Offense was supposed to be the strongest part of the Oklahoma State football team this year.
After an embarrassing 41-23 loss at Troy, however, fans wondered what had happened to the Cowboys’ great offense and doubted the team’s ability to perform.
After losing to Troy, coach Mike Gundy said the team needed a lot of work.
“When you turn the ball over five times, you have issues,” Gundy said. “We are not good enough on offense to just go out and be one-dimensional for a half and move the ball. We have to be in a situation where we can be run-pass.”
Senior left guard David Koenig said attitude might be to blame for the offense’s poor performance at Troy.
“I’d say attitude and our turnovers and penalties, which comes down to attitude; so it was definitely attitude,” Koenig said.
It was a different story Saturday when the Pokes played Texas Tech at Boone Pickens Stadium. The Cowboys had three players with more than 100 rushing yards and racked up 610 total offensive yards.
“We played a whole lot better,” sophomore quarterback Zac Robinson said. “After the Troy loss, we were pretty down but we got out there in practice and forgot about it right away. Against Texas Tech, we came out and played with a lot of enthusiasm in front of our home crowd.”
Junior tight end Brandon Pettigrew said a change in attitude helped the team play better.
“Everybody had the mindset of we’re going to get out here and play hard,” Pettigrew said. “The first few games, we weren’t playing to the level that we know we can play at. We came out and played to our level. We played Oklahoma State football.”
Preparation was another key component to the offense’s big turnaround. Senior running back Dantrell Savage said the improvement was a result of being ready for the game.
“Preparing, having four days of hard practice, getting prepared in the film room and on the field, and getting motivated to play them (helped the team improve),” Savage said. “Other people say that I had a big impact. It was all team effort.”
Sophomore offensive lineman Russell Okung said he thought the improvement was because of the combination of preparation and attitude.
“We felt like we had to do a little bit extra,” Okung said. “Instead of being in the film room once a day, we were in there twice a day. Working on your technique, working on your fundamentals, once we do those little things we have a day like we had at Texas Tech.”
Whether it was attitude or preparation that made the bigger difference for the Cowboys is debatable, but there was a significant improvement in the offense’s play from the Troy game to the Texas Tech game. Okung said the Cowboys want to continue improving their play.
“We’re going to do the same thing this next week,” Okung said.
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