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Miami

In a tucked-away corner of the bowl world, on a Monday afternoon in front of a modest crowd, BYU and Memphis staged a game that deserves to be remembered for all of its entertainment value and drama from start to finish.

With any other ending, the inaugural Miami Beach Bowl might have gone down as one of college football's best games of December or January.

Everything that unfolded in BYU's 55-48 double-overtime loss at Marlins Park will make the Cougars wonder about so many moments that could have changed the outcome. The Tigers will savor all the clutch plays they made.

The rest of the world will remember only what happened after the game ended, and that's too bad.

Label this the unintended consequence of playing football in a baseball stadium.

The brawl that ensued after Memphis' clinching interception clearly was a by-product of the Marlins Park configuration, with most fans seated behind the BYU bench. So when a bunch of the Tigers ran toward the stands to celebrate, they went right through many of BYU's players.

That's the context. The blow-by-blow account will blame both sides, with the Cougars generally retaliating after the Tigers started an incident that tarnished their victory.

Like it or not, though, this will be the lasting image of BYU's season, with safety Kai Nacua allowing the winning touchdown pass — and later, after sustaining an apparent cut under his eye, fighting back with a sucker punch.

It all could have ended so differently for BYU.

The Cougars could have won this game when linebacker Zac Stout returned an interception for a go-ahead touchdown.

Or when a fourth-down pass was wrestled away from BYU safety Skye PoVey by a Memphis receiver.

Or when Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch was desperately scrambling and searching for a receiver in the end zone on another fourth-down play.

Or when the Tigers were knocked back so far in overtime that their kicker had to try a 54-yard field goal, just to extend the game.

None of those plays went BYU's way.

The Cougars (8-5) took their swings at Marlins Park, with defensive coordinator Nick Howell's aggressive approach nearly producing the one key play that could have turned the outcome in BYU's favor. This game seemingly was lost and won so many times, as the Cougars' whole season conveniently repeated itself in 60 minutes — and beyond.

The team that won four games, lost four and then won another four in the regular season concluded the year with a bitter defeat, after the defense came so close to reproducing its last stand at California in late November.

And the Cougars have to live with this feeling. If they're going to take pride in a 10-year run of bowl appearances and emphasize winning these games, they have to deal with all of their missed opportunities, coach Bronco Mendenhall's timeout strategy and the second-guessing that inevitably follows this loss.

BYU twice rallied from 10 points down, with huge assists from the defense's three interceptions. So this easily could have turned into a story of redemption for Howell and his defensive players, such as Stout. Imagine if his pick-six had stood as the winning score, after all the twists and turns of his BYU career, from the commitment press conference to his suspension after an off-campus incident.

These endings never write themselves, though. And this game just kept going.

In overtime, BYU kicker Trevor Samson kicked a 45-yard field goal, and the Cougar defense almost made it stand as the game-winner. Bronson Kaufusi's sack, Alani Fua's tackle for loss and an incompletion forced Memphis' Jake Elliott to try a 54-yarder. He drilled the kick, just when the Cougars, Stout said, were "kind of feeling like that was it."

That was not it.

Packaged with the emotional win at Cal, a bowl victory would have enabled the Cougars to feel good about their season. Instead, they're stuck with this ending, and all that comes with it.

Twitter: @tribkurt