Payne's 29-yard field goal, which put BYU ahead 27-15 with 13:06 left.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
