PROVO, Utah – Jake Retzlaff threw a 35-yard touchdown pass to Darius Lassiter with 10 seconds left and No. 13 BYU remained undefeated, outlasting Oklahoma State 38-35 on Friday night.
Retzlaff kept the drive alive with an 8-yard pass to Chase Roberts on fourth-and-7, and set up the deciding play with a 27-yard run up the middle. Lassiter eluded a pair of tacklers for the go-ahead score for the Cougars (7-0, 4-0 Big 12).
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“It’s magical. It’s spiritual,” Retzlaff said. “How can you not be romantic about this game?”
Retzlaff threw for 218 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for 81 yards and a score.
Lassiter had a career-high 129 yards on six catches, topping 100 receiving yards for the second time in three games. LJ Martin ran for a career-high 120 yards and two touchdowns.
They all helped BYU average 7.4 yards per play. The Cougars scored on all four second-half drives.
“Those plays don’t happen by accident,” Retzlaff said. “We were doing that stuff in our walk through this morning. We were running through those plays, and we ran almost all of the plays we run through in those situations and the guys did it really well.”
Oklahoma State (3-4, 0-4) lost its fourth straight game despite gaining 421 yards and averaging 6.4 yards per play.
The Cowboys took the lead on Alan Bowman’s 6-yard pass to Brennan Presley with 1:13 left. That capped a 17-play drive that chewed nearly 8 1/2 minutes.
“It was uncharacteristic of what you see from our defense,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. ”I thought we freelanced a little bit for the sake of trying to make the big play.”
Bowman also caught a scoring pass in the second half. Ollie Gordon II ran for 107 yards and two touchdowns and caught a TD pass for Oklahoma State.
Cowboys starting quarterback Garret Rangel left with an injury just before halftime.
BYU trailed at halftime for just the second time this season before scoring on back-to-back third-quarter drives to take a 28-21 lead.
The Cougars ran seven straight plays, culminating in Martin’s 8-yard rush, to even the score. Then, after Tommy Prassas caught a diving interception at the Oklahoma State 44, BYU took the lead on Keelan Marion’s 34-yard touchdown catch.
The Cowboys tied it at 28 when Bowman caught a 16-yard pass on a trick play to open the fourth quarter.
BYU carved out a 14-7 lead a minute into the second quarter when Tanner Wall returned an interception 51 yards to set up a 1-yard run from Martin a play later.
Gordon had back-to-back touchdowns to put Oklahoma State in front. He it on a 17-yard catch where he hurdled over a defender on the way to the end zone. Then Gordon ran for a 2-yard go-ahead score with 32 seconds left before halftime.
“You rush the ball a little bit and it opens up and kind of spreads the defense out and gives you opportunities to do other things,” Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said. “Our concepts were excellent, the plan that we had was good, and it worked and players executed.”
THE TAKEAWAY
Oklahoma State: The Cowboys rediscovered their dormant running attack, ripping off 269 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. An inability to consistently stop BYU’s offense canceled out those gains.
BYU: An uncharacteristic spat of turnovers and sloppy run tackling put the Cougars in tough spots through the bulk of four quarters. It almost undermined BYU totaling 473 yards on offense.
POLL IMPLICATIONS
A dramatic victory will likely allow the Cougars to move up in the AP Top 25 Poll on Sunday.
UP NEXT
Oklahoma State: At Baylor next Saturday.
BYU: At UCF next Saturday.
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