Neal Brown Shows a Ton of Respect For Struggling Pokes
STILLWATER – There haven’t been too many do or die situations in the past 10 years under Mike Gundy. Certainly a few over the years, but not with the sustained success Oklahoma State has had. However, this Saturday is a do or die situation for the Pokes. They’ve lost two-straight conference games not being able to move the ball very effectively on the ground and are in desperate need of a win.
For the sake of the season, that win needs to come against West Virginia on Saturday. The Mountaineers are 2-2 overall, with wins over Albany and Kansas, but losing to Penn State and Pitt.
They are, however, coming off an open week, meaning rest and an extra week to prepare for the Pokes. Even with the Pokes’ struggles running the ball this season, and the defense’s inability to stop big plays against Kansas State last weekend, the 2023 48-34 home loss to Oklahoma State still weighs heavily on the mind of head coach Neal Brown.
“They’re coming into this game off two losses, but if you look at what they did last year playing in the Big 12 conference championship game, they had two losses in a row too,” Neal Brown said of Oklahoma State. “They lost to South Alabama and Iowa State, and they rebounded to get all the way to the conference championship game. So, coach Gundy, and a lot of that staff, has been together for a long time and they’ve dealt with adversity before and come back. So, we fully expect to get their best. We feel like they’ll be ready to go, but they’ve played a really tough schedule.”
That was a massive performance for running back, Ollie Gordon II as he had 29 carries for 291 yards and four touchdowns.
This year through five games, Ollie has 88 carries for just 334 yards and four touchdowns.
But just like Brown said in the quote above, he still has a ton of respect for the reigning Doak Walker Award winner despite the struggles running the ball.
“You gotta play these guys saying ‘hey, we gotta figure out how we’re gonna stop Ollie Gordon.’ I think that’s the mentality, and stop’s not the right word, we gotta figure out a way to contain him. I think everything in the game plan then plays off that. They’ve given up one sack. So, to think that we’re gonna go in there and just have a bunch of sacks is probably not realistic. But we’ve got to figure out how to affect [Alan Bowman], because they threw the ball 50 times last week. They’re gonna throw the football, so we’ve got to figure out how to get some pressure and affect him understanding we may not get home all the time.”
That’s another bright spot to this Pokes’ offense. The offensive line has allowed just one sack all season long, giving Bowman ample time to get his throws off. The Mountaineers might not be the toughest team the Pokes play all season, but they have nine sacks on the season and are holding opponents to less than 260 yards passing and just over 150 yards rushing per game.
Coming off two-straight losses, the Cowboys need to show up on Saturday and play like their season is on the line because it certainly is heading into an open week.