Brett Rojo
Cowboys Lose the Turnover Battle, Fall to Texas in Overtime 41-34
STILLWATER – It was a spooky afternoon in Stillwater for Oklahoma State as Texas gave the Cowboys all they could handle and then some as the game headed to overtime. However, the Cowboys couldn’t get it done as they fall to the Longhorns, 41-34.
The Cowboys were driving looking to go up 38-26 and start to put the game out of reach. That’s when disaster struck: Texas recovered an LD Brown fumble with 12:15 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Cowboy defense came up with a big stop on third and 16 to force a fourth and 22 and a punt. However, Kanion Williams was called for roughing the kicker to give the Longhorns new life.
With just under five minutes remaining in the game and on a third and seven from the Texas 12-yard line, the Cowboy defense forced an incomplete pass and fourth down. Ehlinger was flushed out of the pocket and found Jake Smith in the end zone to go up 32-31 and then complete the two-point conversion to go up by three, 34-31.
The Cowboy offense would take the field with 4:27 left in the game with a chance to avoid the upset. On a third and five, Spencer Sanders found Dillon Stoner for the first down, but the play was reviewed and overturned, resulting in a fourth down and an OSU punt.
Texas would take over on their own 32-yard line and Jim Knowles’ defensive unit would attempt to come up with another stop. With just over two minutes left in the game, Devin Harper dropped Ehlinger for a 10-yard sack and then Malcolm Rodriguez came up with a huge stop on third down to force a punt.
With just over a minute, Spencer Sanders hit Landon Wolf, Tylan Wallace and Dillon Stoner for a combined 62 yards to get into field goal range with 10 seconds left. Tom Herman called a timeout to try and ice OSU kicker Alex Hale, but it didn’t matter as Hale knocked him the 34-yarder to tie the game at 34-34.
On third and long, Texas got bailed out by a non-existent pass interference call and Ehlinger hit UT receiver Joshua Moore a few plays later in the end zone to go up 41-34. On the following drive, LD Brown picked up an impressive 11-yard first down and down to the 14-yard line. On the next play, Spencer Sanders hit cowboy back Jelani Woods for a touchdown, but the refs called two ineligible receiver penalties for a five-yard loss.
On fourth and long, Texas sent the house after Sanders and Joseph Ossai dropped Sanders for a 13-yard sack to pull off the 41-34 upset of the No. 6 Cowboys.
With the loss, Oklahoma State dropped to 4-1 on the season and 3-1 in Big 12 play.
It was a rather up and down first half for quarterback Spencer Sanders. After leading the Cowboys to a touchdown on the first drive of the game that ended with an 11-yard catch from Tylan Wallace, Sanders fumbled a handoff to Chuba Hubbard on the very next drive that gave Texas the ball in the red zone and a quick touchdown. After some impressive plays and another touchdown, Sanders threw a rather sloppy interception that was returned back into the OSU territory and the red zone. However, the Cowboy defense came up with a huge stop to force a field goal.
Sanders was able to settle down some and lead the Cowboys down the field with relative ease just before the end of the first half, but nearly threw an interception on third and short that led to a field goal. After another defensive stop for the Cowboys, Sanders found Braydon Johnson for a 41-yard first down and back into Texas territory. However, the Cowboys couldn’t make anything happen as Sanders turned the ball over for the third time in the game after being hit as he threw. That led to a Texas field goal at the end of the half, 24-20.
Sanders finished the game going 27-of-39 for 400 yards, four touchdowns and one interception and two fumbles.
Wide receiver Tylan Wallace had the best game of his season so far against Texas. He recorded the first touchdown of the day for the Cowboys with the 11-yard reception to put the Pokes up 7-0. Then seven minutes into the third quarter, Wallace went up and mossed Texas defender Jalen Green in the southeast corner of Boone Pickens Stadium on a fade from Sanders. That took the score up to 31-26 OSU.
Wallace finished with 11 receptions for 187 yards and two touchdowns.
By the end of the first half, Texas had scored 13 points off of turnovers, one touchdown and two field goals. Texas also scored a special team touchdown midway through the third quarter, giving the Longhorns 18 points off of turnovers and seven special team points on the game.
With Texas scoring a majority of their points on either defense or special teams, the offensive comparison in terms of yardage is rather lopsided. OSU finished the day with 530 yards of total offense, compared to just 287 by Texas.
That’s where the Cowboy defense comes in. They held Texas to 2-of-15 on third down conversions and just 3.8 yards per play. They also sacked Sam Ehlinger five times for 37 yards and recorded 12 tackles for loss for 49 yards.
It was linebacker Amen Ogbongbemiga who led the way for the Pokes with 10 total tackles, seven of which were solo stops, one sack and one tackle for a loss.
Oklahoma State travels to Manhattan, KS next weekend for a match up against Kansas State.
