As the saying goes, "Know your role."

In BYU's 21-3 victory over New Mexico on Saturday, tight end Andrew George knew exactly what his role was as he scored the Cougars' first two touchdowns of the game.

"I'm not a No. 1 guy and I know that," George said. "Dennis (Pitta) is our guy and he is the one that is going to make the majority of the plays, but defenses are going key on him and that's going to leave opportunities for me to make plays."

Trailing 3-0 in the second quarter, and with the ball resting on the 1-yard line, BYU quarterback Max Hall changed the play call at the line and found the 6-foot-5 George in the back of the end zone.

"I think we had a run play called," George said, "and Max checked to a play that we were familiar with, but we hadn't practiced all week. Max saw something that the defense was doing and called a play that he knew would work."

The touchdown reception equaled his season total, but George wasn't done.

In the third quarter, George was open in the end zone again, this time from 11 yards out. George ran a low corner route underneath the safety for the easy catch.

"I'm glad that Max has trust in me to throw me the ball," he said. "I know that I'm not going to have amazing yards or touchdowns, it's just nice to make plays and contribute to our offense."

BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall was proud of George's effort in practice as well as one the field.

"I'm really happy for him," Mendenhall said. "It's always gratifying as a coach to see guys that work hard and are deserving to have success on game day.

"There are some players in our program that are certainly capable and certainly have great potential and certainly are willing and eager to play; but maybe their number or opportunity hasn't come up enough yet to have that extra reward on the field on game day. I think that Andrew would fall into that category."

George had three catches for 22 yards, including the two touchdowns.

• Collie's career day keeps him moving up the charts: Cougar wide receiver Austin Collie has proven to be a force at the wideout position, but against the Lobos he set a career mark with 162 receiving yards on nine catches with one touchdown.

He also took over seventh place in career receiving yards in the BYU receiving record books, passing Chris Smith. The junior has totaled 2,397 yards as a Cougar, 30 yards more than the 2,367 tallied by the former great Cougar tight end.

Collie passed Smith on an 18-yard reception on a fourth-and-4 in the fourth quarter, keeping a drive alive that ended in the junior catching an 8-yard touchdown pass.

It's the second consecutive game that Collie has advanced up the list. He passed former Cougar great Glen Kozlowski last week against Utah State.

• Turning takeaways into touchdowns: The Cougars forced two turnovers -- a fumble and an interception -- but for the first time this year failed to convert any of those into points.

BYU had taken the ball away 16 times and turned those into 76 points -- 10 touchdowns, including three by the defense, and two field goals. Those points off of turnovers made a big difference in blowouts over UCLA, Wyoming and Utah State.

• Keeping opposing rushers grounded: The Lobos rushed for 130 total yards -- 162 yards not counting the late sacks, but only 57 yards in the second half -- but it took three runners to get to that mark.

The BYU defense has yet to allow a runner to gain 100 yards in a contest this season. The last running back to get to the century mark against the Cougars was UCLA's Chris Markey in the 2007 Las Vegas Bowl (117 yards).

• New Mexico ends BYU first-score streak: The Cougars had scored the first points in every game this season until the Lobos broke through in the second quarter with a 27-yard field goal by James Aho with 11:40 left to go.

They had scored first in 27 of the last 30 games before Saturday and New Mexico had won 14 straight games when scoring first.

The last team to put points on the board before BYU was also UCLA, who kicked a field goal in the first quarter of last year's bowl game.

• Fruitless first: For the first time in the 2008 season, the Cougars were held scoreless during the first 15 minutes of play. New Mexico did it by holding the ball for 11 minutes.

Before Saturday's contest, BYU had scored 59 points in the opening period in the previous five games.

• Extra points: Senior safety David Tafuna recorded the first interception of his career off a tipped ball late in the third quarter. BYU has totaled six picks in six games ... temperature at game time was 39 degrees under mostly cloudy skies but there was no precipitation to affect play on the field ... BYU won the coin toss and elected to defer, having won the toss in five of the six games this season ... the alumni "Y" flag was carried out by Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Chris Hoke. BYU linebacker Matt Bauman carried out the team flag ... the announced attendance was 64,105, the 10th consecutive sellout at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

• Jared Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@heraldextra.com. Phillip Morgan can be reached at pmorgan@heraldextra.com.