Turnovers Plague Pokes in Homecoming Loss to Baylor
STILLWATER -- For the second-straight conference game, turnovers and big plays plague the Pokes and helped result in the 45-27 loss to Baylor for Homecoming. With the loss, Oklahoma State falls to 4-3 on the season, and 1-3 in conference play. In fact, the Cowboys are in the exact same record as they did this time last season.
In all, Oklahoma State turned the ball over three times, one interception and two fumbles by Spencer Sanders; the interception coming at the end of the second quarter and both fumbles coming in the fourth quarter.
The first fumble resulted in a scoop and score touchdown for Baylor as Chidi Ogbonnaya striped Sanders and Terrel Bernard scooped it up and scored from 20-yards out giving the Bears their largest lead of the day, 38-27.
"We had turnovers, which cost us touchdowns and gave up three big plays," said head coach Mike Gundy. "When you look at it, we held them to three of nine of third downs. We were six of 17 [on third downs], which is not great but not bad. Turnovers killed us in the fourth quarter. Big plays hurt our defense in the fourth quarter. We've got to get back to work. I told the players we've got to look to see what happened, come up with a plan and go from there. It's similar to what happened at [Texas] Tech. When you turn the ball over in key situations and give up a touchdown on a turnover and give up big plays, it's hard for us to overcome that. They ran 54 plays. We ran 86 plays, so they big played us. Then we had four 15-yard penalties, two pass interference calls on one drive, one on third and 12, which hurt us. There is plenty of work to go around."
In the last two games, Sanders has turned the ball over eight times with four interceptions and four fumbles. Today against Baylor, Sanders was playing okay until roughly the nine minute mark of the fourth quarter when he committed his first fumble.
He finished the night going 18-32 for 157 yards and one touchdown, he also rushed the ball 14 times for 31 yards.
"He turned the ball over and fumbled in the pocket and gave up a touchdown...well, same thing, he was doing good, too, until the fourth quarter," said coach Gundy. "He had done better. I think the last one in the pocket he caused himself with his own leg. He was pretty good for quite a while, then he got back to a little bit of freelance at the end of the game. He's got to stay in the system."
Freelance. That's interesting word choice by Mike Gundy because when the media got the opportunity to speak with Sanders after the game, he accredited the turnovers to him just trying to make plays.
"I'm a competitive player, so it's just me trying to extend plays and me just trying to be competitive and do the best I can for this team," said Spencer Sanders. "Sometimes, I just got to know when to settle down. I'm always going to be competitive, nobody's ever going to take that away from me."
At times this season, we've see Sanders really shine, so we all know that he's more than capable of playing at a high level and winning football games. But how much can you say that his youth and inexperience plays into the past few rough outings? According to Sanders, you can't anymore.
"I can't blame it on being young, that's just not an excuse," said Sanders. "I can't. I know a lot of people say 'He's a freshman,' Nah, you can't say that anymore, it's my fault and I've got to fix it. Like I said earlier, I'm competitive, so I'm trying to do the best I can and extend plays. So, I've just got to do better and sometimes I've just got to throw it away, or just try to get two or three yards. It doesn't have to be a big play every single time. So, I'm growing from it and I'm getting better and we're just going to keep moving."
Oklahoma State held onto the lead for nearly two quarters and it felt like the Cowboys were right there against Baylor multiple times. There were several instances tonight that if Sanders had connected on just a few more passing plays, like the fade in the end zone to McCray at the end of the first half.
If Sanders connects with McCray instead, it's an OSU touchdown and the Pokes go into halftime with a 20-10 lead instead of just 13-10. Then the game looks completely different because OSU held Baylor on their opening drive of the second half and Hubbard scored a touchdown with a little over nine minutes left in the third quarter. That would've put the Pokes up 27-10, a lead that Baylor probably couldn't have overcome.
I understand that Sanders says you can't blame it on being young anymore, but I think that there were plays tonight that absolutely you can attribute to him being young. There were also plays that he should've made whether he's a freshman or a fifth year senior.
Either way, in the eyes of the offensive coordinator, Sean Gleeson, there's only one way to eliminate the turnovers and move forward: "Practice."
