Oklahoma State Falls to 0-3 in Big 12 Play Following 38-14 Loss to West Virginia

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State falls to 0-3 in Big 12 play for the first time since 2005 with embarrassing 38-14 home loss to West Virginia.

With the loss, the Cowboys also move to 3-3 on the season.

The Cowboys showed a few signs of life just a few times throughout the first half, finishing with just 116 yards of total offense, 71 through the air and just 45 on the ground. On the other side of the field, the Mountaineers had one of their best halves of football this season as they combined for 345 yards, with 259 rushing yards. 

The Mountaineers finished the game with 389 rushing yards, marking the second-straight week the Pokes gave up 300+ rushing yards. RB Jahiem White finished with 158 yards and one touchdown, Garrett Greene with 86 yards and one touchdown and Donaldson with 77 yards and two touchdowns.

“Well, we’re not fitting the run,” Mike Gundy said after the game. “We’ve got to do a better job of fitting the run. It looked like to me, that we had our worst tackling day of the year. In my mind, I was counting up to eight tackles where we had a chance to hit and get a guy down for a two-yard gain or less, and we bounced off and they ended up being big runs. I think that was a little bit of an issue, we did not tackle well this game at all.”

Quarterback Alan Bowman made it three and a half quarters before being replaced by Garret Rangel. Bowman finished the game going 10-of-19 for 116 yards, one touchdown and two picks.

Rangel would finish with 4-of-5 passing for 75 yards and one touchdown.

The Pokes appeared to get the run game going early, but that quickly turned to not be true as the Pokes finished with just 227 yards, 191 passing yards and 36 rushing yards. 

Despite the yard discrepancy, it was a close game throughout the first quarter. The Pokes held the Mountaineers to a field goal on their first drive of the game, a 12-play, 55-yard drive. However, it was two-straight punts and an interception for the Pokes in the first three drives, with WVU scoring two-straight touchdowns to make it 17-0 early in the second quarter.

The Mountaineers would scoring another touchdown to effectively put the game out of reach at 24-0, before Bowman hit Rashod Owens across the middle in the end zone from eight yards out. This Owens’ first touchdown since Utah. 

A bit of a timing blunder by the Pokes as WVU got the ball back with 1:54 left in the first half. The Cowboys called a timeout with 1:48 left, giving WVU enough time to regroup and score with just 28 seconds left in the half, making it 31-7.

It was yet another rough quarter in the third for the Pokes as they combined for just 47 yards of total offense.

The highlight of the second half came with just under nine minutes left in the game when Rangel hit Da’Wain Lofton for 22 yards, followed by a 43-yard touchdown to De’Zhaun Stribling, making it a 38-14 game.