Sanders, Dunn, Offense Takes Accountability but Now there Needs to Be Corrections

It was a record setting day on Saturday for the Oklahoma State offense. Spencer Sanders threw for a career high 400-yards and four touchdowns, but the offense's four turnovers were most critical.

STILLWATER -- When things go wrong there are two ways the guilty party or the responsible party can go. There is some analysis to be done, for sure, in the mistake department after OKlahoma State suffered their first loss of the season in overtime to Texas 41-34 on Halloween. The first direction is to point fingers elsewhere and almost go into denial. The second, and most productive, way to go is to take accountability and roll up the sleeves and work on correcting the mistakes. Oklahoma State was somewhat sloppy with the ball. In fact, Spencer Sanders was somewhat loose with the football the week before when Iowa State turned two Sanders thrown interceptions into touchdowns. In victory 24-21 over Cyclones just maybe those interceptions were not as focused on. 

This week a mesh issue on a handoff between Sanders and Chuba Hubbard, a stared down out route thrown inside and directly to Texas corner Jalen Green, and a fumble while under pass rush by Sanders in the second half were part of four turnovers in all by the Oklahoma State offense. Running back LD Brown had the fourth on a fumble. Those turnovers along with the special teams mistakes led to 27 of the 41-points Texas scored in the game. 

“Just way too many turnovers,” Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn kind of said in disbelief on his Zoom conference with the media. “Way too many. That’s tough. Hard. It’s amazing we were in it that far along.”

Sanders was more dramatic, but sincere. We've learned in the time that Sanders has been at Oklahoma State that he is a proud athlete. He takes things personal, but always has a little bit of fighting back to his actions and comments. 

"I'm never going to regret anything," Sanders said. "We lost the game and it's going to hurt me. It's going to pierce me through the heart. Is it my fault? I'll take this one. If you want to bash me, then bash me."

At times Sanders was outstanding, possibly the best player on the field against Texas, but the turnovers were destructive to the Cowboys effort to win the game.  / Brett Rojo - Oklahoma State University Athletics

Being more analytical, Dunn was all about seeing what the mistakes were and if there is a way for him to manage out the mistakes. Honestly, that does need to be done.

“The first thing I gotta do is go back and look at the tape, see what happened,” Dunn said. “Was it a call by me that put (Sanders) in jeopardy? I don’t know. That’s the first place I’m gonna start — I’m gonna start with myself.

"After that, we gotta make sure the obvious things, two hands on the football, lock it away, get it out on time, and if it’s not out on time, then you pack it and run, continued Dunn. “But he (Sanders) does so many good things for us when the play breaks down that it’s hard to pull him back and stifle that part of his game.”

Now, I love that Dunn recognized that Oklahoma State had 130-yards rushing and 400-yards passing. That's 530-yards overall, but if the Cowboys had 200-yards rushing and 330-yards passing that would have been much better. Rushing yards are more valuable. They are more controlling. 

“Back to the drawing board, Dunn said. "We gotta get that run game greased up and ready to go.”

Again, with a flare for the dramatic, Sanders is on the same page.

“We just got to win out,” Sanders said. “We go to practice the next day. It's just a next day mentality. We just got to keep going and stay focused and we can still win this thing out. We just got to give it the best that we've got. It's sad to lose this, but you can't hang your heads. We're men, so we're just gonna keep pushing. What's going to define us is how we respond to this, so we're just gonna gather the guys and just got to keep going and doing what we've been doing.”

Except for turning the ball over. Dunn and head coach Mike Gundy know that they have a special player in Sanders, but they also have a talented quarterback in Shane Illingworth that in a small sample size has shown he can win games. He can't run like Spencer Sanders, but Illingworth also showed a better propensity for protecting the football. 

I'm not sure where you set the controls, but at some point if the turnovers continue, the defense and the rest of the team deserve a quarterback that will protect the football. It would be great if that quarterback is Spencer Sanders.