10 Thoughts On Oklahoma State’s 43-37 Win Over Kansas State

BOX SCORE

Whoooooo boy. I felt like my heart rate on that final Kansas State drive could have powered electricity to the entire city of Stillwater for a month if you could somehow figure out how to channel it.

OSU survived a three-turnover day in Manhattan and walked away with a 43-37 win over the SnyderCats to move to 7-2 (8-1 depending on your attorney) on the season.

Let’s get to the 10 thoughts on this one.

1. You aren’t supposed to beat KSU when you turn it over three times

Since 2000, Kansas State is 25-0 at home when it wins the turnover battle 3-1 or better (i.e. 4-1, 5-0, 3-0). It won it 3-1 on Saturday (and only because Jordan Sterns intercepted Jesse Ertz on the final play of the game) and somehow lost.

On the flip side of that, Oklahoma State is now 2-9 on the road under Mike Gundy when it turns the ball over three times or more and its opponent turns it over one or fewer. The only other win? At Texas last year.

The bottom line here is that OSU stole a game it probably doesn’t win I’ll say seven out of 10 times. But Mike Gundy noted earlier in the week that all he wanted was to be close in the fourth quarter of OSU’s last four games. They did so in what might be the roughest pre-Bedlam tilt and sneaked back to Stillwater with a W.

2. Mason Rudolph was pretty freaking great

Rudolph had one really (REALLY!) bad throw on the pick six, but man he was stout the rest of the way. He finished 29/38 for 457 yards and five TDs. His other INT (a deep ball to Jhajuan Seales) could have gone either way. It’s a pass you make with Seales one on one with a KSU defender 100 times out of 100.

His 457-yard performace ranks No. 2 in his career to the 540-yard performance against Pitt earlier this season. The five TDs tied a career high (TCU last year).

Here’s the odd thing about Rudolph though. When he threw the pick-six, Twitter just melted down. This is absurd, of course, because he has now thrown four picks in nine games (!), but it’s also not absurd because of how many of his overthrows could have been picks.

So not to go all Gundy on you, but I can see both sides of it.

Regardless, if we’re lacing ’em up on a random Saturday and I have to pick a QB to go at your defense for 60 minutes, he’s a dude I want to roll with. His sideline-to-sideline throws open up the field for Justice and Chris Carson and really wear down the will of a defense.

Texas Tech’s defense should be worried next week (so should Oklahoma State’s defense).

3. Chris Carson was a man

That should read “Chris Carson is a man” lest he read this and eviscerate my being, but the point is that he was everything we have ever wanted him to be on Saturday punctuating a day in which he ran for 9.9 yards a carry (!) with a beastly touchdown even Kansas State’s faithful could be proud of.

I’m all in on Justice Hill — make no mistake of that — but Gundy has been preaching the importance of multiple RBs all season (specifically Cars0n), and on Saturday against a bruising KSU squad we saw why. Also, if you haven’t read this profile on Carson by Chandler Vessels, you definitely should.

4. Blueprint for how to lose to KSU

Halfway through the second half, it felt like Oklahoma State was trying to draw up the blueprint for “how to lose to Kansas State” and then hock it on okstate.com after the game for $19.99.

• Unforced turnovers? Check.
• Poor discipline leading to absurd penalties? Yes.
• Special teams mistakes? All of them.
• Big, lumbering, white QBs for Kansas State having their way? All night!

Gundy preached it all week (see below) and Oklahoma State still couldn’t help itself. Maybe that’s a little OSU. Maybe that’s a little Bill Snyder’s grad assistant tearing the pages out of some Harry Potter books on the sidelines and piecing them together to cast a spell over Gundy and Co. Who knows?

Gundy "They stole 150 yards from us in penalties and returns. I talked about that all week. Apparently I need someone else to talk about it"

— Carson Cunningham (@KOCOCarson) November 5, 2016

But OSU snapped out of it just in time, though, and the instigator of the final push came from probably the least-expected place on the field …

5. … Did Mike Yurcich win that game for OSU?

With Oklahoma State down nine points and eight minutes left in the game, a call was made for a short pass to Jalen McCleskey (or McCluskey as the announcers called him) that went for 10 yards. The play after that might have flipped OSU’s season.

Here’s our intern Caleb Deck capturing what Gundy said about it after the game.

Also, on radio show Gundy said Yurcich made the call to throw [the 82-yard bomb] to Washington, and Gundy told him no and said something like “there’s no way they are dumb enough to let us throw it over their heads.” But Yurcich wanted to take the shot so Gundy finally agreed….

That’s for all the Mike Yurcich haterz out there, and it was confirmed by Tulsa World writer Mark Cooper.

Gundy said he didn't like the play call on the long TD to Washington – didn't think K-State would let him behind them. Yurcich was right.

— Mark Cooper (@mark_cooperjr) November 5, 2016

That’s a monstrous call (and play) in that situation. One that might have saved the day for the Cowboys.

6. Blake Jarwin was a beast

Underrated, underused and undervalued. Jarwin had two catches for a career high 96 yards and a TD on Saturday. That little seam route Rudolph tosses to him gets the juices flowing for me.

I’m going to miss me some Air Jarwin when he’s all done in Stillwater.

