10 Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 41-13 Loss to Arizona

BOX SCORE

TUCSON, Arizona — The Cowboys lost again.

Oklahoma State fell to Arizona 41-13 on Saturday at Arizona Stadium. It’s the Cowboys’ 13th consecutive loss to an FBS team. Here are 10 thoughts on the game.

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1. Another Quarterback Down

Zane Flores attempted to scramble on a fourth down in the third quarter of Saturday’s game when 6-foot-3, 280-pound defensive lineman Julian Savaiinaea wrapped him up in the backfield and drove Flores onto his right shoulder.

Flores trotted off with his arm hanging and went into the medical tent. Not long after, he re-emerged and walked to the tunnel.

That’s the kind of year it’s been for OSU.

Meacham said after the game that he didn’t think the injury would be season-ending, but he didn’t go much further than that.

It was another rough game for the third-year redshirt freshman, as he finished with 47 passing yards and an interception while completing 45% of his passes.

Not matter what you think of him as the long-term solution to the Cowboys’ quarterback woes, behind him are a guy who has played receiver the past two years, two true freshmen and a guy who was a student at UCF last year. OSU football is in a weird spot.

2. Sam Jackson Gets More Run at QB

Even before Flores went down, quarterback-turned-receiver(-turned-back-to-quarterback?) Sam Jackson V was getting some run behind center.

It didn’t yield as much excitement as last week, but there was still some stuff there to raise a few eyebrows.

There wasn’t as much trickeration to it. Jackson started the Cowboys’ third series just straight up at quarterback. There was some funky stuff happening around him. He had tight ends in the backfield similar to what would be a wildcat formation. On the second play of that drive, Jackson handed off to receiver Royal Capell, who was lined up as a running back.

OSU went 44 yards in eight plays on that drive, which ended with a missed field goal.

There are some moments he looks a little uncomfortable, which is understandable considering he’s been playing receiver for the past few seasons. At the end of that drive, he had back-to-back passes batted down at the line of scrimmage.

He finished 3-for-6 through the air with 27 yards. He also had 13 rushing yards on four carries.

If he has more practice time dedicated to quarterback, which given the Flores situation he might have to, he could be the Cowboys’ best option going forward.

3. Not Much Was Working Offensively

Arizona came into Saturday’s game giving up just three yards a carry, which was one of the few areas the Cowboys have looked competent in this season.

So, this was always going to be a tough one for the OSU offense.

OSU finished with just 158 yards of total offense, marking the second time in the past two seasons the Cowboys have been held below 200 yards of offense for a game.

The Cowboys completed 46% of their pass attempts and ran for 2.9 yards a carry.

The Wildcats have a solid defense, but the Cowboys have got to figure something out. The issue is the ability to figure that out gets more and more limited with attrition of the roster.

4. First Downs = Not Good

The Cowboys had 21 first down plays Saturday. In those 21 plays, the Pokes gained 22 yards.

That’s not winning football. That’s getting behind the chains for a team with inexperience at quarterback.

5. Noah Fafita Looked Like Johnny Manziel

Noah Fafita has had an outstanding career to this point, and Saturday he had his best game against an FBS opponent this season … by halftime.

Fafita put up 244 passing yards and three touchdowns on the Pokes in the first half. That performance alone was nine passing yards away from Fafita’s season-high against FBS foes in a game.

The Cowboy defense helped Fafita look like superman in the second quarter.

OSU brought seven guys on a blitz. Mordecai McDaniel had a shot at him not long after Fafita caught the ball, but Fafita spun out of the pocket. Ike Esonwune had the next shot at him, but Fafita coolly cut back the other way. After his cross-field trip around the backfield, Fafita hit a wide open receiver (because so many guys were blitzing), who strolled into the endzone for a 47-yard touchdown.

Welcome to Tucson, Wysong.@LukeWysong finds the end zone for the first time as a Wildcat. pic.twitter.com/H72rps3NvS

— Arizona Football (@ArizonaFBall) October 4, 2025

Fafita finished with 376 passing yards, five passing touchdowns and one interception while completing 74% of his passes.

