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PROVO — Another week, another BYU football game that went down to the wire.
This one took a few extra periods.
Tanner Balderee scored his first career touchdown on a 25-yard pass from Taysom Hill on the first play of double overtime, and the Cougars held on for a 28-21 double-overtime win in front of 62,184 fans Friday night at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
BYU had not won a game in overtime since 2009, when the Cougars defeated Utah 26-23 on Max Hall’s TD strike to tight end Andrew George.
Bulldogs quarterback Nick Fitzgerald hurdled a linebacker into the end zone for a touchdown dive from the 2-yard line to cap the first overtime series. Taysom Hill, who threw for 165 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 53 yards and a score, countered with a quarterback sneak to tie the game at 21-21 for BYU (4-3).
Mississippi State (2-4) opened the scoring a few plays after BYU’s special teams extended a Bulldog drive with a penalty. Fitzgerald rolled out and found Keith Mixon with a 44-yard TD pass, and the redshirt freshman hustled down the west sideline for a 7-0 advantage.
Hill responded with a 1-yard TD toss to tight end Hunter Marshall with 48 seconds left in the first quarter to tie the game at a score apiece. Fitzgerald re-took the lead with a 1-yard touchdown scamper with 3:54 left in the half.
Hill also threw his first interception since a Sept. 24 loss to West Virginia, tossing into tight coverage and barely saving Mark McLaurin’s attempt at a pick-six with his own tackle.
Moroni Laulu-Pututau tied the game with a diving 15-yard touchdown catch to open the fourth quarter, 14-14.
Here are three quick thoughts from the closest and BYU’s first overtime win in seven years.
Jamaal Williams, BYU all-timer
Williams became BYU’s program leader in career rushing yards with his first run in overtime, a 9-yard gain. The fifth-year senior passed current BYU graduate assistant Harvey Unga, who now ranks No. 2 with 3,455 yards.
Williams entered the game with 3,392 yards, needing just 64 yards to eclipse the record held by Unga. He finished the game with 76 net yards on 26 carries.
“I’m happy-happy, and not happy-sad," Williams said. "I’m happy to get (the record). Kudos go to almost everybody out there, for my linemen and everybody.
“You can’t do it without the line, or everybody and their effort. "
Williams finished with 38 yards on 11 carries in the first half, averaging just 3.5 yards per carry with a long run of 8 yards. He averaged 2.6 yards on 22 carries through the end of regulation, when he finished with 58 net yards — 6 shy of Unga’s previous all-time mark.
Curtis Brown now ranks No. 3 in school history with 3,221 rushing yards, followed by Jamal Willis (2,970) and Lakei Heimuli (2,710).
Welcome back, defense
Butch Pau’u made his return to the middle of the BYU linebacker corps in the second quarter, notching his first tackle in nearly three games with a stop with 8 minutes left in the half.
Troy Warners also returned to action while recovering from a hamstring injury.
Pau’u finished with nine tackles for the Cougars. Buoyed by the return of his fellow linebacker, Francis Bernard finished with a team-high 15 tackles — including 13 solo stops — and a tackle for loss.
Sae Tautu led the way with four sacks, including a big drop in double overtime. Kai Nacua recorded his 13th career interception, and Micah Hannemann added another pick for the Cougars.
“The defense did our thing," Nacua said. "Everybody did their assignments to the best they could, and we fought to the end.”
Not-so-special teams
Yes, BYU’s special teams have been demonstrably improved since assistant head coach and special teams coordinator Ed Lamb returned to Provo from Southern Utah. But the coverage teams took a small step back in the first half against Mississippi State.
The group had a pair of penalties in the opening quarter, including a 12-man penalty on the Bulldogs’ second drive that directly led to the opening touchdown and a 7-0 deficit for the home team.
Rhett Almond missed a field goal in the first half, and he was benched after the break in favor of sophomore Andrew Mikkelsen.
The lone bright spot was Jonny Linehan, who averaged 48.2 yards per punt that included a season-long 62-yard boot to help the Cougars keep pace in an anemic field-position battle through the second half.
