Instant Reaction: Oklahoma State Squeaks By Iowa State 38-31

Oklahoma State somehow held off Iowa State 38-31 at the end of an insane game in Stillwater on Saturday to keep Mike Gundy’s home record against the Cyclones clean. In fact, Oklahoma State hasn’t lost at home to ISU since the last year of the Bill Clinton administration (2000).

It got ugly before it got pretty on Saturday though. OSU trailed 31-14 with three minutes left in the third quarter when it got the ball back on a punt and reeled off 24 unanswered points to close out the game.

Mason Rudolph was 26/44 for 351 yards and four TDs but didn’t play nearly that well. He missed short and intermediate throws early and often but threw some dimes to Jalen McCleskey and The President James Washington late when it mattered. I’m still all in on No. 2 (and always have been) but some of his throws on easier routes have been mysterious the last few weeks.

What is not mysterious is whether James Washington is good at football. No. 28 had eight catches for 152 yards and two TDs after we were uncertain whether he was even going to play. He also caught what turned out to be the game-winner.

The game flipped in the third quarter when OSU scored on Washington’s first TD, got a fumble and scored another TD to start the fourth quarter to make it 31-28 after it looked like all was lost halfway through the second half. From there, OSU’s defense forced two punts, had a pick and forced another turnover on downs.

It took a full 45 minutes, but Glenn Spencer and Co. finally showed up when OSU most needed them. The end of the game, seemingly like the end of all OSU games lately, was a borderline disaster. OSU got the ball back with just under two minutes left and instead of rushing it a few times and kicking a field goal, took a knee and gave ISU the ball back with 0:20 on the clock (what on earth could go wrong?!)

Thankfully, this one ended better than the Central Michigan game, and OSU moved to 4-2 on the year. OSU also moved to 31-2 in the Mike Gundy Era when forcing three or more turnovers and turning it over one or fewer times (they turned it over zero times on Saturday).

On to the bye week. We will be back with tons more coverage later tonight.