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EAST LANSING, Mich. — Maybe it’s not your grandfather’s Michigan State, or even the team that advanced to the College Football Playoff just one year ago.
But BYU went into the perennial Big Ten power, and came away with a 31-14 win Saturday afternoon in front of a stunned crowd of 74,214 at Spartan Stadium.
Taysom Hill threw for 138 yards and a touchdown, and ran for 47 yards and another score to help the Cougars (3-3) pile up 260 rushing yards in the win.
Jamaal Williams poured in 163 yards and two touchdowns, including a 62-yard carry in the fourth quarter.
After quarterback Tyler O’Connor gave the Spartans (2-3, 2-2 Big Ten) a 7-3 lead at halftime, BYU picked up all the momentum in the second half on Hill’s 4-yard strike to Colby Pearson with 4:52 left in the third quarter.
Hill got out of a fourth-down jam with a toss to Quin Ficklin, the first reception of his BYU career. The fifth-year senior quarterback then cruised into the end zone for a 12-yard rush that gave the Cougars a 10-point lead early in the fourth quarter.
Williams stretched the lead to 24-7 on an 8-yard score with eight minutes remaining, then added his second score for the final margin.
Here are a few quick thoughts on the biggest win of the Kalani Sitake era at BYU.
Jamaal Williams continues run of form
After setting a BYU single-game record for rushing yards in a 55-53 win over Toledo, Williams averaged 4.1 yards per carry in the first half.
But when the Cougars faced a fourth-and-inches on the 4-yard line in the second quarter, fullback Algie Brown got the call. The senior stuttered behind a group of white-shirted BYU linemen — and lost nearly 3 yards for the Cougars’ second turnover on downs of the first half.
The play marked BYU’s first foray into the red zone without a score of the 2016 season, and the first time the Cougars failed to gain points inside the 20-yard line since taking a knee against Utah State in the 2015 regular-season finale.
Williams finished with 163 yards against the No. 16 rush defense in the country, albeit one that was down to its fourth-string linebackers by the second half due to injuries.
Welcome back, Sae Tautu
The BYU defensive tackle had to sit for the first half after earning a targeting penalty in the win over Toledo, but he made his presence immediately known.
Tautu’s first tackle of the day came just two plays into his tenure on Holmes, and he followed up with the Cougars’ first sack on O’Connor to force a three-and-out in the Spartans’ first drive of the second half.
That set up a 13-play, 73-yard drive capped by Pearson’s 4-yard touchdown catch from Hill, and BYU took a 10-7 with 4:52 left in the third quarter.
Tautu finished with a game-high six tackles and two sacks in one half. Harvey Langi and Fred Warner also had six tackles.
Spartan struggles continue
Michigan State needed a win coming off its first 0-2 start in Big Ten play since 2007. A win over BYU wouldn’t help the Spartans in the standings, but it would restore confidence lost from a two-game losing streak.
Tyler O’Connor made the win seem attainable, too.
In the absence of defensive tackle Tomasi Laulile and limitation of Travis Tuiloma, the Michigan State quarterback faced little pressure from BYU’s front-seven on the first drive — and made the Cougars pay.
O’Connor, who struggled in a loss to Wisconsin and only rebounded slightly in an overtime loss at Indiana, completed six of his first eight passes while leading the Spartans’ opening drive to an 8-yard TD run by Gerald Holmes. The fifth-year senior was aided by Francis Bernard’s missed tackle on fourth down, but he wasn’t the only Cougar linebacker to miss a stop as Holmes carried the ball seven times for 26 yards on the TD drive.
Then, the Spartan pass game inexplicably dried up. O’Connor attempted just one pass attempt for the remainder of the half, and BYU out-gained the Spartans 106-32 before cutting the lead to 7-3 at halftime.
In the second half, O’Connor was inexplicably pulled for backup Damion Terry. The fifth-year senior finished 7-of-11 passing for 58 yards with a touchdown, while Terry completed 6-of-8 passes for 63 yards and an interception, as well as a rushing score.
