How a ‘Catastrophic’ Few Plays Turned a Competitive Game into Another Blowout
BY MARSHALL SCOTT | Pistols Firing Blog
STILLWATER — A gander at the Cowboys’ average margin of defeat against FBS foes this season (28.8) will show you they haven’t been super competitive this season.
Oklahoma State was competitive against No. 24 Cincinnati on Saturday … until the Cowboys weren’t.
OSU lost to Cincy 49-17 on homecoming, an unlucky 13th consecutive conference loss across the past two seasons. Despite the looks of that final score, the Cowboys were hanging around with the ranked Bearcats until a disastrous set of plays.
Plays from every game every week can be nitpicked, but there were a few from Saturday that went a step further than just not going the Cowboys’ way. They went about as far from the Cowboys’ way as possible.
“Just some little minor miscues that turned catastrophic,” OSU interim coach Doug Meacham said. “It’s like a little bitty thing, and it just completely implodes on us. We gotta find ways to not put our kids in those positions that it could occur and find ways to alleviate that and neutralize all that. We were doing some really, really good things, and there are about five plays in there that make it look really, really bad at times. But there’s a body of 60 other plays that make it look really good. Unfortunately, those five or six that didn’t look good were catastrophic … Not that there’s a moral victory in this thing here because we want to win, but it definitely would’ve looked a little bit better at the end of the day had a couple of those things not happened late in the fourth.”
Let’s start late in the third quarter.
The Cowboys were down 28-17 but driving. OSU started at its 14-yard line but had made it up to the Cincinnati 41, threatening to make it a one-score game.
OSU came up on a 3rd-and-1, but short yardage hadn’t been much of an issue for the Cowboys all night. They finished the game with their two leading running backs combining to average 7.2 yards per carry.
So, another quick handoff to Rodney Fields, and the Cowboys are continuing on their merry little way, right? Wrong. Sam Jackson couldn’t handle the snap, and it got by him. He took a peek back when he got near the ball, but the Bearcat defenders were already bearing down on him. All he could do was fall on it for a loss of 12.
Now 4th-and-13, the Cowboys had to punt. A first down there would’ve just about put the Cowboys in kicker Logan Ward’s range. That drive could have ended with three points at worst. But it could’ve ended with six or eight points (would’ve likely gone for 2 to make it a 3-point game had the Cowboys scored).
A returning DeSean Brown got a big sack on Cincinnati’s next drive (marking just the second time Cincy had given up a sack this season). It resulted in a 3rd-and-16 for the Bearcats to start the fourth quarter.
Cool, get a stop, get the ball back, and OSU still has plenty of time to stick to its game plan (running the ball) and cut it to one score. … That was until Brendan Sorsby, who is very good, put a ball on a rope between three OSU defenders to Jeff Caldwell. Parker Robertson nearly picked the pass off. Instead, it resulted in a gain of 38 yards. Brutal.
“I talked to the Sorsby kid before the game,” OSU interim defensive coordinator Clint Bowen said. “I told him I thought he could be on the national scene, and I really do. All week long, it was nice to watch that kid play (while watching film). …
“But, that 3rd-and-16, he threw the ball at the wrong spot. He got lucky on that one. Now, it was a dart, but the ball should have went to the other side. I mean, we should not have lost that play. You know, we’re thinking screen, draw, something along those lines. They had a frontside dig, he threw it to a backside guy that, quite honestly, we had doubled up, and he threw such a good ball that he made up for it.”
Cincinnati would pay off that drive with a touchdown to take a 35-17 lead.
Things were looking bleak, but the Cowboys started driving again.
OSU marched down to the Cincinnati 14, where a Jackson pass was intercepted at the goal line. And not only was it intercepted, it was returned 100 yards the other way for a touchdown.
OSU was in Cincinnati territory about to make it a one-score game, and now all of a sudden it’s 42-17.
It’s not that OSU should have won the game. Cincinnati was clearly the better team. But the Cowboys were close to being close. And then with an electric homecoming crowd providing wind for the sails, who knows what could’ve happened?
“I’ve been on teams where we won games we probably shouldn’t have won, and the ball just kinda bounced our way at times,” Meacham said. “That’s not what you’re shooting for, but maybe at some point the ball will bounce our way and we’ll be there at the end.”