Mason Rudolph's 54yd TD to Blake Jarwin gives #OKState its first lead 14-13 with 13:42 remaining in 2nd Q. Airing on @KTULNews. pic.twitter.com/TVg2hXfZKU

— John James Laws (@TheJohnLaws) November 5, 2016

7. The underrated run game

It got overshadowed by the face that Rudolph nearly hung half a G on the Cats, but Oklahoma State displayed a really good run game on Saturday. It rushed for 6.9 yards per carry which is the most it has rushed for in a single game since the 2013 (!) Iowa State game.

Here are the per-player numbers:

• Barry Sanders — 11.1
• Chris Carson — 9.9
• Rennie Childs — 7.0
• Mason Rudolph (!) — 5.2
• Justice Hill — 4.9

I think this is largely based on the fact that Rudolph actually ran it five times for 26 yards instead of taking five sacks for -26 yards. He was pretty solid in that role as well although I’d rather watch my daughter walk across I-35 in peak rush hour traffic than watch No. 2 try to navigate a group of Big 12 linebackers without getting injured.

Also of note: OSU ran for more yards per carry than Kansas State (6.9 to 6.2). I don’t think Mike Gundy planned on getting 12 offensive possessions against KSU, and the Cowboys effectively wore them down by the end.

8. We need to talk about the defense.

Ohhhh that defense. Oklahoma State allowed 2.50 points per drive to KSU on Saturday. KSU came in averaging 2.44 which is No. 41 in the country but No. 6 in the Big 12.

The Cats also rushed for, gulp, 345 yards on, gulp, 56 carries for, gulp, 6.2 yards per carry. It was like watching a real bulldozer roll over a Hot Wheels car even though you told the owner of that Hot Wheels car exactly what the bulldozer was going to do and when it was going to do it.

Here is my issue with the defense on Saturday (and it is not a unique issue as you can see below): How are you not committing to stopping the run?

If Jesse Ertz (Jesse Ertz!) beats you through the air, fine, whatever. But if he beats you with those delayed QB draws that take longer to develop than Mark Mangino at a Panda Express buffet line, I mean you know this is what’s going to happen! It’s not like Snyder is going four verts on you!

I just don't understand the strategy. You have 6 guys in the box. 2 LBs shooting gaps while QB waits patiently to see when hole opens up.

— Adam Lunt (@AdamLunt817) November 5, 2016

What are we doing? Why are there not 8 guys in the box?

— PFB_Nate (@PFB_Nate) November 5, 2016

That being said, I actually thought Vincent Taylor, Sugar Loaf Daniels and Co. did a terrific job sans Vili Leveni who is out for the year after leaving in the first half with a leg injury. They rallied the troops for a final stand at the end and weren’t provided a lot of air cover by the dudes behind them all day.

That was such a curiosity to me — why not load up and dare them to beat you with what they do poorly than daring them to beat you with what they do well? It would be like daring OSU to beat you with Mason Rudolph and James Washington instead of with its inconsistent RBs over the last two years. That would be absurd!

I like Glenn Spencer, but it felt like a lousy game plan that was actually executed pretty well.

9. The ending!

Couple of #realtalk (not by Ramon) moments here for me. Is that all right?

• I don’t get nervous that much anymore during these games. It’s just the nature of running a site like this. I’ve seen so many different things over the past five years, and to be honest there are times when I just want games to be over so I can write about them and go hang with my kids.

• I was literally shaking in my shed after this game. Partly because I’m glad OSU won and partly because the best thing that can happen for this blog is close conference games in which OSU comes out on top (maybe that makes me selfish).

Kansas State and OSU have played their share of those in the last six years. The 2011 Earthquake game was a doozy. Oklahoma State won by four in 2013 in Stillwater. It had to drive for the game-winner last year in Stillwater (and completed a fourth down on the final drive to do it!) And now this.

The final drive felt like I’d just run a lap as fast as I could and my heart was going to literally come out of my rib cage. And then somebody told me I had to run another one. And two more after that. And each time I thought I was done.

As for the flag at the end of the game with four seconds left (who knew the CMU game wouldn’t be the end of it!) — according to this article, clock runoff is only eligible on penalties that explicitly prevent the next play from starting.

Also eligible for a runoff: a false start, snap infraction, or other dead-ball foul that prevents the next play from starting.

So it doesn’t seem like there should have been any runoff after the offensive pass interference. The bigger-picture thing is that Kansas State was saved by the fact that there was a penalty. Without it I don’t think Kansas State was going to get a play off.

The way OSU’s year was going, it felt like KSU was definitely going to score, didn’t it? Thankfully Jordan Sterns got the pick, and I was able to peel myself off the floor and walk like a college student coming home from the strip back to my computer.

10. Pokes control their own destiny

Don’t look now but with Baylor getting housed in Waco by TCU, Oklahoma State now controls its own destiny in the Big 12. Beat Texas Tech and TCU in the next two games and no matter what else happens, you’re playing OU in Bedlam for the Big 12 title.

For everything that has happened this season. For all the wild ups and downs and crazy endings and crazy hair and absurd, hilarious things Mike Gundy has said, that’s a pretty shocking reality. It would be the fourth time in six seasons Bedlam would be for the Big 12 title.

There is still much work to do before that potential title match, but Oklahoma State has at least put itself in a position to take down the champs in their own backyard with 75 percent of the schedule complete.

On to the Fightin’ Kingsburys.