Is Oklahoma State's 66-Point Loss Skewing Reality?
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Oklahoma State lost in embarrassing fashion in Week 2, but it might not be as bad as it seemed.
On Saturday, OSU had one of its worst losses in program history, falling at Oregon 69-3. Although the team went into Eugene as a four-touchdown underdog, the result was much worse than most had anticipated, leading to some serious questions about the direction of the program.
Over the offseason, OSU made some significant changes, bringing in an almost entirely new coaching staff and the team’s largest transfer portal class. Coming off a three-win season in 2024, there wasn’t any expectation for OSU to suddenly be a conference title contender again, but there was some expectation of improvement.
Some of those hopes were dashed in Week 2, with the Cowboys seemingly being so far away from Oregon talent-wise that they couldn’t even keep the game competitive for two full minutes. While that was certainly disheartening for the Cowboys and their fans, that big loss and the uncompetitive nature of it don't necessarily spell doom for the rest of 2025.
Of course, in the days following OSU’s collapse in Oregon, most metrics suddenly thrust the Cowboys down to the bottom of the FBS or at least the Power Four. However, that probably isn’t quite as bad as it seems.
The Cowboys were a four-touchdown underdog in Oregon. Assuming they had simply gone in there and played to Vegas’ standard and lost by 28, the Cowboys still would have been thrust considerably down the pecking order in college football.
Still, it probably doesn’t make any OSU fans feel better that the program’s expectations are this low. However, it does show that Oregon was considerably better than the Cowboys, and that this game was a mismatch that simply got out of hand a bit earlier and became a bit uglier than most.
OSU heads into its third game against Tulsa at 1-1 and still hasn’t played a conference game yet. With a bye to figure things out, the Cowboys should come out much sharper and hungrier against the Golden Hurricane.
While Week 2 was certainly not something the Cowboys enjoyed and something that destroyed some of OSU’s reputation this season, even TCU lost 65-7 to Georgia in the 2022 season in the national title game. Although OSU isn’t a playoff-caliber team like that TCU squad, Oregon was certainly a national championship contender, and OSU can’t get too down about its perceived status after facing arguably the best team in college football on the road.
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.