Sooners Early Domination Too Much For Cowboys
After a highly anticipated matchup, the 2020 Bedlam game did not go at all like Oklahoma State expected.
Oklahoma defeated the Cowboys 41-13 behind a dominant offensive showing and stifling defense from the Sooners. From the first drive of the game, Oklahoma seemed to be clicking on all cylinders.
The Sooners exploded to a 21-0 lead only 9 minutes into the game, leaving the Cowboys defense spinning out of control.
On top of that, Cowboy starting quarterback Spencer Sanders got injured after he took a hit late in the first quarter, causing Shane Illingworth to come in. He was able to get the offense moving on his first few drives, getting 13 points on the board, but stalled out from then on.
Oklahoma's defense lived in the backfield all night as they were able to pressure both Sanders and Illingworth behind seemingly lost offensive line for the Cowboys.
The Sooners quarterback Spencer Rattler had an impressive showing and was able to pick apart the Cowboys with a 17-24, 301 yard and 5 total touchdowns, 4 passing. On the ground, Rhamondre Stevenson led the Sooners with 141 yards on 26 rushes. No other Sooner had more than 7 rushes.
Combined between Sanders and Illingworth, the Cowboys went 15-40 for 168 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception, which belonged to Sanders. The Cowboys were never able to get anything going on the ground either, finishing with 78 yards on 28 rushes as a team. Chuba Hubbard led the team with 44 yards.
Tylan Wallace led the Cowboys in receptions and yards with 4 for 68 yards.
Oklahoma outgained the Cowboys 492-246 in the game while running the same amount of plays at 68. The Sooners were ultimately able to dominate the time of possession as well. Oklahoma had 34:52, the Cowboys had 25:08.
This was an overall dominant performance by the Sooners and they showed out on all three phases of the game. Oklahoma State drops to 5-2 on the season, 4-2 in Big 12 play.
After the game, the coaches and a select few players met with the media to discuss the game.
"We lost to a better team today," said Oklahoma State Head Coach Mike Gundy. "They out-coached us, they out-played us, you have to give them credit."
"We never really could get anything established in the running game to really stabilize them so we could really get a little bit of flow on offense. We kind of got one dimensional when we got down by too much," added Gundy.
Offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn made similar comments when talking about the offensive struggles. "We gotta find a way to move that football. We had some challenges today and we thought we had addressed some of the issues or at least what we thought they would give us and it still caused problems. We gotta figure it out, watch the tape and figure out what the hell is wrong."
Obviously the game went sideways quick after getting down 21-0 only 9 minutes in. Defensive Coordinator Jim Knowles addressed it and said "We got on our heals early. When you fall into a hole like that, you take a couple of punches and its like a fight, you get knocked back on your heals. It just took us a little bit to recover."
Knowles added that he feels the defense fought back really well after getting in the 21-0 hole.
The Cowboys will travel home from Norman tonight and will quickly get to watching tape and evaluating themselves over the next day said Mike Gundy. They face Texas Tech next weekend in what will be the final home game of the year for the Cowboys.
