Saturday was a night of answered questions for the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
Keith Toston proved he was capable of hanging on to the football.
Perrish Cox looked like his old self, taking a punt return back 55 yards for a touchdown.
Most importantly, the defense showed it was able to make stops in the secondary as the Cowboys cruised to a 39-3 victory against the Bearkats of Sam Houston State.
OSU (3-2, 1-0 Big 12) gave up 355 yards of total offense to the Bearkats (2-2), but the important statistic was a meager three points allowed to a more than capable offense.
“Bottom line is scoring defense,” defensive coordinator Tim Beckman said. “You’ve got to be good at scoring defense to be considered a good defense. So keeping them out of the end zone and doing the things you need to do in the red zone are important.”
Coach Mike Gundy emphasized after the game that stopping quarterback Rhett Bomar, a former OU starter who was dismissed from the team two years ago, was a priority.
“When you have a quarterback that’s a big time player, and he touches the ball every play it’ll be a concern,” Gundy said.
The defense did just that as Bomar completed only 22-of-49 passes on the night.
When forced out of the pocket, Bomar is normally very dangerous with his legs, but he was contained well by the Cowboy rushing defense. Sam Houston State finished with only 85 rushing yards on 29 attempts.
“We’re playing the run pretty good,” Beckman said. “You know we gave up the first play, but other than that the kids are playing the run well right now.”
OSU’s offense was no slouch either, starting off the contest quickly with a 29-yard Adarius Bowman touchdown reception only 5 minutes into the game to put the Cowboys up 7-0.
From that point on, the Cowboys were in control and the wealth was spread offensively as Dantrell Savage, Kendall Hunter and Julius Crosslin all found the endzone during the contest.
The most encouraging aspect of the game, however, was the improved play of the Cowboy secondary, which had been giving up record passing numbers over the past couple of weeks.
Oklahoma State’s defense allowed the Bearkats only six third-down conversion on 18 attempts and stopped Sam Houston State on fourth down twice.
Cornerback Jacob Lacey said that a strong finish against Texas Tech’s powerful offense last week definitely carried over to this game.
“Coach Beckman talked about that – building from those last two quarters and carrying over so we could play good in the first half and second half of this game,” Lacey said.
After a game in which the Cowboys were able to fine-tune their suspect areas of play, the players and coaches are now prepared to enter the full swing of Big 12 play, beginning with Texas A&M on Saturday.
Senior Linebacker Donovan Woods said there will be no time to relax and that the team will immediately turn its attention toward next week.
“You get in the weight room, get in the film room, and correct your mistakes from this previous game,” Woods said. “And we’re gonna try to get better throughout the week.”
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