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No. 18 Oklahoma State may not have come away with the win against No. 20 Houston, but it was as old school of a Big 12 game as Cowboy fans have seen in a while. However, I don’t believe OSU fans necessarily care for good old fashion barn burners anymore, which is a good standard to have.
Offensively, the Cowboys were solid as they combined for 499 yards of offensive, 365 through the air and 134 on the ground. 3rd downs were bad at 3-of-8, but they averaged 8.5 yards per play, 16.6 through the air and 5.4 on the ground. Caleb Hawkins had 17 carries for 68 yards and seven catches for 125 yards and a touchdown.
While 3rd downs and red zone scoring was a problem for the Pokes, the defensive effort was worst.
The Cougars put up 505 yards of total offense, 343 through the air and 162 on the ground. They were 7-of-13 on 3rd down, 3-for-3 on 4th down. Connor Weigman completed 73% of his passes with five touchdown passes. He had two receivers go over 100 yards, Amare Thomas with 126 yards and two touchdowns and Trent Walker with 104 yards and one touchdown.
There was a lot of bend and break from the back end as the Cougars scored on five of their 10 drives, with two of their drives resulted in just over 14 minutes of possession. They scored one of their touchdowns off turnovers by the Pokes, an interception towards the end of the first half.
While there were a lot of glaring issues, including some bad penalties, there were some good bits as well. They got to Weigman several times, something Houston has done a really good job at it all season long giving up just five sacks going into this game. The Pokes had two tonight.
“There's a bunch of them, and so we'll go back and watch it,” Eric Morris said of correctable issues. “Well, we'll watch it tonight on the plane going home and grade it. Then get up early tomorrow morning on Sunday and get to work on it. In my mind right now, it wasn't just one thing. We lost in man coverage, we lost in zone coverage, play action and roll out pass. There's a lot right now off the top of my mind. Like we got to go back and see how maybe we can put them in better situations in certain times.
“And then, too, I think just like for us when they have the ball. We got to be able to rush the passer and get some heat on him and not let him be comfortable back there. There's a bunch of times when we're rushing four. I thought they did a nice job with pass pro.”
The Cowboys will have a chance to try and improve some defensive woes as they’ll host Colorado next week for Homecoming.
