Landover, Md.
If this was any kind of audition or showcase for BYU's Big 12 hopes … it was as crazy and undulating and exciting and, at times, troubled as the entire bid process has been, maybe more so. At the end, after the Cougars had whittled down a formerly lopsided game to 35-32, seen it fall away after a West Virginia interception and regained after a Mountaineer fumble, the whole thing at FedEx Field came down to a final possession.
Again.
You saw it. You've seen it in other games.
This time, the Cougars took the ball in the shadow of their own goalposts with little time left, and next thing, after already weathering those other mistakes — their own fumbles, their own pick-6, and that other interception that killed an earlier chance at going ahead — they suffered what has become their calling card — heartbreak — in the last seconds.