STILLWATER – When a team loses that first game it seems just about everything winds out of sorts a little. Wins can so often be summarized with a few performances or tactics but loses have to be put under a microscope and viewed from every unit and every angle. That was the case with the Cowboys 43-40 overtime loss to TCU in Fort Worth. The simple explanation is this was a game between two unbeaten and talented teams, and one just got by the other. That is way too simple and neither you, nor I are going be satisfied with that.
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Sanders was certainly looking healthy and well on this first touchdown run.
Let’s start with the widely speculated status of Spencer Sanders. Rumors abounded on how serious Sanders was injured and whether he would play or not. Responsible media, kept on the outside as most are by major college programs and head coaches, simply stated the rumors mostly on their social media and waited to find the truth. Then, there were a few that had to come out with the version that Sanders had not practiced all week and was out. In the end that is the tactic that tells everybody you have little or no credibility as a reporter. Then there are a few that have some advantages and when it was time had the story and had it correct. No rumors.
Sanders had been at practice all week, his participation was limited by injury, but he prepared. He got excellent treatment from the medical staff and as he projected even a week ago in a saucy manner and as Gundy had suggested, Sanders played and played well. Late in the game, he showed signs of being diminished but TCU’s defense and the way they were able to play the Oklahoma State offense had something to do with it.
“It’s football, and I’ve practiced a lot,” Sanders said of his preparation during the week.
“They are a good football team, we know that,” Gundy told me in the locker room. “The tough part of this is that we played well enough to win the game. We played better defensively than I thought we would, playing them here. They are pretty high-powered right now. They got some yards, but we forced them to kick field goals. Our inability to rush the football makes us one-dimensional. I think we averaged 3.6-yards per rush, and they averaged five and a half per rush.”
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John Paul Richardson with this spectacular touchdown catch was the most dependable OSU receiver.
TCU was able to play a light box and they were successful in completely taking away Bryson Green as they smothered him in bracket-style coverage. Sanders was able to hit most of his other receivers and the Cowboys had some special plays packed for the trip including the flea flicker that set up the first touchdown that saw Cowboy back Braden Cassity go down the numbers all alone. Another deep ball to Jake Schultz was incomplete. John Paul Richardson was excellent catching five of the seven balls targeted to him. Brennan Presley was clutch as usual, and Dominic Richardson came up huge in the passing game, much better than the run game. Braydon Johnson had some big plays but had several others he could have made and wasn’t able to tuck away.
“When you just needed to try and piecemeal some yards together and get drives, we just weren’t able to do it,” Dunn said, not necessarily meaning any particular play or facet of the offense.
“They’ve got a heck of a defense, good linebackers and big DBs,” Richardson. “We fought our butts off and the offensive line did great, Spencer did great, the receivers, but in the end we didn’t get enough.”
The box counts were favorable to running the ball much of the time, similar to the way Oklahoma State’s defense played the TCU offense, but the Cowboys couldn’t run the ball. In a few carries in the late third quarter Jaden Nixon came in and had a couple of productive runs. Maybe Nixon is needing to get more opportunities. Richardson is a tough, hard runner, but can’t seem to make second level defenders miss. Other solutions? Simply play better, block better, run more effective. Spencer Sanders is a big part of the run game too, but he needs to avoid taking unnecessary hits.
"I wish we could have put the hammer down and finished it,” Dunn said. “I’m really disappointed (about) obviously, myself and what we did on offense. We’ve got to find a way to finish that thing off. We just didn’t move the ball well enough in the second half.”
A key play again on a late third period drive where scoring a touchdown rather than a field goal would have made a huge difference was third and seven at the TCU 15 as Sanders took the shotgun snap and found Presley who appeared to be open, but in one of the most unsung defensive plays safety Bud Clark timed a jump from behind Presley just right to knock the ball away and not interfere. It was a stellar play by Clark.
“As the game went on and we struggled to run the football, it allowed them to do more defensively,” Gundy summarized in a way talking about safeties in the red zone being focused on playing back like Clark on that key defended pass. “It allowed them to open up and do some things that made it more difficult.”
That said, this was a double overtime loss. It was a close game with more than a few chances. One was after Oklahoma State recovered with the big fourth down completion to Johnson to the two and then Richardson powered in the touchdown to pull Oklahoma State within one in the first overtime. On the television broadcast nobody said anything about going for two, on the Cowboy Network Radio broadcast it was not mentioned. I was on the field and never thought about it myself.
The Oklahoman’s Berry Tramel did, and asked Gundy.
“Kind of,” Gundy said. “A little bit (but) I felt we needed to kick it, give ourselves a chance.”
I can’t argue that. You would have to go for two in the next overtime anyway. It didn’t come to that, and it left the quarterback that proved his toughness again in a foul mood.
“I hate losing,” Spencer Sanders said in a postgame press conference of sentences of few words. “And I’m boiling inside.”
