No. 13 BYU makes perfect plays in time to keep unblemished record intact

Perfect doesn’t mean being perfect, but it requires having moments that turn out kind of perfect.

That’s what No. 13 BYU did in a thrilling comeback 38-35 win over Oklahoma State late Friday night in LaVell Edwards Stadium. The win lifted the Cougars to 7-0 and 4-0 in the Big 12 and they are perched atop the league standings.

The way BYU did this kind of echoes the antics of 40 years ago when a 1984 team found itself on a long win streak and had to rely on a remarkable goal-line dive by Cougar safety Kyle Morrell over the line to tackle Hawaii QB Raphel Cherry. It was a game saver.

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But this time, on this night, it was a do-or-die BYU 75-yard touchdown drive in the final 73 seconds that required three perfect plays when it counted. Like a one-time lifeline pitch to a drowning sailor.

Those BYU plays against OSU in 60 seconds were a fourth-and-8 conversion pass from Jake Retzlaff to Chase Roberts; a 27-yard Retzlaff run into OSU territory to give his offensive coordinator a bucketload of pass plays to choose from; and a 35-yard pass from Retzlaff to Darius Lassiter in which Lassiter ran past one-fourth of OSU defenders to pay dirt standing up.

Ten seconds remained in the game.

The echoes?

BYU was far from sharp Friday night and OSU, using two weeks to prepare with coach Mike Gundy, had the Cougars on the ropes.

But Retzlaff and Company were not ready to throw in the towel. They believed.

Of that 1984 run, receiver and captain Glen Kozlowski said, “Even if we made a lot of mistakes along the way, we were never worried that we were going to lose the game. It never occurred to us that we’d lose.”

Kozlowski said his team of 40 years ago was “probably naive to think that way, but sometimes being just dumb enough allows you to succeed beyond what you ever thought possible.”

This is a similar trait to what Ralph Russo of The Athletic wrote about this week in a midseason analytics of college football.

“One of my favorite things in college football is to track the arc of the surprise team, which often goes something like this: Fairly manageable early-season schedule. Win a close game or two, maybe with the benefit of some good fortune/turnover luck,” Russo wrote. “Get to about 6-0, and suddenly, that team starts believing they are as good as their record, and that confidence fuels further improvement. Among this season’s first-half surprises — defined as teams expected to finish near the bottom of the conference but now ranked — BYU appears to best fit this growth path. I don’t think this is a team that can pull a Playoff upset if it gets in, but quarterback Jake Retzlaff and the Cougars have a good-looking path to the Big 12 title game.”

What BYU pulled off Friday was exactly what Russo described.

When OSU ate up nine minutes of clock with a 17-play fourth-quarter TD drive to take the lead 35-31, things looked bleak for the Cougars, who got the ball back with 1:13 to play in the game.

“Everybody believed it. Two-minute (drill) is my thing,” said Retzlaff. “I love two-minute. The best situation I love is two-minute drill. I mean, every time we did it in camp, spring ball, I was ready to go.”

They went. All ... the ... way.

That game-winning drive will go down in school lore as one of the most dramatic ever, including the Jim McMahon-led winner over SMU in the 1980 Holiday Bowl, Beck to Harline at Utah, and the Max Hall to Austin Collie play on fourth-and-18 against Utah.

Head coach Kalani Sitake, offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick and defensive coordinator Jay Hill have miles of film from this game to preach, teach and refocus BYU’s players because they got into some foot-shooting.

Retzlaff made a bad pass to end the first half. Roderick got too cute in the first half with Hinckley Ropati’s attempt to pass in the red zone. Defenders missed tackles, lost the edge and reverted to the kind of play that cost them five losses in 2023. Players missed assignments, gap control broke down. Gundy gashed them with his game prep.

BYU’s offense ran 35 plays for 233 yards, had three turnovers and 14 points and trailed 21-14 at the half. In the second half, the Cougars ran 30 plays for 240 yards, scored three touchdowns and a field goal. That is called adjustment football, but it almost came too late.

Great teams don’t have to be perfect. None are.

But teams that win find ways to bring themselves together as one at the right time to deliver big plays, and that’s what we witnessed in BYU’s win over OSU.

On that final play, if you watch the offensive line protection of Retzlaff, there was a pure pocket that allowed him to step up, look at OSU’s cover-two coverage, find both Jojo Phillips and Lassiter and deliver a strike. Lassiter could have bobbled it, dropped it, failed to make a cutback move, stumbled, tripped or run into a defender.

He scored standing up.

When BYU faced that fourth-and-8 with the clock winding down, ESPN analytics gave OSU a 99.2% of winning the game.

BYU took that .8% chance of a win and won.

“I’m really proud of the way the guys played,” Sitake told reporters afterward.

“It wasn’t easy, but I’m proud of the fight and belief they have.”

Kozlowski can relate.

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