OU's First Quarter Explosion Too Much to Overcome as Oklahoma State Loses 28-13

Oklahoma’s 28-point first quarter was just too much for No. 22 Oklahoma State to overcome as the Pokes lose 28-13.

With the loss, the Cowboys fall to 7-4 on the season and 4-4 in Big 12 play.

“When you think about if you go into the game and you say you’re going to hold them to 1-of-14 on 3rd down, you’d say you’re going to win the game,” Mike Gundy told the Cowboy Radio Network. “You can’t turn the ball over, four turnovers, we gave them a short field; one time it was a four-yard field and the other was 32 or 36 yards or something, and they got touchdowns out of those. Even after that we had chances, I don’t know what it was, eight minutes to go and we’re on the [OU] 12-yard line and we threw an interception. You score there and it’s a one-score game. We’re struggling to run the ball; we’re struggling to protect the quarterback and we just had not had a lot of luck with keeping healthy offensive linemen and not adjusting guys and moving them around. We’ve just got to keep working at it, it's all we can do.”

Quarterback Spencer Sanders had a rough start to the game as he threw for just 48 yards with two picks in the first quarter. However, he got better as the game went along as he finished with 381 yards with one touchdown and four interceptions on 36-of-67 passing. He also finished as the Pokes’ leading rusher with 42 yards on 17 carries.

Jaden Nixon was next on the stat sheet with 37 yards on seven carries.

Bixby product Brennan Presley led the way in receiving for the Cowboys as he hauled in 118 yards on nine receptions on 13 targets. Braydon Johnson was right behind him with 109 yards on seven receptions on 12 targets.

On the defensive side of the ball, Jason Taylor II led the way with 11 total tackles, including 10 solo stops, one pass breakup and one interception. Mason Cobb finished with eight total tackles, 0.5 tackles for loss, two quarterback hurries and one pass break up.

The Cowboys had just about as bad of a start as a team could have. The Sooners scored four first-quarter touchdowns to jump out to a 28-0 lead, while forcing two interceptions from Spencer Sanders. The Cowboys allowed 299 first quarter yards, 224 of which came through the air. In fact, it gave OU the second-most yardage they’ve had in a quarter since 312 yards against Colorado in 1980.

That’s when things started to change for the Pokes on the defensive side. The offense scored just three points, but Derek Mason’s squad held the Sooners to just 66 yards and zero points in the second quarter.

The third quarter was even better as the Pokes got into the end zone for the first time, a two-yard pass from Spencer Sanders to redshirt sophomore cowboy back Quinton Stewart.

“I think at that point [Spencer Sanders] had like two guys in his face and he was just kind of throwing it up and luckily it came to me. It was pretty cool,” Stewart told the Cowboy Radio Network of his first career-touchdown. “You always hope it’s coming to you, but I guess it was pretty cool it ended up happening like that.”

The Cowboys were explosive on offense through the third as they combined for 176 yards, 134 of which came through the air. They also limited the turnovers to zero, which was a huge improvement from the three in the first half.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Cowboys held OU to just 42 yards, all of which came on the ground.

Brennan Presley came alive early in the fourth quarter as he gained 55 yards on a pass from Sanders, with most of the yards coming after contact. While they weren’t able to get into the end zone, Tanner Brown hit his second field goal on the day, a 25-yarder to get the Pokes back within 15 points.

After forcing a fourth-straight OU three-and-out, the Cowboys had a chance to get back within one score with more than eight minutes left in the fourth quarter. Jaden Nixon broke his longest run of the day, 21-yards, on the first play of the drive. Sanders picked up the next first down on two-straight runs, followed by a 12-yard completion to Braydon Johnson down to the OU 43-yard line.

After Presley picked up a hard-fought first down at the OU 16-yard line, Sanders threw an incomplete pass on first down and threw his fourth interception of the game on 2nd and 10 with less than six minutes left.

The Cowboy defense came up with its fifth-straight three-and-out to give the Pokes another chance to make something happen with 4:24 left in the game. However, the Cowboy offensive line allowed two sacks for a combined loss of 16 yards to give OU the ball back following a 52-yard punt by Logan Ward.

The Cowboys had one final chance and moved the ball well down the field, but things stalled out inside the OU 30-yard line as a pass from Sanders to Presley fell incomplete to give the Sooners the ball back with less than 20 seconds left.

The Cowboys will play host to West Virginia next week in the regular season finale. Kickoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT kickoff on ESPN2.