Spencer Sanders Played Like Seasoned Veteran in 58-44 Season Opening Win

STILLWATER – It was a big offensive night for Oklahoma State as the Cowboys rolled to a 58-44 win over Central Michigan.

Redshirt senior quarterback Spencer Sanders had a monster first half as he become just the second quarterback in Big 12 history to throw for at least 300 yards, three passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns in a half, joining Patrick Mahomes who did so in 2016.

His first half stats? He went 20-of-29 for 313 yards and three touchdowns through the air, while recording five carries for 49 yards and two touchdowns.

“I just take it one play at a time,” Sanders said of his performance. “I’m not really too concerned with stats right now; I’m just worrying about what everybody can do to help my team.” 

OSU Stats and Information provided a stat a few minutes into the fourth quarter that further shows just how impressive Sanders has been recently.

“From halftime of the Fiesta Bowl through halftime of the Central Michigan game, Spencer Sanders completed 43 of 59 attempts for 549 yards and five touchdowns through the air and had 16 carries for 139 yards and two scores rushing.”

Spencer finished his day with an impressive 406 passing yards, a career-high, and four touchdowns through the air, as well as nine carries for 57 yards and two touchdowns, a performance that drew Heisman talk from a few national media members. It’s just the first game of the season, but still.

"Just his experience,” OSU head coach Mike Gundy said of Sanders. “It's so difficult to get young people ready to play without going out and making mistakes and playing. Spencer is a really good player now guys, I'm telling you. He's good at what he does, and you saw what happens when you give him a little protection. Our guys protected him good tonight and you see what happens. Sometimes people kind of nag on him a little bit, but that's usually when he's not protected very well. But if you go back to when he was playing his redshirt freshman and sophomore years, those of you that have been covering us forever, he didn't look anything like that. He just hadn't had the experience. Now, it's become second nature for him, and he gets it and he has a feel for it, so that's a big advantage for us."

After a couple of drives to figure things out, the Cowboys seemingly settled in about five minutes into the fourth quarter as Sanders found a streaking John Paul Richardson for 45 yards and the touchdown.

Things settled down in the scoring department as Lamont Bishop recorded a safety with :55 left in the first half following a booming punt by Tom Hutton, which was downed at the two-yard line.

The following the drive, Spencer led the Pokes down the field and capped the drive off with a 17-yard touchdown run.

That started a streak of five-straight drives with touchdowns. Sanders found redshirt senior receiver Braydon Johnson for a 13-yard touchdown, followed by a 17-yard pass to redshirt freshman Jaden Nixon for a touchdown. He then found pay dirt on a 23-yard rush.

Dominic Richardson capped the half off with a one-yard touchdown rush.

There’s still a lot of football left to be played this season and a lot of kinks to work out with the young running backs and wide receivers, but the first half of football from Spencer shows there’s a lot of offensive promise for him this season.

The offense combined for 546 yards of total offense.

Now, the second half left a lot to be desired as it seemed the Cowboys were playing to just hold onto a 51-15 lead. The Chippewas scored 29-second half points compared to just 14 by the Pokes, a seven-yard pass from Spencer to Bryson Green and a one-yard rushing touchdown by Zach Middleton.

With this being a Thursday game, the Cowboys have a few extra days to try and figure some stuff out before Arizona State makes its way to Stillwater on September 10.