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Provo • Along with being BYU's best shutdown corner, senior Robertson Daniel is developing a reputation as the Cougar most willing to tell things like they are — often cutting through the cliches and trite expressions common in post-game interviews.
For instance, Daniel took the blame for the Hail Mary completion on Thursday night that let Houston get back in the game against No. 25 BYU, a game the Cougars led 23-0 before giving up 15 unanswered points the last three minutes and 12 seconds of the first half.
"I was being selfish, that's all it was," Daniel said. "Instead of knocking the ball down, I went for the pick."
The 3-0 Cougars hung on for the 33-25 win, but the theme after the game was that they blew an excellent opportunity to pick up style points in the eyes of the country's pollsters.
That question, or a variation of it, was asked about a dozen times of coach Bronco Mendnehall or the players made available for interviews after the victory.
"I feel like regardless of who you are facing, you should want to win big," Daniel said when asked about the pressure to get blowouts, due to the perceived lack of quality opponents on BYU's schedule. "Regardless of the situation, we are going to go out every game and try to put 100 up on the scoreboard, and shut people out."
While Mendenhall and several players repeated their "win-is-a-win" mantra, Daniel was saying that BYU "made a good statement," but also acknowledged that "this wasn't our best game. I don't think we played up to our potential at all."
Indeed, it was an unsatisfying victory for a team whose schedule demands blowouts and cleaner play if it wants to make any kind of national splash. The Cougars mostly dominated, holding Houston to 10 rushing yards and 325 overall yards while racking up 523 themselves, but untimely penalties and three costly turnovers kept the game close, perhaps giving voters reason to doubt.
"I was discouraged a little bit today that we weren't cleaner at critical times. So yeah, we have to work on it," Mendenhall said. "We are playing really hard, we are playing physical, we are making enough plays. But a coach always thinks you can improve. … At some point we've got to get those [penalties] reined in at a higher level. I have to get those reined in."
BYU quarterback Taysom Hill became the first player in the FBS this season to pass for 200 yards and rush for 150 or more - only five players did it last year - but even he acknowledged the Cougars "could have, and should have" played better in front of a mildly disappointing crowd of 57,630 and a national television audience when the only other viewing competition was an NFL game.
"Offensively, our mentality is to score as much as we possibly can. But I don't feel the need to [blow opponents out to impress voters]," Hill said. "I feel the need to score and put up a lot of points as an offense. But as long as we are winning football games, I am happy with that."
Hill looked like he was a little too amped early, overthrowing several open receivers and completing just three of his first 10 passes. A screen pass that Jordan Leslie turned into a 35-yard gain seemed to settle Hill down, and he was brilliant the last half of the first quarter and most of the second.
Hill's momentum was stopped, though, when BYU took over with 3:05 remaining in the first half with a 23-3 lead. His throw hit a defender's helmet and bounced high into the air before landing in the arms of UH defensive tackle Joey Mbu. The red Cougars turned the turnover into a touchdown, but only after having one called back by a questionable offensive pass-interference penalty and the drive prolonged by Manoa Pikula's late hit after a third-down stop.
"It was kind of a freak thing," Hill said of the interception.
Now the Cougars turn their attention to Virginia, which beat them 19-16 last year. The Sept. 20 game at LaVell Edwards Stadium (1:30 p.m.) will be carried by ESPN or ESPNU, but will be just another game on a crowded television docket that day.
"We have a really good team. We have a quiet confidence going, and it has carried over and will continue to carry over into the rest of the season," Hill said.
Twitter: @drewjay —
Virginia at BYU
O Sept. 20, 1:30 p.m.
TV • ESPN or ESPNU