WACO, Texas – Oklahoma State had thrust themselves into a big lead. Jaden Nixon electrified the orange crowd among the mass of gold-clad Baylor fans and using blocks from Ben Kopenski, Quinton Stewart, Kanion Williams, and other he went 99-yards with the opening kickoff to the second half and a 23-3 lead for the Cowboys. However, Baylor didn’t quit and in the matter of six minutes and 49 seconds the game was back to a one score margin at 23-17. The Bears hit on a 49-yard post to Monaray Baldwin. Then after Spencer Sanders made his one glaring mistake looking down Brennan Presley, who was the low and a hi-lo route concept in the right side, and Baylor’s Christian Morgan picked it off with a diving grab, Baylor quarterback Blake Shapen went to Baldwin again on a crossing route for a 19-yard touchdown.
“I was speaking of that up-down thing (third quarter). Obviously, they had some momentum and had scored 14 points in the matter of six-seven minutes,” Sanders said when asked about the situation in postgame. “You can’t let that stuff get you down. You have to stick to fundamentals and do what you do. Every play is a new play.”
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Johnson with the big catch down near the Baylor goal line.
In this case the new play was to throw in the teeth of what Baylor was doing to keep Sanders and the posse of Cowboys receivers from their trademark “home run” verticals.
“For sure, I love it and we’re going to continue to throw it down the field,” Dunn said of his offense. “The hard part for us today was looking for opportunities to throw it down the field because they were in cover two and they were forcing us to run the football.”
True to his word in a meeting with the radio crew back on Thursday, Dunn said they would take some shots. Sanders did to Braydon Johnson going down the far sideline and Johnson made one of several spectacular catches made by determined Oklahoma State receivers on the day. Johnson went up and over the Bears defender and then looked like he may have got the ball over the goal before his heel dragged the white out-of-bounds. He was ruled down inside the one-yard-line.
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Richardson trying to fight into the end zone in a first half goal-line situation.
Last season in the Big 12 Championship Game so many fans and media had this as a potential revenge scenario for the Cowboys, it was two Baylor goal line stands, especially the final one that saw the Cowboys finish just inches from the lead inside the final minute that forced offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn and the Cowboys staff to look for something new.
“You know the one thing is we focused more on our score zone and red zone work,” Dunn said in starting to talk about the new run package. I think we were better in the red zone that we were last year. We have a package we are hanging our hat on now. We feel pretty comfortable with it. We were successful with it at times and we had one time where we weren’t. That was tough because we really wanted to get it in. I can’t wait to look and see where the breakdown was. It really forced us to find something we were comfortable with and the kids could line up and be confident in inside the five-yard-line and inside the two-yard-line. I think we found that. Now we can play with it. Our kids are behind it and that is all that matters when you are down there.”
It is a far left or far right pro set with Dominic Richardson behind Sanders, who is under center, and a second back, on Saturday the debut of Deondre Jackson in the back to the right. The formation is strong left with the Cowboy back lined up as an attached tight end. It worked just before halftime with Sanders scoring on a quarterback sneak. It worked here with Richardson skipping through a good size hole into the end zone.
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Sanders was actually the leading rusher with 75-yards and a touchdown.
“I don’t think anybody went over 100-yards on them running the ball this year and I think we did that,” Dunn said know darn well that the offense did with 166-yards. The Cowboys outrushed Baylor by 54-yards. “I believe we eclipsed that (100-yards) today. That was what I think their game plan was to make us have to run the football. I’m not saying we were like a bunch of butcher knives running it, but we were good enough to get the W and that’s all that matters.”
Yes, they were. They also threw into the teeth of cover two and made that work as well. So now they have run the ball when the other side knew they were going to and they have passed the ball when the defense was doing all they could to prevent that. You do those things and you win a lot of football games.
