Frogs pad status by ending BYU’s streak

FORT WORTH, Texas – Brigham Young University can stop worrying about reaching the Bowl Championship Series. Texas Christian made sure of that in a twist of revenge.

Andy Dalton threw for two touchdowns, receiver Jeremy Kerley became a running threat and TCU beat the ninth-ranked Cougars 32-7 Thursday night, snapping their 16-game winning streak that was the longest in major college football.

When the Cougars were last in Fort Worth two years ago, they snapped TCU’s 13-game winning streak that was then the nation’s longest.

BYU (6-1, 2-1 Mountain West) never had a chance this time, not with Kerley, a former high school quarterback, taking direct snaps and running all over the place for the Horned Frogs (7-1, 4-0) while TCU’s top-ranked defense smothered the Cougars.

Max Hall, who had been sacked only twice over the first six games, was sacked four times before halftime, and twice more after that. His fumble set up TCU’s first touchdown and he threw an interception that led to another score by the Frogs – all in the first quarter. He finished 22 of 42 for 274 yards with two interceptions.

With the first BCS standings coming out Sunday, the only undefeated team left in the Mountain West is No. 14 Utah (7-0), with an eight-game winning streak is tied with No. 3 Penn State and No. 7 Texas Tech for the longest in the country.

After missing the last two games with a knee injury, Dalton threw a 25-yard touchdown to Jimmy Young on his first pass. He added a 12-yarder to Walter Bryant just before halftime, as the receiver made a nifty grab and got a foot down in the back corner of the end zone for a 23-0 lead.

Dalton finished 12 of 19 for 170 yards and Kerley ran nine times for 77 yards. Jerry Hughes had four sacks for TCU.

Austin Collie matched the MWC record with his fifth consecutive 100-yard receiving game (six catches for 116 yards) for the Cougars, who had also won 18 consecutive conference games, a streak that began with their 2006 victory at TCU.