Jake Retzlaff connected with Darius Lassiter for a 35-yard touchdown pass with just 10 seconds remaining, helping No. 13 BYU stay unbeaten by defeating Oklahoma State 38-35 on Friday night.
Retzlaff kept the drive going with an 8-yard pass to Chase Roberts on a crucial fourth-and-7 play and set up the winning touchdown with a 27-yard run. Lassiter dodged two defenders to score for the Cougars (7-0, 4-0 Big 12).
“It’s magical. It’s spiritual,” Retzlaff said. “How can you not be romantic about this game?”
He threw for 218 yards and two touchdowns, and he also rushed for 81 yards and a touchdown.
Lassiter recorded a career-high 129 yards on six catches, reaching over 100 receiving yards for the second time in three games. LJ Martin ran for a career-best 120 yards and two touchdowns.
These contributions helped BYU average 7.4 yards per play, and they scored on all four of their drives in the second half.
“Those plays don’t happen by accident,” Retzlaff said. “We were doing that stuff in our walkthrough this morning. We were running through those plays, and we ran almost all of the plays we practiced in those situations, and the guys executed them really well.”
Oklahoma State (3-4, 0-4) lost its fourth game in a row, despite gaining 421 yards and averaging 6.4 yards per play.
The Cowboys briefly took the lead with Alan Bowman’s 6-yard pass to Brennan Presley with 1:13 left, completing a 17-play drive that took 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 touchdown pass in the second half. Ollie Gordon II ran for 107 yards and two touchdowns and caught a touchdown pass for Oklahoma State.
Cowboys starting quarterback Garret Rangel left the game with an injury just before halftime.
BYU trailed at halftime for only the second time this season but scored on back-to-back drives in the third quarter to take a 28-21 lead.
The Cougars ran seven plays in a row, finishing with Martin’s 8-yard run to tie the game. After that, Tommy Prassas made a diving interception at the Oklahoma State 44-yard line, allowing BYU to take the lead with Keelan Marion’s 34-yard touchdown catch.
The Cowboys evened the score at 28 when Bowman caught a 16-yard pass on a trick play at the start of the fourth quarter.
BYU took a 14-7 lead just a minute into the second quarter when Tanner Wall returned an interception for 51 yards, setting up a 1-yard run by Martin on the next play.
Gordon scored two touchdowns in a row to put Oklahoma State ahead. He caught a 17-yard pass while jumping over a defender on his way to the end zone. Then, he ran for a 2-yard touchdown with just 32 seconds left in the first half.
“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.”
