Burning Answers: Lessons Learned in Oklahoma State's Shutout Loss in Lubbock

Oklahoma State was shut out, but it was about as encouraging as a 42-0 game could be.

OSU suffered yet another big loss against No. 14 Texas Tech on Saturday, but not everything about the game was awful. While OSU dug a big hole early, it never stopped fighting and put together a solid outing, all things considered.

Answers to burning questions for Oklahoma State’s loss at Texas Tech:

Will Oklahoma State be able to keep it competitive?

This question has some mixed answers after what happened on Saturday. Sure, it’s easy to say a 42-0 game that was 13-0 just over two minutes in was never competitive, but there is still a bit more nuance to this situation.

The Cowboys probably never had much of a chance, and the Red Raiders were almost certainly never in any danger, but the Cowboys had some chances to keep the game respectable. Whether it was turnovers or missed opportunities on either side of the ball, OSU couldn’t break through and make the plays it needed to keep it legitimately close, but the Cowboys still showed some fight throughout.

Will there be anything encouraging to come out of this game?

Overall, it’s hard to take too much away from a game that ended in a shutout and saw Texas Tech’s third-string quarterback take over for a large chunk of the game. Still, the Cowboys were able to find some positives throughout the afternoon, even if it didn’t fully show up on the scoreboard.

The turnovers forced and the occasional big play on either side were still a far cry from what OSU was able to do against Cincinnati, but it was still an encouraging sign to see the Pokes at least make some plays and keep the Red Raiders from running up the score too much.

Which side of the ball will perform better?

Considering OSU’s offense couldn’t muster a single point and couldn’t even reach 200 total yards for the day, the defense would have been the de facto pick, but Clint Bowen’s unit certainly deserves some love. Against a high-powered Texas Tech offense, OSU allowed 42 points but only let the Red Raiders rack up 370 total yards, their second-fewest total yards of the season, only better than their loss at Arizona State a week earlier.

Meanwhile, those 370 yards allowed were the fewest OSU has allowed against an FBS team this season. Although OSU’s offense often gave the Red Raiders good field position and didn’t exactly make Texas Tech work too hard for its points, the Cowboy defense was still solid throughout.