QUICK HITS: Thrilla in Stilly as OSU wins in double overtime over Arkansas
Remind me why all non-conference match-ups can't be this good?
STILLWATER — What a ballgame.
Not extremely well-played. Not tons of great execution. Not bunches of clean sequences.
But dang, it was a heck of game Saturday afternoon in Stillwater.
Oklahoma State 39, Arkansas 31 in two overtimes.
We’ll get to what happened in a second, but I am going to use this moment to ask/implore/beg athletic directors to schedule more non-conference games like this. Everyone wants the automatic wins, but aren’t games like this way more entertaining and fun for everyone involved? Players? Coaches? Fans?
Please, for the love of Leslie O’Neal, more Power Four matchups during non-conference play.
Play South Carolina instead of South Dakota State.
Play Tennessee instead of Tulsa.
I’m not saying you have to play an all Power-Four non-conference slate, but hey, would it be the worst thing?
Here’s what I saw in Stillwater.
Off-again, on-again offense
The OSU offense was abysmal in the first half.
And that might be too kind.
At halftime, the Cowboys had managed only 77 yards of offense. They almost had more punts (four) than first downs (five).
Worse, the Cowboy run game was stuck in neutral. Or maybe even reverse. OSU had just 13 yards rushing, and Ollie Gordon had scuffed out only 11 yards on six carries at halftime.
Yuck.
But the Cowboys flipped the script after halftime. They rolled up 294 yards and scored 24 points in the second half, not counting overtime.
And most of that was due to the passing game. I know plenty of Cowboys grumble about Alan Bowman, but the Cowboy quarterback was 17 of 28 for 251 yards in the second half, again not counting overtime.
The running game managed only 64 yards in the second half and entered overtime with only 77 total. With Gordon and a veteran offensive line, the Cowboys need to be much, much better than that.
Disappointing defense — or not
Much like the offense, the OSU defense struggled in the first half. It allowed Arkansas to roll up 351 yards of offense (193 passing and 158 rushing). But even worse than that, the Cowboys missed lots of tackles and allowed too many receivers to run wide open.
If not for the offense — and for a Kale Smith pick-six that accounted for OSU’s only first-half points — the defense would’ve been the most disappointing part of the half.
But in the second half, the Cowboy defense also found its footing.
It gave up a 282 yards in the second half, before overtime began, and while that’s more than you’d like, the Cowboys got the ball back most of the time when they needed it. The final possession of regulation was the most notable exception.
A look at how the Razorbacks’ second-half possessions ended: punt, fumble, missed field goal, turnover on downs, touchdown, field goal.
At the end of regulation, Arkansas had 630 yards of offense (gulp).
Oh, no, Ollie
Ollie Gordon’s Heisman hopes may not be dead, but they are on serious life support.
The Cowboy tailback managed only 49 yards on 17 carries against the Razorbacks. Now, he did have the game-winning touchdown, a 12-yard scamper, then caught the two-point conversion. Those are nice highlights.
But he has less than 200 yards rushing in the Cowboys first two games.
Now, Gordon only had 109 rushing yards in three non-conference games a year ago, but that was because the Cowboy coaches either didn’t know what they had or weren’t willing to feed the beast. He had just 19 carries in those games.
This season?
He’s had 45 carries but is averaging only 3.9 yards a tote.
I’ll have more on Beyond the Boxscore later.