After BYU's convincing 35-16 victory over Colorado State on Saturday, BYU quarterback Max Hall was asked what he saw on the field that was open.

"There were a lot of things open in that game," Hall said.

He wasn't bragging, just stating a fact.

Hall threw for 355 yards and three touchdowns in front of 64,441 fans at LaVell Edwards Stadium as he and his Cougar teammates finally went back to work after a strange October schedule. Two bye weeks (the second because of the southern California wildfires) and games against UNLV and Eastern Washington left Cougar fans -- and the players themselves -- wondering just how good they were heading into the critical month of November.

BYU (6-2 overall, 4-0 MWC) struck early and kept Colorado State out of the end zone until the fourth quarter, despite the fact that the Rams had a huge field position and time of possession advantage in the first half.

"At times we gave up too many yards rushing," said BYU sophomore defensive end Jan Jorgensen, who had three sacks. "But we did a good job making big plays to keep them from scoring points. We came up big with our back against the wall."

Four times in the first half, Colorado State (1-8, 1-5) moved into BYU territory but managed just one 25-yard Jason Smith field goal. Smith missed a 30 yarder on CSU's first possession. Ben Criddle picked off a Caleb Hanie pass to stop another threat and the senior cornerback deflected a Rams' pass on a fake field goal at the end of the first half.

"I was really proud of the way our defense managed the field position with the short fields," BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall said.

Meanwhile, the BYU offense showed no rust from its long rest by scoring on its first possession. A 53-yard Hall to Harvey Unga connection on the first play from scrimmage put BYU deep in CSU territory and six plays later, Hall threw nine yards to Michael Reed for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead. The Cougars made it 14-3 in the second quarter, answering Smith's field goal with a 3-yard Manase Tonga run. A blown coverage by Colorado State led to an easy 45-yard touchdown pass from Hall to Austin Collie and it was 21-3 at the break.

"The last couple of weeks we've been running the ball a lot, so it felt good to pass the ball around the field a little more," said Hall, who was 13-of-17 for 205 yards and two scores in the first half. "I think I was seeing the field better today."

BYU opened the second half with a quick scoring drive, the big play a 35-yard Hall to Unga connection. Unga powered in from four yards out for a 28-3 lead.

Colorado State put together a 10-play, 80-yard drive for a score to make it 28-9 early in the fourth, but the Cougars answered with another big passing play -- this one 45 yards from Hall to sophomore tight end Dennis Pitta -- and Hall connected with fullback Joe Semanoff on a 5-yard scoring pass for a 35-9 lead.

Colorado State's defense posted the final score of the day, with Jesse Nading picking off backup quarterback Brenden Gaskins' only pass of the day and returning it 31 yards for a touchdown with four minutes left.

Mendenhall admitted after the game that with a game coming up on Thursday, the goal was to get out to a lead and just work the clock on the ground. But the Rams brought an extra linebacker to the line of scrimmage, opening up the pass game.

"For the majority of the game, we executed well," Mendenhall said, "and we distributed the ball better. Max got in a rhythm and was confident, so we passed it more than we expected."

Collie, who seems to be fully healed from a nagging ankle injury, caught eight passes for 111 yards and a touchdown, and Unga also had more than 100 yards receiving (110). BYU had 355 passing yards and 106 on the ground for a total of 461.

Defensively, Kelly Poppinga (12) and Quinn Gooch (11) had double-figure tackles for the Cougars. Jorgensen added eight tackles (two for losses) to his three-sack total.

"If you look at the score, we played right with them in the second half," Colorado State coach Sonny Lubick said. "I just wish we could have made it a bit closer in the first half."

BYU has a quick turnaround with a Thursday night matchup with TCU in Provo.

• Daily Herald Sports Editor Darnell Dickson can be reached at 344-2555 or by e-mail at ddickson@heraldextra.com