6. The First Look at a Clint Bowen Defense

It was always going to be hard for interim defensive coordinator Clint Bowen to come in and instantly fix a broken defense, but that task was made all the more difficult by the fact that players have started jumping into the portal or into their redshirts.

It was another bad day for the unit, giving up 41 points and 478 yards of total offense.

Tackling was poor. Bowen mentioned after the game that he implemented a new style of tackling that he believes in and they’ll continue to work on.

Some of those missed tackles can also be credited to the fact that guys that have played little to no defense this season were being asked to step up. And the fact that the defense was on the field for 34:30.

There were, though, some things that looked a bit better in the limited time Bowen has had with the group.

The first was the fact that OSU forced three turnovers. Parker Robertson intercepted a Fafita pass in the first half and had a nice 33-yard return to set up an OSU field goal. Wendell Gregory forced a Fafita fumble in the second half inside the 5-yard line that the Cowboys were able to recover. Then LaDainian Fields, a redshirt freshman who hasn’t played much, intercepted a pass late that he returned 55 yards for a touchdown.

Secondly, and there isn’t really a stat to represent this, it felt like the Cowboys were in position to make plays more Saturday than they have been; they just didn’t always make them.

Take that Fafita crazy scramble touchdown, for example. That should’ve been a sack two or three times. The Pokes were right there.

The Cowboys forced a coverage sack in the first quarter, something that takes discipline. OSU rushed three. Those three didn’t get to the quarterback, but they kept him contained up until he had to take a wide angle out of the pocket and linebacker (former corner) Jacobi Oliphant Jr. shoved him out of bounds behind the line of scrimmage.

There was some good stuff in there that will hopefully be built upon moving forward.

7. The Biggest Defensive Improvement

Arizona ran 33 times for 45 yards. That’s 1.4 yards per carry.

That’s OSU’s second-best yards per carry defense of the past two seasons, trailing only Colorado’s 1.1 yards per carry last season in the Buffaloes’ 52-0 route of the Cowboys at the end of last season.

Run defense has been the biggest issue the Cowboys have faced across the past two seasons. If Bowen can continue to replicate salty run D, it could be a building block for the group.

8. Gregory Is Good

Welcome to your weekly “Wendell Gregory is really good at football” thought.

Wendell Gregory is really good at football.

He finished with five tackles, including three tackles for loss, and a pass breakup.

Before that aforementioned Fafita superman moment, Gregory perfectly played a zone read and swallowed Fafita in the backfield.

Then Gregory forced that fumble thanks to him quickly appearing in the backfield and wrapping Fafita up.

Heck, Gregory nearly had a touchdown in his grasps after an Arizona fumble near midfield. Gregory fluffed his scoop and thus didn’t score, but he was right there.

Only a redshirt freshman, he would be a big-time building piece for the Cowboys if they’re able to keep him in Stillwater.

9. Robertson Keeps Playing Hard

In a world of portal and money and walk-ons not always getting the opportunities they used to, Parker Robertson is a throwback to an era that once was.

A former walk-on, Robertson plays hard no matter the circumstance. He might be undersized, he might miss a tackle here and there, but he’s just going to keep flying around.

He made six tackles Saturday, including a tackle for loss that he flew in to blow up a play. Then he had that pick.

Robertson is a good story in an otherwise dreadful season.

10. When Does OSU Win Again?

It has now been 386 days since the Cowboys have beaten an FBS foe. When is the next one?

It looked like Cincinnati could be a competitive game, but the Bearcats went ahead and upset a ranked Iowa State team Saturday. Kansas State has struggled this year, but those Wildcats went to Waco and came up a point short of a Baylor team that hammered OSU by 18 last week.

Are the Pokes destined for 1-11 or can this group that is now having to reassemble and airplane midflight capable of tallying another notch in the win column? The only way to find out is to play the games, but man, this feels bleak.