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Austin, Texas • Woulda, coulda and shoulda.
Having won oh-so-many close games in the Bronco Mendenhall era over the years, the BYU Cougars have usually been on the other side of those words, walking smugly away with victories — except in November against Utah — while opponents talked about the one that got away.
On an unseasonably warm night deep in the heart of Texas on Saturday, the boot was on the other foot.
The Cougars blew a 10-point halftime lead, settled for field goals instead of touchdowns one too many times, and were edged by the Longhorns 17-16 in front of a near-record crowd of 100,095 at Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium and a national television audience.
"We had a great chance to win this game," said Mendenhall. "Our execution didn't hold at critical moments, so I've got to do a better job helping them find the right execution and consistency at the critical times of the game."
Like almost the entire second half.
Having dominated the first half — but with just a 13-3 lead at the break to show for it — the Cougars were manhandled in the final 30 minutes, except for their second possession when they marched 57 yards to the Texas 15 before — stop us if you've heard this before — setting for a 32-yard Justin Sorensen field goal to take a 16-10 lead.
But by then the momentum that BYU's defense had a solid grip on in the first half was slipping away, along with the chance to pull off an upset as seven-point underdogs.
The Horns had 'em hooked.
"It's tough to lose a game like this, especially when we let someone come back like this and beat us," quarterback Jake Heaps said.
Three times the BYU offense had to punt after three plays in the second half. Another possession ended without a first down when Heaps threw a desperation heave on third-and-15 in the final five minutes that was intercepted.
Meanwhile, the Cougar defense was spending way too much time on the field, struggling to stop a two-backup-quarterback rotation of Case McCoy and David Ash that Texas was using after coach Mac Brown benched starter Garrett Gilbert. They couldn't slow the Longhorns' suddenly revived ground game, either, as freshman Malcolm Brown ripped off chunks of yardage.
"If the game came down to the end, we thought our execution would be the difference," Mendenhall said.
Instead, the Longhorns ran a gadget play for 23 yards on a crucial third-and-6 situation with just under three minutes remaining, and were then able to run out the clock.
"When we needed to, we didn't execute the way we typically do," said offensive lineman Matt Reynolds. "That's not us."
Heaps, who was 22-for-38 for 192 yards and a 6-yard touchdown pass to Ross Apo, said "simple execution errors" led to having to settle for the three field goals on drives that reached the 13-, 15- and 16-yard lines of Texas. He also took the blame for perhaps the play that started the reversal of momentum — a throw directly to Texas' Adrian Phillips and resulted in the Longhorns' only first-half points, a short field goal.
The Cougars mustered just 67 yards in the second half, as play-action passes that were working in the first half were taken away by Texas' defensive speed. The Cougars couldn't run the ball, either, 43 yards on 23 attempts.
Mendenhall wouldn't bite when it was suggested that coordinator Brandon Doman's offense got too conservative in the second half.
"I don't think [getting conservative] had anything to do with it," he said.
Still, the Cougars couldn't sustain a drive when they really had to, wilting when they took over with 6:03 remaining and going backwards until Heaps' desperation heave.
"We could have, and quite frankly, we should have, walked away with a win," Heaps said.
Now he knows how Ole Miss feels. And before that Washington, or Oklahoma, or San Diego State.
In short Texas 17, BYU 16
R BYU blows a 13-0 lead, and blows its chance to knock off a college football blueblood on its home field.