Oklahoma State Beats Cincinnati 45-13 With Second Half Surge

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State picked up its fourth-straight Big 12 win in a row with a 45-13 Homecoming win over Cincinnati, thanks to an offensive surge in the second half.

With the win, the Cowboys moved to 6-2 on the season, 4-1 in Big 12 play and officially became bowl eligible.

Running back Ollie Gordon II continued his strong play as he recorded his fifth-straight games with 100+ rushing yards. This is also his second-straight game rushing for 250+ yards as he rushed for 271 yards and two touchdowns. He has also officially cleared 1,000 yards on the season, sitting at 1,087 yards and 10 rushing touchdowns. He also has 201 receiving yards and one touchdown.

“It’s really great,” Ollie Gordon told the Cowboy Radio Network following his performance against Cincinnati. “Like I always say, whenever your o-line handles business, it just makes it easy for us running backs. Really, I just want to say at the beginning of the game, I fumbled that [ball], but my line didn’t turn around and point fingers. They just came and picked me up and was like ‘hey, you’re good. Forget about it, it was last play.’ When they did that, it just showed me that it really was the last play, I didn’t have to worry about it, and they just started blocking even better.”

He became just the second player in program history, joining Barry Sanders, with two-straight weeks with more than 250 rushing yards.

He also joins an elite group of Sanders, Vernand Morency, David Thompson, Thurman Thomas and Ernest Anderson as the only players in school history to rush for at least 200 yards in consecutive games.

“All I can do is thank the line. It’s really great to be in a group with those great names. Those are the OSU greats when you look back. Like I said, I just want to thank my line because I couldn’t do this without them.”

This is yet another good case for national weekly awards for Gordon II.

Quarterback Alan Bowman had a solid game as well as he finished with 286 yards and two touchdowns on 17-of-34 passing.

Transfer receiver Leon Johnson III had a breakout performance against the Bearcats as he hauled in five catches for 149 yards, with a long of 67 yards.

Against the best run defense in the Big 12 and the No. 10 rushing defense in the country, the Cowboys combined for 315 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns.

It was a slow start on both sides of the field in the first half as the game went into the halftime break with an OSU 10-7 lead. The yardage was also fairly close as the Pokes led with 253 total yards, just 79 on the ground, with the Bearcats rushing for 194 yards.

The script was flipped in the second half, however, as the Cowboys came out of the break and rushed for 91 yards and two touchdowns in the third quarter alone. The first of the three third quarter touchdowns was a 15 yard pass from Alan Bowman to Brennan Presley, one of Presley’s two third-quarter touchdowns.

The third quarter was also great for the Pokes’ defense as they forced two punts, another interception for redshirt freshman Cameron Epps, his third of the season, and a turnover on downs on a pass deflection from redshirt freshman D.J. McKinney.

Bedlam is next week as the Cowboys play host to the Sooners, who are coming off a road 38-33 road loss to Kansas.