Burning Answers: Lessons Learned in Oklahoma State's Loss to Houston
In this story:
Oklahoma State’s hopes of winning another game this season are dwindling after another discouraging performance.
On Saturday, OSU lost 39-17 to Houston to mark yet another FBS loss. After a fun start, OSU’s momentum quickly disappeared and led to a stress-free afternoon for the Cougars in Stillwater, as the Cowboys gave some rather underwhelming answers to the questions surrounding this matchup.
Answers to burning questions for OSU-Houston:
Do the Cowboys have a new answer at quarterback?
Sam Jackson V’s day under center was underwhelming and a bit disappointing. Against a good Houston defense, the performance wasn’t disappointing from the standpoint of Jackson not playing well after being thrust into a difficult position, but rather that he seemed to be OSU’s final potential answer at quarterback.
However, the Cowboys might have gotten a glimmer of hope in the fourth quarter when Noah Walters made his OSU debut, finding Gavin Freeman for a 33-yard touchdown to give the remaining fans something to cheer about. While he only threw two passes in limited action and that touchdown, where Freeman did most of the work, was his lone completion, the former North Alabama stud might have thrown his name into the conversation to start against Cincinnati on Homecoming.
Is there a home-field advantage at Boone Pickens Stadium?
Looking at the first half, it’s hard to argue that OSU had any home-field advantage to speak of, but that might have changed in the third quarter. While Boone Pickens Stadium wasn’t necessarily super loud or rowdy for the most part, one particular section at least put some smiles on the OSU sidelines.
In section 231, fans began to fill up the once-empty section and took their shirts off to wave them around from the third quarter through the end of the game. While it wasn’t a textbook home-field advantage by any means, the Cowboys still felt the love from those who made it to Saturday’s contest.
Can anyone give the Cowboys a spark?
Early in this one, Shamar Rigby threw a touchdown pass to Rodney Fields Jr. on a double-pass trick play to ignite the crowd and give the Pokes their first lead against an FBS opponent all season. Of course, that spark was quite short-lived as OSU’s next touchdown wouldn’t come until it trailed by four scores late in the fourth quarter.
Still, trick plays have seemingly been the one source of energy for OSU throughout its two home games since firing Mike Gundy. However, turning that into any consistent juice seems to be a lost cause.
Ivan is a sports media student at Oklahoma State University. He has covered OSU athletics since 2022 and also covers the OKC Thunder for Inside The Thunder and Thunderous Intentions.